Chelsea goalkeeper and Newtonian Ross Turnbull writes an exclusive blog for Aycliffe Today…
It’s been a difficult week at Chelsea with the departure of Andre Villas-Boas and for me personally I was very disappointed.
I firmly believe he’s a top coach and has a bright future in the game as a young manager, and I’d like to wish him all the best for the future.
I know it’s not the outcome that anyone at the club had envisaged when he was appointed last summer.
But that’s football, as they say, and everyone at this club knows you have to move on.
Roberto Di Matteo has been installed as interim manager until the end of the season. Roberto is a legend at Stamford Bridge and, naturally, everyone wants to see him succeed.
He sat the lads down this week and we all know what our objectives are this season.
Champions League football is the top priority so a top-four finish this season is the ultimate aim.
The FA Cup is also a big competition for us, and winning at Birmingham on Tuesday was a big result for us. St Andrews has always been a difficult place to go and they’re a good Championship club, so after drawing the original tie at the Bridge it was good for the new manager to get off to a winning start.
We’re back to Premier League action at the Bridge this Saturday, against Stoke City, then we face the second leg of our huge Champions League tie against Napoli next Wednesday night.
The 3-1 defeat in Italy a couple of weeks ago was disappointing, but getting the away goal was a big plus for us.
The two-goal advantage isn’t that big for us to overcome, with the quality of players we have in the squad, and Arsenal showed the other night how a deficit can be turned around – what an effort by them, by the way, and credit to them for pushing a quality Milan side all the way.
It gives you hope that it can be turned around and, as I say, that away goal could prove to be huge for us.
Our photographer was on hand during our trip to Naples, to give Aycliffe Today readers a little insight into our Champions League trips.
It’s fantastic to be able to visit so many different places.
The Italy trip began with an early meet at our Cobham training ground on the Monday morning (about 8.30am) before a private flight to Naples.
We’d have lunch, then rest for a few hours before we’d train at Napoli’s stadium – the 60,000-capacity Stadio San Paolo – before returning to the hotel.
The game was obviously on the Tuesday night and we returned home straight after the game.
Click here to see my gallery of pictures from the Naples trip.
I hope you enjoy the pictures and have enjoyed reading my latest blog.
Catch you next time.
Cheers
Ross
