A dark age game for our 有望な new home

To the spoilers, the victory. To the new Wembley, the old 悪口を言う／悪態 of the chronic cup final. To the 遺産 of English football, the self-serving 無視（する） of the foreign 経営者／支配人.Jose Mourinho’s Chelsea did not so much make history on Saturday as 減ずる the grand re-開始 of the 国家の stadium to a tiresome scuffle in what used to be a corner of the car park.

That is not just my opinion. It is the admission of the Special One himself.

Never mind the football, enjoy the 地位，任命する-match party. To hell with the spectacle, squeeze the life out of Manchester 部隊d.

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Forget the 全世界の audience. What do a billion bored televiewers

事柄 compared with a sixth

トロフィー in three years of Jose?

That was the message Chelsea’s players took with them into what was supposed to be the most

glittering of all 祝祭 occasions for the game which 支払う／賃金s them so handsomely. 勝利，勝つ ugly.

Should we have been surprised?

This is Mourinho’s way. All the more so since he abandoned the width of his 就任の, 首相の職 征服する／打ち勝つing seasons at Stamford 橋（渡しをする） in favour of centralised ざん壕 戦争.

Nor is he alone の中で our 大陸の 軍隊の一員s in 支払う／賃金ing mere lip service ― if that ― to the traditions of the English game.

It took some time for Rafa Benitez to しっかり掴む the mortal significance on Merseyside of Liverpool’s very 地元の 競争 with Everton. Some wonder if he gets it, yet.

Nor are we really 推定する／予想するing Rafa to decorate the Greek 行う／開催する／段階 of this Wednesday’s 支持する／優勝者s League Final re-match against AC Milan with the pass-and-run football upon which 法案 Shankly and （頭が）ひょいと動く Paisley built the Anfield legend.

Stand by in Athens for more of Chelsea’s Wembley st ifle and long-ball 争い. Arsene Wenger, although a prophet of the more beautiful game at 兵器庫, would 喜んで see the England team 解散するd and an end to international football, the World Cup 含むd.

Be it through a 失敗 to understand or selfish disrespect, there is no place in the reckoning of these men for the 心にいだくd totems of English football.

Perhaps this is 簡単に part of what we get for 輸入するing men who do 補償する our game by 改善するing its 科学（工学）技術, broadening its horizons and entertaining us with their personalities.

Yet we abandon our past at the 危険，危なくする of many more matches in the 未来 as 冷笑的な and 疲れた／うんざりした as this final. This Wembley was not a 野外劇／豪華な行列 for Mourinho.

It was an 孤立するd 適切な時期 for him and Chelsea to 勝利，勝つ a second cup this season and at the same time exact vengeance over Sir Alex Ferguson’s 部隊d by 否定するing them a classic League and FA Cup 二塁打.

Not that there was anything technically wrong with Mourinho’s 策略. Far from it. He told his players to concentrate on smothering 部隊d’s more expansive style and he cannot be 非難するd for that.

Not when you consider all the 傷害s which distorted his team 選択 ― and all the 圧力 to 後継する 耐えるing 負かす／撃墜する on him from the Roman 高さs of Stamford 橋（渡しをする）.

井戸／弁護士席, not by any pragmatic judgment. For the blue-注目する，もくろむd faithful, 自然に, to 勝利，勝つ was more than enough.

Nor was this the worst final ever played on this patch of earth. Not with Didier Drogba settling the 結果 with a goal as worthy of him as it was brilliant in its 死刑執行.

Not with Paul Scholes rebutting （民事の）告訴s about the softness of the pitch with a master class in the 十分な 範囲 of passing.

But it is the first to be so deliberately deconstructed. As Ferguson honestly 観察するd, this was the final no one deserved to 勝利，勝つ.

Perhaps that blighted our first, 十分な-house 見解（をとる） of the shiny edifice in which it was played. Yes, for the moment, this is the most modern stadium in the world.

For a while longer, given the extravagance and 初期の 無資格／無能力 of the construction, it will remain the most expensive. But Wembley is now just another new millennium football ground.

Bigger, prettier, costlier, more commodious and better 任命するd than any other, at least until the next 巨大（な） is built どこかよそで, but no longer unique in its character.

That 抱擁する arch catches the 注目する，もくろむ from afar across the north London skyline but it is an invisible irrelevance to the congregation seated below.

It is an architectural indulgence, not, as were the lost Twin Towers,

a central 中心存在 of the Wembley spirit.

The new place is nice and

comfortable, thank you, but it was 所有するd of no more soul than the actual match was. It is doubtful if more than a couple of hundred of us were moved to join Sarah Brightman in singing "がまんする With Me".

進歩, if such it is, comes at a 激しい price.

Can I be alone in wishing deeper consideration had been given to refurbishing rather than 破壊するing the 初めの?

Football did not come home on Saturday. It went 支援する to the

dark ages and it may just have taken the oldest 競争 in

the world with it.

The fascination with this 古代の silver マリファナ was

fading 急速な／放蕩な before the prestige

of the first final at the new

Wembley 焦点（を合わせる）d the attention of the 最高の，を越す two clubs in the 首相の職.

Yet this day of resurrection for the FA Cup was so disappointing that it may come to be rued as its last

in the 日光 of 国家の importance.

To the spoilers, a pyrrhic victory indeed.

CUP FINAL SERVES WORTHY CAUSES

Even a poor cup final can 濃厚にする a worthy 原因（となる）. In the 事例／患者 of Saturday’s flop, more than one.

Gary McAllister, former 物陰／風下d, Liverpool and Scotland 星／主役にする, whose wife died of breast 癌, used the occasion to 発表する the 1,200-mile bike ride from Wembley to La Manga in Spain on which he will be joined by fellow ex-international f ootballers 含むing Russell Osman, Tony Dorigo and Alan McInally.

The charity: BOOBS at www.boysoutonbikes.org

Bobby Moore’s new statue at Wembley helped 促進する the 来たるべき and rather いっそう少なく 需要・要求するing ― 5 km ― fun runs in 援助（する） of the 広大な／多数の／重要な man’s 基金 for 研究 into bowel 癌. 接触する www.runformoore.org

SO WHERE IS THIS MORAL HIGH GROUND, NEIL?

The Argy-bargy about West Ham is never-ending. Tormented is the wailing in Sheffield about relegation by 不公平な means and foul. 激怒（する）ing are the 需要・要求するs for 公式の／役人 首相の職 長，率いるs to roll.

Methinks it has gone too far now. There is a nostalgic feeling for Sheffield 部隊d’s tradition and a soft 位置／汚点／見つけ出す for the entertainingly manic Neil Warnock in this corner of the newspaper, but the time does come for reality to bite.

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The shady 取引 and 完全な lies at Upton Park were so noxious that they 圧倒するd 詳細（に述べる）d 査定／評価 of the 事例／患者.

The closer the 熟考する／考慮する the いっそう少なく likely the 結論 ― by the international 同様に as the English 当局 ― that Carlos Tevez and Javier Mascherano were 不法に 登録（する）d at West Ham.

さもなければ how come one of them will be 許すd to play for Liverpool against AC Milan in the 支持する／優勝者s League Final on Wednesday?

専門的事項s are not always a virtue and West Ham’s escape does stink, but the 法律 is the 法律 and without it ― as Thomas More 観察するd even as he was about to be beheaded on the orders of Henry VIII ― we are all straws before the 勝利，勝つd.

The longer it goes,

特に now that Warnock has やめる in the somewhat bizarre belief that taking one 首相の職 team 負かす／撃墜する deserves managership of another, the stronger is the sense that 部隊d are 追求するing 財政上の 補償（金） rather than reinstatement.

Not only that but sympathy for the Blades is 存在 eroded by Warnock’s （民事の）告訴s about big-time 経営者／支配人s like Sir Alex Ferguson and Rafael Benitez fielding いっそう少なく th an 十分な-strength teams against his relegation 競争相手s.

How conveniently he forgets putting out a 弱めるd

line-up against Manchester 部隊d ― and その為に keeping his best men fresh for matches which he みなすd Sheffield 部隊d had a better chance of winning ― without a thought for how that would 損失 Chelsea’s 肩書を与える challenge.

In English football, the valley of sin is a lot easier to 遠くに見つける than the moral high ground.

Let he who is without fault serve the first 令状.

FIGHT GAME COULD PAY FOR LAMPARD AND TERRY

Oscar De La Hoya and Floyd Mayweather Jnr have now banked $45million and $20m それぞれ for their superfight a fortnight ago.

That is a consequence of the 2.15m HBO

支払う／賃金-TV buys which 解除するd the 甚だしい／１２ダース take to $120m.

John Terry and Frank Lampard ― who are 捜し出すing rises to £130,000 a week, partly as

reward for winning the FA Cup for Chelsea on Saturday ― eat your hearts out.

Either that or （問題を）取り上げる fighting for a living.