Yesterday ought to have marked the end of the football season since it was the day they played the English FA Cup Final. But it was not the last day. In fact, in spite of the FA Cup Final there were four Premier League games as well. Why this nonsense? It's because of the European Cup Final being played at Wembley at the end of the month. UEFA - that celebration of all that is good in football - demands that the field to be used for this final is left unused for two weeks beforehand. So the FA Cup Final has to be played on 14th May. Of course, over the years the normal season has become longer and longer with the ever increasing number of games to be played and there will be more Premier League games next week-end.
The FA Cup was won by Manchester City - now said to be the most valuable club in the world. Value, of course, is measured by how much money the owner has to spend on players and in that sense the owner of Manchester City does have a fairly large pocket. Inevitably, we are reminded of Oscar Wilde and his definition of a cynic as someone who knows the price of everything but the value of nothing. Manchester City won by only 1 - 0 over Stoke City, who were taking part in the FA Cup Final for the first time ever in the club's history. Most of us wanted them to win - we all like the underdog - but the pressure of the occasion got to them and they played nothing like the team that trounced Bolton Wanderers 5 - 0 in the semi-finals. But Stoke have had a good season and are well placed in the middle of the Premier League. We must all wish them well for the future.
Manchester United drew at Blackburn and this was enough to give them their 19th League title. It still wasn't enough to make Alex Ferguson talk to the BBC. He is a great manager of footballers but he does still have the built-in truculence of a tiny tot who has lost his rattle.
Meanwhile at Bloomfield Road, Blackpool were beating Bolton Wanderers by 4 - 3. It did not matter much to Bolton but the three points may help Blackpool survive in the Premier League. I hope they do - they are such an attractive side running on peanuts by Premier League standards - but because Wolves beat Sunderland away, Blackpool are left with the task of beating Manchester United away in their last game of the season. Manchester will be fielding a weakened side because Alex F wants all his best players available, uninjured for the Champions League Final the following week, They will need everything to beat Barcelona. There was something fitting about Blackpool beating Bolton 4 - 3 on Cup Final Day in what was a great game of football; probably one of the best games in the whole Premier League this season. Echoes of 1953 and all that.
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