My Take on Andriy Shevchenko

By: Andy | September 16th, 2007

Daryl from The Offside eluded after Sheva’s game against Blackburn Rovers on Saturday that Sheva should pack his bags and move on. I know there are sites on the Internet that want Sheva back at AC Milan, the club that Roman Abramovich paid £30m for Sheva’s services 14 months ago.

As Daryl also pointed out and the story maybe more true than false, that Sheva was an Abramovich signing more than a Mourinho signing. Could be possible after all Ranieri signed Cech (albeit on a pre-contract and look what happened to Ranieri)… get my drift??? And it is the same story here in the UK that I keep hearing over and over again!!!!

I bet Abramovich has never been on the phone to Ranieri to thank him for signing Cech as his legacy for the work he acheived whilst Chelsea manager.

As for Shevchenko and lets stick with the Abramovich signing theory….. if it is true, how about this for a conspiracy theory that Mourinho plays Sheva in a position that is completely alien to him because Mourinho wants to stick two fingers up at Abramovich for signing a player that Mourinho didn’t want?!?!?!?!

If you understood that you will know what I mean. When Sheva played for AC what did Milan players do for Sheva more times than ever? Play the ball into Sheva’s feet so he could run on and 99 times out of a 100 cause the opposition ‘keeper to work or pick the ball out of the net.

Has he done that for Chelsea? Well off the top of my head I can think of, the games against Liverpool in the Community Shield (which Chelsea lost 2-1) the League game against Middlesbrough (which Chelsea lost 2-1) and the Carling Cup semi-final against Wycombe 2nd leg at Stamford Bridge where Chelsea won 4-0. In these three games, Sheva scored four times.

Put yourself in my place I am a Chelsea fan and have been since 1996 and I GO to games, not as many as I would like to nowadays but I am a season-ticket holder at Stamford Bridge and will remain so to the end of my days.

Imagine the Summer of 2006 and you learn that Ballack and Shevchenko have signed for your beloved club. Just picture the scenario in your mind with Ballack strolling about in midfield and picking put passes for Sheva to run onto and make the ‘keeper work. Never happened did it? Ballack strutted his stuff and did 100% f**k all nothing and Sheva had to work ie 20 yards further away from goal from what he is used too, just to get a touch of the ball!!!!

Now why would that be? Well as Sheva wasn’t a Mourinho signing, where and when he could, Mourinho would play Sheva and know that he would get away with it…. ie make Sheva work that little bit harder and chase looking for the ball that is 20 yards deeper than he would normally be!!! And the main reason for that is because Mourinho knows that every now and again Sheva will score a goal or two (well 14 last season).

But I think that Mourinho will get his come uppence eventually, simply because the fans adore Sheva and everything that Sheva does on the pitch - even working harder than he should do!!!

For those ‘armchair fans,’ who watch every Chelsea game in full or in highlights on TV, you will never ever get to appreciate how much Chelsea fans LOVE the Shev. Go to a game when Sheva is playing, appreciate and acknowledge the fans appreciating the Shev and appreciate Sheva appreciating the fans.

ANDRIY SHEVCHENKO
ANDRIY SHEVCHENKO
ANDRIY SHEVCHENKO
ANDRIY SHEVCHENKO

KTBFFH

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