FORGET WINDSOR.. BIG MATCH IS AT WEMBLEY
FA CUP FINAL: CHELSEA v MAN UTD
JOSE MOURINHO will have to face the music if Manchester United come unstuck in the FA Cup Final – and it won’t be sweet symphonies.
Runners-up in the Premier League might be good enough for Arsenal or Tottenham, but for a club of United’s stature second is nowhere.
Dull football will never win plaudits at a club steeped in traditions of enterprise and flair.
And if United end the season without a trophy, finishing a distant second to the noisy neighbours in the title race will constitute failure.
By nightfall, Mourinho or Antonio Conte will face an uncomfortable inquest if they have nothing to show for a campaign which began with Chelsea as champions of England and United’s optimism enhanced by huge spending. To me, it looks as if Conte has lost his mojo at Chelsea. Instead of a dynamic coach hopping around on the touchline and diving into the crowd to celebrate goals with the fans, all I see now is a distant, rueful figure with arms folded, transmitting negativity to his players.
Instead of the passion that used to set him apart, with Liverpool’s Jurgen Klopp, on the touchline, Conte looks a spent force.
On the final day of the season at Newcastle, Chelsea still had an outside chance of qualifying for the Champions League – but they barely raised a gallop. And Conte’s selection was the gesture of a man who’s had enough, knowing his time at the Blues is ending.
When he came in, and Conte took Chelsea from mid-table to champions in 12 months, he was a revelation. Now they have gone from champions to no Champions League football and, possibly, no trophies. Too often on the run-in, Conte’s team has reflected his own demeanour – sluggish, lethargic, half-interested.
Changing the coach has worked for Chelsea down the years under Roman Abramovich’s rule, and it feels like Conte’s time has reached
a dead end. United may have won the most points since their Treble-winning season in 1999, and I’m a big fan of Mourinho. But his team’s last three performances against Brighton, West Ham and Watford bored me rigid.
If Mourinho wins the Cup, he can say he’s won more trophies than Pep Guardiola in their two seasons going head-to-head in Manchester.
But United need to beat Chelsea at Wembley because a season with no trophies, while City romp to the title with 19 points to spare, is simply unacceptable.
At United, arguably the biggest club in the world, you can not have a team that settles for second-best playing dull football.
And if they don’t win the FA Cup, the pressure on Mourinho will be huge.
Pep (above) has signed a new deal and City are only going to get stronger – playing beautiful football – so what are you going to do about it, Jose?
You can’t imagine Reds legends like Roy Keane or Paul Scholes going into that dressing room, patting Mourinho’s players on the back and saying, “Nice one, lads – second. Job done.”
If Keane heard United players saying runners-up, 19 points behind City, was “job done” because they had qualified for the Champions League again, he would put his foot through the TV.
Above all, we want to see the flair players flourish in the Cup Final.
We want to be entertained, we want to put on a show for millions tuning in around the world.
My concern is that two bosses who are desperate to salvage a trophy from a disappointing season will try and do it by nullifying the opposition first. It wouldn’t surprise me if it was a 0-0 draw settled by penalties when it should be all about Hazard’s skill, Willian’s verve, Romelu Lukaku’s power, Marcus Rashford’s potential or Alexis Sanchez reserving another show-stopping performance for the Cup Final, as he did for Arsenal.
Special players need to flourish on the big stage – that means managers must send them out with a mandate to be bold, exciting and daring, not timid, introspective and boring.
If the final was Liverpool v City, Klopp and Pep would give us goals, excitement and flair. Sadly, I fear two managers with cautious instincts may serve up a tight, cagey game of chess.
And the loser will have to explain how a big club with huge resources has finished the season empty-handed.