Stamford Bridge bids adieu to Shaun Wright-Phillips as the winger was sold to his former club Manchester City. He was bought in the 2005 summer and always remained in the shadows of more crafty wingers like robben, Joe Cole and Duff. Wright-Phillips had his chances when Robben and Duff left but failed to capitalize on it. He lacked the consistency to be a regular first team player though a lot was expected from the England international.

In total Wright-Phillips started 65 games and played 59 games as a sub for Chelsea, scoring 10 goals. His departure means the Robinho deal would be finished any time now. Obviously Real is holding on to Robinho because Calderon wants maximum possible price from Chelsea. All the best to Wright-Phillips and lets hope he scores goals galore, except when its against us.

More good news followed for Blue fans as John Terry, Frank Lampard and Petr Cech have all been given Uefa awards in their respective positions. The awards were given out in a ceremony in Monaco, the venue where group stage draw of 54th Champions League was carried out by the Union of European Football Associations. The following are the eight Champions League groupings -

• Group A: Chelsea, AS Roma, Bordeaux, Cluj.
• Group B: Inter Milan, Werder Bremen, Panathinaikos, Famagusta.
• Group C: FC Barcelona, Sporting Lisbon, Basel, Shakhtar Donetsk.
• Group D: Liverpool, PSV Eindhoven, Marseille, Atlético de Madrid.
• Group E: Manchester United, Celtic, Villareal, Aalborg.
• Group F: Lyon, Bayern Munich, Steaua Bucureşti, Fiorentina.
• Group G: Arsenal, Porto, Fenerbache, Dynamo Kiev.
• Group H: Real Madrid, Juventus, Zenit St. Petersburg, Borisov.

Roma,  Bordeaux and CFR Cluj are the opponents for Chelsea in group A. Luciano Spalletti's Roma would be the greatest threat, but the Blue fans need not worry much because we have a true Blue hero in the Roma squad - John Arne Riise. The Giallorossi plays in the Stadio Olimpico where the champions League final will be played this season.

Bordeaux are the French league runners up and are a formidable side coached by ex-United player Laurent Blanc. Meanwhile CFR Cluj are the Romanian champions who won both the league and cup last season. Cluj are busy during the transfer window preparing for European competition.

The Blues' fixtures for the group stages are -

Tuesday 16 September - Bordeaux (home)
Wednesday 1 October - Cluj (away)
Wednesday 22 October - Roma (home)
Tuesday 4 November - Roma (away)
Wednesday 26 November - Bordeaux (away)
Tuesday 9 December - Cluj (home)

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"Further to media reports, Chelsea Football Club can confirm we have made an offer to Real Madrid today (Thursday, August 7) for the transfer of Robinho." The Official Chelsea site made this announcement yesterday confirming that Chelsea has bid for Real Madrid winger Robinho. The possibility of Robinho arriving at the Bridge seemed less likely after Ronaldo decided to stay in Manchester and Sneijder got injured. But the confirmation by the Official site that a bid for Robinho has been made, adds another twist to the summer-long story.

Sky Sports News says that Chelsea have lodged a £19.7million bid for Real Madrid forward Robinho.Earlier this week, Kenyon had openly expressed the desire of the Club to sign the Brazilian winger. And Robinho, when asked about it, had refused to rule out the move. This could be Chelsea's last bid this summer and if the bid proves to be successful, we would see Samba magic at the Bridge soon.

 Chelsea are understood to be thinking about an offer from Roma for their winger Florent Malouda, who has failed to make an impact after arriving from Lyon last summer for £13.5m  Roma need to replace Mancini, who was sold to Inter, and was at first interested in a loan deal for Malouda. If the Robinho bid succeeds, Malouda may find himself in the Italian capital next season. Meanwhile the Pompeys from south coast are still said to be interested in Wright-Phillips and Redknapp believes Wright-Phillips would be another expensive buy like Crouch.

Moving onto other news, the Blues, back in London after thrashing the Rossoneri, have started the training sessions as scheduled. And one guy who is missing the party is Salamon Kalou. Kalou is in the Olympic squad of Ivory Coast, who lost their first group game in the Olympics as Argentina secured a 2-1 win. Ivory Coast will go into their next game against Serbia on Sunday with no points.

The article was originally published in Living True Blue. (subscribe)