Michael Chopra

[splott parker]

Article about him in this month’s 442, reading it, it seems as though his happiest footballing time was with us. Confessed to sometimes betting £30 or £40 grand on a single bet, betting on one horse what people now, with decent jobs, take home in a year. Estimates he blew around £2 million on gambling. Says that a stint in India and witnessing the extremes of the haves and have nots there turned his life around. Currently living in Amsterdam working for a Greek agent, George Kazianis, also involved in an Indonesian football project. Was involved (not financially) in a failed takeover bid at Newcastle last year by an Indonesian/Singapore group, £280 million bid but no reply from Ashley.
While at Ipswich part of his rehab was enrolling on a mechanics course, reckons he reached the levels to become a qualified mechanic. He was hell of a goal scorer for us, not quite Premier level but a menace to Championship defences. Says he didn’t want to leave us in 2011 and he heard that Bellamy, who was on loan from Man City and had plenty to say for himself:hehe:, told the board that for the City to progress they had to get rid of him because he was trouble. He does admit that although it wasn’t affecting him on the pitch his life was spiralling out of control through gambling.
F*ck me, I just more or less gave you all the full article:hehe:

[SLUDGE FACTORY]

Re: Michael Chopra

Article about him in this month’s 442, reading it, it seems as though his happiest footballing time was with us. Confessed to sometimes betting £30 or £40 grand on a single bet, betting on one horse what people now, with decent jobs, take home in a year. Estimates he blew around £2 million on gambling. Says that a stint in India and witnessing the extremes of the haves and have nots there turned his life around. Currently living in Amsterdam working for a Greek agent, George Kazianis, also involved in an Indonesian football project. Was involved (not financially) in a failed takeover bid at Newcastle last year by an Indonesian/Singapore group, £280 million bid but no reply from Ashley.
While at Ipswich part of his rehab was enrolling on a mechanics course, reckons he reached the levels to become a qualified mechanic. He was hell of a goal scorer for us, not quite Premier level but a menace to Championship defences. Says he didn’t want to leave us in 2011 and he heard that Bellamy, who was on loan from Man City and had plenty to say for himself:hehe:, told the board that for the City to progress they had to get rid of him because he was trouble. He does admit that although it wasn’t affecting him on the pitch his life was spiralling out of control through gambling.
F*ck me, I just more or less gave you all the full article:hehe:

I think chopra , along with earnie, were the greatest natural fox in the box strikers we have had in my time following City

Its ironic Craig Bellamy suggested we should get rid of chopra as chopra was trouble

[chris lee]

Re: Michael Chopra

funny enough was talking about him this morning, we were saying considering he was known for never looking after himself, ate burgers and fizzy drinks on team bus ect, starbucks half time,

didnt train well, sleep well ect ect

It is amazing how good he was, imagine what he could have achieved if he had a clean lifestyle / personality.

[BLUETIT]

Re: Michael Chopra

Article about him in this month’s 442, reading it, it seems as though his happiest footballing time was with us. Confessed to sometimes betting £30 or £40 grand on a single bet, betting on one horse what people now, with decent jobs, take home in a year. Estimates he blew around £2 million on gambling. Says that a stint in India and witnessing the extremes of the haves and have nots there turned his life around. Currently living in Amsterdam working for a Greek agent, George Kazianis, also involved in an Indonesian football project. Was involved (not financially) in a failed takeover bid at Newcastle last year by an Indonesian/Singapore group, £280 million bid but no reply from Ashley.
While at Ipswich part of his rehab was enrolling on a mechanics course, reckons he reached the levels to become a qualified mechanic. He was hell of a goal scorer for us, not quite Premier level but a menace to Championship defences. Says he didn’t want to leave us in 2011 and he heard that Bellamy, who was on loan from Man City and had plenty to say for himself:hehe:, told the board that for the City to progress they had to get rid of him because he was trouble. He does admit that although it wasn’t affecting him on the pitch his life was spiralling out of control through gambling.
F*ck me, I just more or less gave you all the full article:hehe:

Bet you never

[surge]

Re: Michael Chopra

I think chopra , along with earnie, were the greatest natural fox in the box strikers we have had in my time following City

Its ironic Craig Bellamy suggested we should get rid of chopra as chopra was trouble

The Jon Pakin podcasts (two sides to every story of course) suggest we had dubious characters interrupting a training session trying to get money from Chopra.

I am glad Chopra is in a better place but if any of our senior players or coaching staff had done their job to sort out lack of professionalism, and Chopra was part of that, we might have gone up with Dave Jones as manager.

[SLUDGE FACTORY]

Re: Michael Chopra

The Jon Pakin podcasts (two sides to every story of course) suggest we had dubious characters interrupting a training session trying to get money from Chopra.

I am glad Chopra is in a better place but if any of our senior players or coaching staff had done their job to sort out lack of professionalism, and Chopra was part of that, we might have gone up with Dave Jones as manager.

Despite his problems copra did his bit to get us promoted

It was Jones and other players that failed to get us over the line

[rich munn]

Re: Michael Chopra

Despite his problems copra did his bit to get us promoted

It was Jones and other players that failed to get us over the line

Chopra needed at least 3 chances to score one, but he was so often in the position to do it.

[the other bob wilson]

Re: Michael Chopra

Despite his problems copra did his bit to get us promoted

It was Jones and other players that failed to get us over the line

I’d agree when you’re talking about his first spell with us, but not after that - by the time we got to 2011, I’d say Bellamy was spot on and I can’t imagine Malky would have put up with him.

[surge]

Re: Michael Chopra

Despite his problems copra did his bit to get us promoted

It was Jones and other players that failed to get us over the line

Parkin, Hudson and Gerrard all said the main thing stopping us getting promoted was maybe a lack of professionalism. Chopra's name was brought up as part of that repeatedly so he might have been a major contributor to us getting close but he was also a major contributor to us never crossing the line.

The obvious caveat being that he was a young man who needed managing (or isolating) and there were senior players/coaches/managers seemingly not stepping in.

[Hilts]

Re: Michael Chopra

Despite his problems copra did his bit to get us promoted

It was Jones and other players that failed to get us over the line

Yeah I agree with this.

Chopra was 1 player who really performed in the play off final.

[Eric the Half a Bee]

Re: Michael Chopra

I’d agree when you’re talking about his first spell with us, but not after that - by the time we got to 2011, I’d say Bellamy was spot on and I can’t imagine Malky would have put up with him.

I haven't looked back at the stats, but from memory, Chopra was a bit of a dead loss in the run-in to Jones' last season with us, to the point where Bellamy was playing up front instead. When Bellamy went off injured against Reading in the playoffs, I recall a collective sigh that we now had to rely on Chopra. Sad, really, as he was a great player for us for virtually the rest of his career.

[blue matt]

Re: Michael Chopra

when Chops was on form he was top class and should have been in the prem

a shame he had his demons and we will never know where his skills could have taken him if he hadnt

a great goal scorer and was exciting to watch

Iv mentioned it before, when my daughter has a great 1st half in netball she occasionally does the " the chopra hot boot celebration " ( as she calls it ) it makes me laugh, once 2 Dad's saw he doing it and mentioned Chopra, they were Bristol City fans, they were not happy

[Des Parrot]

Re: Michael Chopra

I have a friend who’s involved with Alloa and he told me that Chops was still a mess then, which was after his time in India

[splott parker]

Re: Michael Chopra

I have a friend who’s involved with Alloa and he told me that Chops was still a mess then, which was after his time in India

He had another spell in India after Alloa.

[William Treseder]

Re: Michael Chopra

Hard to believe it didn’t affect his performance at the height of his gambling addiction.
Anyone who’s an addict, or a recovering addict, will tell you it’s impossible to give a 100% to your job
I do hope he’s in a better place now mentally.
With all his problems, he’s still one of the best strikers i’ve seen at the club in my time.