Stateside with Chelsea

By Mike Sewell
Five Live reporter

Rap star Snoop Dogg meets Chelsea keeper Petr Cech

When Homer Simpson tells you he's heard of Didier Drogba, it suggests Chelsea have made a real impact on this tour of America.

Granted, the Homer I spoke to was a jobbing actor entertaining the tourists on Hollywood's famous Walk of Stars, but it was recognition nonetheless.

Even an LAPD patrolman, who reminded me of Arnold Schwarzenegger's Terminator because of his stiff head movements and sunglasses, looked excited when I told him Jose Mourinho's boys were in town.

But have Chelsea turned enough heads to justify their charm offensive in the US?

The squad's first training session took place at the University of California in Los Angeles, and the presence of stars such as Andriy Shevchenko went largely unnoticed.

A few inquisitive passers-by nestled their heads between the railings around the training pitch to see what was going on, but the level of interest was reminiscent of a Sunday league game on a cold November morning.

Frank Lampard signs autographs at training at UCLA

The fact that black sheeting had been attached to the railings on three sides of the pitch probably didn't help.

But this tour has been eventful from the start and given me plenty of airtime.

For example, after that training session, we went to the Beverly Hills Hotel on Sunset Boulevard for Shevchenko's first press conference as a Chelsea player.

The 29-year-old striker, who answered all questions in Italian, explained the reasons for his move from AC Milan to Chelsea in May.

He said he and his wife had been keen for a change of lifestyle, played down the closeness of his relationship to owner Roman Abramovich and even joked with the newspaper journalists that his son might play for England one day.

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The Chelsea camp all stayed in the Beverley Hills Hotel and even the likes of Shevchenko and Frank Lampard must have been taken aback by the lavish surroundings.

There were even more Aston Martins in the car park than you usually see at Chelsea's Cobham training ground.

Elsewhere, we've had the saga following William Gallas's no-show, speculation about Ashley Cole joining the club from Arsenal and Mourinho's jibes at Liverpool's title hopes.

On Thursday morning, Chelsea flew to Chicago for their first pre-season match of the season, against the MLS All-Stars.

Shevchenko and Ballack should make their Chelsea debuts on Saturday

Whatever the result, Mourinho and his coaches have already declared the tour a major success.

The training facilities have been excellent and the squad seems to be in great shape ahead of the new season.

Things also seem to have gone very well away from the training pitch.

When I returned to UCLA to watch the squad train six days after that first sparsely-attended session, there were between one and two hundred excited Americans asking for shirts to be signed and taking photos with their cameras.

Clearly word had spread.

And a couple of days earlier, the players had attended a "signing session" in a large Los Angeles department store.

It attracted about 1000 supporters, many of whom bought Chelsea shirts.

The highlight for the players might well have been the "Hit The Ground Running Party", organised by Chelsea and their shirt sponsor Adidas, when they got to meet US rap star Snoop Dogg and pose for pictures with him.

Maybe our friends on this side of the pond are warming to the Chelsea charm offensive after all.