Three London clubs are in a race to correct an absurdity. The capital, one of the world's great metropolises, has yet to produce a side capable of winning the Champions League or the old European Cup. The trio jostle now to get to Wembley, the stage for the final in May, with a symbolic local honour at stake to go with the continental kudos.
Chelsea were the first to spot the anomaly: no major London club bears the city's name. For a while they asked: why not rechristen the operation "London Chelsea FC?" Unconverted multitudes in African and Asian villages would automatically associate Chelsea with Buckingham Palace and Ray Winstone. With one designation-tickle, centuries of globally influential urban history could be tied-in to the quest to make commercial sense of Roman Abramovich's £600m outlay.
Modesty prevailed. Shame, because the reaction around town would have made good comedy. West Ham United would have invoked 1966, Moore, Hurst and Peters. Arsenal's old guard would have spat its gin and tonic. Spurs would have told a long story about Danny Blanchflower and Bill Nick. Even Fulham might have piped up about the Cottage and its ancient cast of theatre types and geezers.
There is no London FC because of the way the game emerged in the smoke in late Victorian times. Only Athens (Olympiakos, Panathinaikos and AEK Athens) in 2003-2004 can match London's achievement in fielding three contenders. One binding feature of our capital's trio is their inability to match Manchester United, Liverpool, Aston Villa or Nottingham Forest. London has seen most things but not that precious silver.
Part of the appeal of this season's chase is that Spurs, Chelsea and Arsenal display divergent yearnings. Chelsea are arguably in their healthiest state since Roman Abramovich arrived but his money still can't buy what Barcelona, Real Madrid and United have. The silent oligarch is in the fortuitous position of not having to justify to the Russian people where their state assets went but he does have to answer to his own business sense when the Champions League remains elusive.
In Carlo Ancelotti he has found the right coach to "prioritise" Europe. Like Arsenal under Arsène Wenger, Chelsea have tasted a Champions League final but only from the mug of bitter defeat. The Gunners lost to Barcelona in Paris in 2006 and Chelsea went down to United two years later in Moscow, where Abramovich started out selling rubber ducks.
Chelsea's first move on Wembley was to swipe Slovakia's champions yesterday in a town of 85,000, in an 11,000-seat stadium that averages 4,000 fans. More newsworthy than the 4-1 win over Zilina was the appearance late on of three academy graduates: Gaël Kakuta, Patrick van Aanholt and Josh McEachran. Non-Chelsea fans tend to observe the league champions the way they would a huge tunnel-gouging drill, as an instrument of relentless but uninteresting power. As the goals fly in, youth gets its shot and Chelsea summon more joie de vivre, indifference may yet morph into admiration. For the most part non-aligned Londoners would prefer to see Spurs or Arsenal on Wembley Way in May.
While money shouts the odds in the west, the two north London neighbours who are parted by a psychological Berlin wall parade contrasting obsessions. Tottenham's Champions League debut at Werder Bremen (where they drew 2-2) has turned black and white memories back to colour. The old guys from the 1961 Double winning side are no longer just museum guides but part of a reawakening "now". Nostalgia is out, heritage is in. With Champions League group qualification comes an opportunity to add to the 1963 European Cup Winners Cup win and the Uefa Cups of 1972 and 1984.
To revive this narrative Spurs appropriated the West Ham romantic tradition by employing Harry Redknapp, who is blessed with not one but two playmakers in Luka Modric and Rafael van der Vaart. Spurs may be in the group of death but it delights their supporters to see the ethos of a glory-glory past shaping the hard labour of their Champions League debut year.
At Arsenal you run straight into Wenger's need to adorn a career of much majesty and innovation with the accomplishment that earns club managers entry to the elite. Sir Alex Ferguson is there, so is Ancelotti. José Mourinho has qualified with two clubs. For Wenger, who tried at Monaco and began his 13th Champions League campaign at Arsenal with a 6-0 win over Braga, there may be no peace in retirement unless his faith in Barcelona passing is rewarded with the big-eared cup. Sweet of Braga to allow each Arsenal player his own no-go zone in which to move the ball.
This we know, already: this Champions League final, with a London candidate, would be a bigger and better spectacle than anything England can lay on beneath the Wembley arch.
Source: Paul Hayward, The Guardian on 16 Sep 10
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