Liverpool v Chelsea - we should all be holding our breath in anticipation. North v South. The Reds v The Blues. The Gnarled Old Scot v The Dapper Young Italian. The Uruguayan Racist v The East London Racist. Carroll and Suarez v Torres.
It has all the ingrediants of a classic. Back in the Seventies nobody would have been talking about anything else all week. But absurdly, what should be the climax to the season has been squeezed in between Man City v Man Utd and Newcastle v Man City. It is a side show bordering on an irrelevance. Sure Dalglish might win another piss pot but who cares? Chelsea have much bigger fish to fry - with finishing fourth in the Prem more important than winning a trophy that used to mean everything, never mind the little matter of the Champions League final itself.
Poor Liverpool. Ferguson relegated them behind Man City this week and if they win the FA Cup, football fans up and down the land will barely notice. It's wrong, so wrong, that such a noble competition has been reduced to this!
Although you are 100% correct on this one (well, after all these years it had to happen one day!) I think football fans have changed. Fans seem much more tribal than at any time I can remember. Everyone hates everyone. Liverpool v Chelsea? I wouldn't dream of watching that. Chelsea are a vermin club - players and fans. Liverpool, everyone wants them to fail for their gloryhunting fans all over the world.
ReplyDeleteLiverpool win. Chelsea have their eyes on a bigger trophy - which I hope to God they don't win.
So so right HF. I remember when FA Cup Final day was one of the very few times we saw any live football on TV. Both BBC and ITV would base there whole day's schedule around the event. breakfast with the players at their hotel, followed by a FA Cup Special edition of It's a Knockout. Colemanballs fronting the Beeb and Dickie Davies with his Mallen Streak for ITV. Those were the days my friend, we thought they would never end .......................
ReplyDeleteIt is a shame, but I suppose it's just the way football has evolved. If the same team managed to win the fa cup every season, but also finished 5th in the league every season, they wouldn't attract the better players. Champions league is paramount these days, too much money involved not to make it a priority for clubs. Also, I feel a championship team would rather win a playoff final than win the fa cup these days. But the cup still has it's magic in the early rounds and I personally still enjoy it immensely
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