We're getting to that time of year when I get very tense and really start hating football.
Actually, I am fed up with the Sky Sports commentators. Really are quite close to scum. I don't like that ghastly Andy Gray, full stop. I especially don't like the fact that he is so very anti-Manchester United. I would have thought that in a domestic match, a commentator should be neutral. He isn't. And when it comes to European match he so obviously wants Johnny Foreigner to win, it's disgusting, certainly not what I pay my licence fee for.
I detest the way that they really hype everything up. I don't really care about the mazing fact that such a player is breaking all records for appearances in European competition, or that such a player will soon have made more appearances than any Premiership appearances than any other. These facts are bound to happen. There are more matches en route to the final than back in the Old Days, and it's a lot easier to qualify for Europe than it was back in the days. The Premiership is only sixteen years old, so we are only just reaching the point where a player will have played out their entire career in it. Giggsy's longevity, and relative lack of injuries and lack of form is not unusual. It is relatively unusual that he played so regularly at such a tender age, to just be establishing himself as an automatic first-teamer the season the Premiership started, and to continue until - at least - 34½ - and all with one club. Okay, so I salute Giggsy, he is exceptional. Yet in a way it annoys me that he has carried on being a genius all these years, yet these morons at Sky don't ever go orgasmic about him in the same way they do about headline-grabbing lesser talented flashes-in-the-pan.
I was annoyed this afternoon. Reportedly Fabio Capello 'controversially left' Anfield before the game ended 'he has been criticised for that'. He left on 90 minutes, presumably to escape the crush leaving the stadium and the traffic chaos that would ensue after the game, to head down the East Lancs. If he had waited until the final whistle he wouldn't have got to Old Trafford before half time. It's a no-brainer. But those jerks at sky want to whip up the hype and hysteria in order to create controversy, to get the adrenaline and testosterone flowing in pubs, in order to relentlessly sell their product with no concern for balance, moderation, objectivity or perspective.
And with the final whistle, one could have been fooled into thinking that United had won the title. No, they haven't. Yes, they happen at this moment to be 6 points ahead if Chelsea, but Chelsea play Wigan tomorrow night, and, sorry Pie-Eaters, are so likely to win, that the real state is three points with twelve to play for. I might not be an expert in numbers*, but that doesn't look done-and-dusted to me.
And then there's Europe...
I missed the first leg of the Roma match because I was at Tamerlano. I did see the second leg on the TV, but only because I got totally confused and didn't realise that that was the night I had booked to go to Carmen, which was extremely annoying. That I missed Carmen, that is, not that United beat Roma. Next up is Barcelona, and I'm a bag of nerves. I keep reading that Barcelona is not the team that they were, but, still, they are Barcelona.
As for the Liverpool - Chelsea fixture, their second leg is the day after United's, so I will have twenty four hours to decide which I want in the final. If united beat Barcelona, I will definitely want it to be Liverpool, because, 1974 Local Government reorganisation notwithstanding, I am a Lancashire Lass, and my heart will swell up with proud at my native county's utter domination. But if Barca beat United, if I can get over my grief I think I will be supporting Chelsea, because much as I hate** Chelsea, I regard them as here-today, gone-tomorrow fly-by-nights, whereas I grew up with a primordial hatred** of Liverpool.
* I lie. I am
**naturally, I use the word 'hate' in its strictly limited football tribe way
