BLUE MOON RISEN
Watching the players and staff disembark from the plane carrying Manchester City’s squad home from Big Cup final on Sunday, it was hard not to sympathise with Jack Grealish. Having spent the previous night wandering the bars and foyer of an Istanbul hotel in full kit looking for his clothes, it seemed the 27-year-old had finally found some civvies but was clearly suffering from the effects of what must have been extreme turbulence on the flight home.
Unsteady on his feet as he descended the steps, Grealish’s attempt to walk from the plane to the airport terminal resembled a cross between Neil Armstrong’s moon walk, the video for Jamiroquai’s Virtual Insanity and a slow-motion replay of Jack Grealish attempting to walk from a plane to an airport terminal while all those around him were perambulating in real time. It is to be hoped that somebody sat the poor fella down once he reached the baggage carousel and administered a stiff drink. Ideally a mug or two of strong coffee.
There will be plenty more roistering to be done in the coming days ahead, as Jack and his teammates celebrate their Big Cup triumph over Inter in Istanbul on Saturday night. While the final was no classic and it could be argued that the Italians were the better team on the evening, City did what needed to be done and finally harpooned that elusive white whale. “The greatest story in club history has an ending,” exclaimed BT Sport’s commentator in the game’s aftermath, his words almost drowned out by the loud trumpeting of 115 elephants. “It’s the stuff you dream of,” blubbed a tearful Jack into Jake Humphrey’s microphone, only to tweet later that it was “the stuff I couldn’t even dream of”. Make your mind up, Jack!
Having wrapped up the treble, City’s players, manager, coaching staff, advertising department and bookkeepers have certainly earned Monday’s open-top bus parade through the streets of Manchester. With huge crowds expected, their progress is likely to be as slow as that endured by fans trying to get to and particularly from the Ataturk Stadium on Saturday night. Located an hour’s drive from Istanbul city centre on a good day, fans left the ground long after midnight and many were left trapped in stationary or slow-moving shuttle buses for hours, without access to so much as a bottle of salty tears from the eyes of jealous rival fans to slake their thirst, let alone a few glugs of life-giving water.
It is clear now that Uefa, in their infinite wisdom, once again elected for political expediency over fan convenience by hosting their flagship European final in a stadium that could scarcely be less fit for purpose – but happens to be located in a country ruled over by the Uefa crony, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. While some fans embarked on the 15-mile walk home, others, including the elderly and wheelchair users, were forced to rely on the charity of strangers or local taxi drivers charging eye-wateringly extortionate sums long after midnight. “It was a shambles,” City fan Steve Redmayne told Big Paper, having travelled to Turkey with his 74-year-old father and 14-year-old son. “When we finally got on a shuttle bus back, it sat for 90 minutes without moving. We got back after 3am.”
For now, as is customary, Uefa has apparently absolved itself of all blame for what sounds like a complete cluster-eff, a stance which can be charitably viewed as an improvement on this time last year, when they were quick to point the finger at Liverpool fans for various shortcomings of their own making in Paris. Three months ago, Uefa was accused of bearing “primary responsibility” for the potentially catastrophic scenes which marred last season’s Big Cup final between Liverpool and Real Madrid at the Stade de France. To nobody’s great surprise, few if any lessons seem to have been learned.
DON SILVIO
The political career of Silvio Berlusconi, who has died at the age of 86, was beset by scandals but in the football world at least, the memories are more wholesome. “Today’s sadness doesn’t erase the happy moments spent together,” wrote Carlo Ancelotti, on hearing the news about his former employer at Milan. Berlusconi, who helped rebuild the Rossoneri into a trophy-winning machine, was good for football but the game was good to him, too, providing a launch pad for those wider ambitions. Here’s John Brewin on a complicated but respected football man.
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“It was like, get [the news] out now so he doesn’t go with England, and then all of a sudden they want to wait until the end of the season [to announce the suspension]. I call it a bit spiteful, but it is what it is. Even now, missing eight months of football, I felt like that was a bigger punishment – missing out on the World Cup, everybody’s dream” – Ivan Toney talks to Kick Game about the timing of those FA charges.
FOOTBALL DAILY LETTERS
Looking at these quotes from Ange Postecoglou on his arrival at Tottenham and the opportunities on offer: ‘[...] to create an environment that embodies the values and traditions of this fantastic football club’ and ‘a team that you can all be proud of, and more importantly get excited by.’ As someone who’s seen a lot of Spurs matches over the last 40 years, this feels like an either/or” – Mike Slattery.
With the news that Pep is moving on in two years’ time, could City turn to a certain former player, who has served his time in the Championship and has over 80 caps for their country … please, please can we have Frank Lampard’s Manchester City?” – Anthony Train.
Phil Neville off to the Canada national team, eh (Friday’s News, Bits and Bobs, full email edition)? Thank goodness; the Canadians were starting to get good and threaten the USA! USA!! USA!!! men’s team” – Pat Condreay.
Send your letters to the.boss@theguardian.com. Today’s winner of our letter o’ the day is … Mike Slattery, who wins a copy of Inverting the Pyramid, the 15th anniversary edition, by Jonathan Wilson. We’ve two more to give away, so get typing.
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