Guess that’s why they call it the blues

Still on a football theme (sorry), you may be aware that Chelsea lost the FA Cup final 1-0 to Manchester City yesterday.

No surprise there. City were the favourites, although that didn’t stop Pep Guardiola’s team losing last year’s final to Crystal Palace. Also, Chelsea have a terrible record of late in domestic cup finals, having lost the last seven in which they have appeared.

The funny thing is, as a Chelsea supporter who began following the club in 1967 after they lost the FA Cup final to Spurs, this latest defeat had almost no impact on me at all. In fact, beyond very mild disappointment, I felt nothing at all.

Sadly, the days when the FA Cup mattered significantly to me and many others has long gone. Back in 1970, when Chelsea beat Leeds 2-1 after extra time at Old Trafford following a 2-2 draw at Wembley, the replay was watched by 28.5 million people which is said to the sixth most-watched broadcast in UK television history.

In those days there was very little live football on television. Apart from the World Cup every four years, and the annual FA Cup final, the only other live matches were the European Cup final and some home internationals at the end of the season (notably England v. Scotland). The FA Cup final was therefore a rare and special occasion, with TV coverage beginning at the teams’ hotels at 9.00 in the morning.

For me the 1970 FA Cup replay was even bigger than the game at Wembley because the previous year my family had moved to Scotland where the first game wasn’t broadcast because it was played at the same time as the Scottish Cup final at Hampden. Instead, it was only when the Scottish Cup final finished (with Aberdeen causing something of a shock by beating Celtic 3-1) that the TV coverage in Scotland switched to Wembley for what was left of extra time.

It therefore felt like a huge reprieve to be able to watch the midweek replay, which is described today as one of the most brutal matches in British football history, but at the time it just felt … competitive. Yes, there was an edge amid the flying tackles and argy-bargy, but in those days the players just got up and got on with it. (Under modern rules it’s estimated that between six and eleven red cards should have been handed out. At the time, only one yellow card was brandished in 120 minutes.)

Anyway, it was another 24 years before Chelsea reached the FA Cup final again, and since then I’ve lost count of how many times they’ve been to Wembley, winning and losing, so the novelty has long worn off. (It doesn’t help that, since the new stadium was opened in 2007, semi-finals are played there as well.)

Yesterday’s match therefore felt relatively humdrum. Of course it’s easy to say that when you lose, but even if Chelsea had won I would have taken no great pleasure from it. In fact, the last time I took significant pleasure from a Chelsea cup final victory was the club’s first Champions League victory (against Bayern Munich in Munich in 2012), which was won, against the odds and slightly fortuitously, on penalties.

The second Champions League victory (against Manchester City in Porto in 2021) was post Covid and slightly anti-climatic. Winning the inaugural FIFA Club World Cup in the USA last summer was a pleasant surprise but, let’s be honest, apart from Chelsea (whose players, somewhat incongruously, now wear a ‘FIFA World Champions’ badge on their shirts), who cares?

Domestically, cup final wise, it’s been one defeat after another since 2018, but this morning I awoke to the news of the appointment of Xabi Alonso, the former Bayer Leverkusen and Real Madrid coach, as the club’s new manager. Real Madrid didn’t work out for him but under his leadership Leverkusen were the only club in Germany to interrupt Bayern Munich’s long run of Bundesliga titles that now stretches to 13 in the last 14 seasons.

He also enjoyed a hugely successful career as a player for Liverpool, Real Madrid and Bayern Munich, not to mention the Spanish national team.

Of course, as most football fans will tell you, it’s the hope that kills, but it’s nice nevertheless to read some positive news about the club. I’m not one of those supporters who believe their club is entitled to success (where would competitive sport be if that was the case?), and in some ways occasional success has greater value - and enjoyment - than success that is routine and anticipated.

That’s why, as I have commented before, May 14, 1983, was one of the best days of my life. Likewise, May 21, 1994, and even May 15, 2010, although the latter was a more predictable outcome.

PS. Further to my post about Hearts’ bid to win the Scottish Premiership, I have added this update:

So, Celtic won 3-1 with two late goals. The third was the last kick of the match, with the Hearts keeper out of position having gone up the other end of the park for a free kick. Briefly, when Hearts went one up just before half-time, it appeared they might win the title if not the match, but right on half-time they conceded a penalty, from which Celtic scored, and this time the referee got it right.

Fair play to Hearts, though. They played conservatively but they didn’t freeze or park the bus. In fact, I thought they played pretty well and were comfortable for large parts of the game. They had to work hard, though, in a feverish atmosphere and gradually ran out of gas. The vociferous home support made a difference, as I predicted, although the scenes at the end - when Celtic fans invaded the pitch after the third goal went in and before the final whistle had officially blown - were pretty unpalatable.

Media reports have suggested that some Hearts players were manhandled by Celtic supporters before being ushered off the pitch by stewards and police officers. I’ve also read reports (later confirmed) that the Hearts players left the stadium almost immediately, some still in their playing kit.

But let’s not be a party pooper. Let’s celebrate Celtic’s 56th league title, their 14th in the last 15 years. Now that’s what I call a fairytale!