Success Is A Dirty Word In This Country

Chelsea have upset the "status quo" of Liverpool and Manchester United-they remain as underdogs in the English game, even now, because they're "oop narth" and therefore must be salt of the earth, decent, working class teams that spit in the hearth and drink mild-as opposed to the clubs from 'that London' who are rich and led by people that obviously like to shoot poor people and Northerners...

The footballing world in general is wetting its pants at the prospect of "Rafa" (note, chummy use of Christian name) having millions to spend this Summer as opposed to "Mourinho" (condescending use of surname); remember also when Man Utd signed the likes of Veron, Ferdinand, Rooney (£60 Million plus) there was squeals of pleasure, when Chelsea did the same, they were "buying the title"-as if Man Utd hadn't done the same, and, of course, most classically, Blackburn...

Being successful and vaguely "posh", else SE/London based and white usually earns resentment-look at how Nick Faldo was villified when he was, for 2-3 years, the best golfer on the planet, whilst, the same time, average boxer and "nice bloke" Frank Bruno was all but given Sainthood for not being particularly good but at least 'aving a go!'

Chelsea and Arsenal have fallen into that trap-because they are who they are, they must be "bad", where-as, and, no matter what they do, Liverpool et al are praised to the heavens, Drury's worship of them on ITV last night was quite, quite sickening, but hardly surprising, ditto the praise and exposure their fans got, so f**king what-FFS, you want an atmosphere at an away ground, I can think of a few places I've been where its been a lot hotter and more intense than Anfield where all they seemed to do last night was screech and squeal when Chelsea had the ball, else just sit there and bask in their own treacle-like reputation.

Posted By: Martin Peters, May 2, 17:25:41