Roman Abramovich allegedly had a epiphany watching Beckham come off the bench in the futile cause as Ferguson’s war on his own player reached absurdity and a half fit Veron played ahead of Beckham. He saw the wonder and joy of owning a football club. A year later he saw his manager bring on a half fit Veron and lose (then watched Mourinho mess up with a half fit Arjen Robben for 2 years before descending into absurdity himself).
However I think if Abramovich was watching tonight at old Trafford he saw another vision his Chelsea team in a few years time. Milan a bunch of old players and prematurely aged players were no match for United. Indeed once again it showed that English clubs when the pressure is not on in the last 4 are just too fit, mobile and powerful for opponents – it’s a shame our mental qualities cut in at that point.
It makes perfect short term sense for Chelsea to extend Joe Cole, Ballack and Anelka as of course to buy players is hard. All they seem to have the budget for these days is a succession of injury prone full backs and wide outs. With managers counting their time to a pay off in months no one wants to buy unbroken talent like Rooney and Ronaldo and wait a few years. Seriously 10 to 20 million gets you squad fillers and full backs like Zhirkov, C’Ash Cole, Bosingwa, Malouda and Anelka or Rooney and Ronaldo not to mention Nani and Anderson of course. Only one of those Chelsea players a genuine starter and an injury prone one at that. Time for Arnesan to deliver. Indeed if Chelsea keep having mid week games till the end of the year they will probably resemble Milan as they did in the 2nd half v City.
One sidebar for me what would have happened had England especially and United thrown off their addictions to Beckham and a poacher in a naive 442 in 2000 not 2005 [RvN]? I am sure I’ll cover that more in the next week.
