LESS BRIMSTONE, MORE TREACLE
Following Lord Ferg and Cardinal Wenger’s canonisation earlier this week, the regrettable phrase “future Hall of Famer” will soon become Premier League parlance. (Todd Boehly likes this). Saturday’s lunchtime game is a crunch meeting of two managers who will eventually join those forebears within what is presumably a commemorative house of wax just down the corridor from the VAR room at Stockley Park.
These days, Ferg and Weng are best buddies, often found sharing a glass at soccer junkets though Mr Roy won’t be joining his pals’ table for the rest of this season, feeling that at 75, he and Ray Lewington have one last job in them. In future years, will the same go for Jürgen Klopp and Pep Guardiola? Will they be breaking bread and smirking while Gianni Infantino drones on and the 1989 Château Pétrus flows like water? Or sneaking out for a cheeky vape before deciding to share an exec box next time the Foo Fighters hit Europe?
Their great rivalry, the fiercest of Our League’s third decade, has been far less brimstone, more treacle, respectful but distant, perhaps not always sincere. Pep the obsessive introvert, Jürg the wild and crazy guy? It’s a bit more complicated than that. Off the field, Manchester City fans and their Liverpool equivalent really don’t like each other. On the terraces, and especially online, it’s a battle over authenticity and wealth, mercantile quarrels during the Industrial Revolution, officiating, the Local Government Act 1972 and its definition of “Greater Manchester”, male-pattern baldness and whether Jez Quigley could take out Barry Grant. Meanwhile, the managers and their teams seem, well, rather indifferent to if appreciative of the other. Even if the matches are mostly elite-level stuff, they never quite tick over into scenes we really don’t want to see but actually really want to see.
There will be a different dynamic to this weekend’s renewal. As ever, City and Liverpool are playing for their lives but for the first time in years their fates are not fully bound up in each other. Jürg’s men play City, Chelsea and Arsenal in a spell of eight days that will decide whether it’s Big Cup, Euro Vase, Tin Pot or midweek double-sessions for them next season. For City, with Erling Haaland a doubt with groin-gah, three points are required to close on IPTV heroes Arsenal, who kick off at 3pm against Leeds to continue a title challenge that the rest of the world is enjoying while UK viewers struggle to see just how bloody good Mik Arteta’s lads are.
City meanwhile aren’t as good as they were while Liverpool are leagues away from where they want to be. “They can beat everyone, like we can beat everyone,” roared Pep. “It’s a super important game,” wailed Jürg. “That’s the one thing not different to all the other years.” Might this be the time they finally lose it with each other? As Ferg and Weng prove, making up later – much later – might actually be fun.
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“I was nine when Thomas died, but my career is a bit of a tribute to him and what could have been. He was close to a Premier League debut and people say he was an unbelievable player. I just try to do all I can to keep his memory alive. I try to do Thomas proud” – Aston Villa’s Lucy Staniforth tells Louise Taylor the impact her older brother – a promising 20-year-old Sheffield Wednesday defender who collapsed and died during a night out – has had on her career.
FOOTBALL DAILY LETTERS
The look of bemusement and disdain shown by the ineffective wall including Kevin Keegan (yesterday’s Football Daily) was caused by the coach screaming ‘I said 54321!’ as the ball entered the net” – Alex Cameron (Never been a fan of Spain).
I may have missed it (I skim Football Daily on the best of days) but is the byline name and photograph a new addition? It’s weirdly humanising to put a name and face to the hackneyed jokes, catchphrases and wild speculation that constitute your missive, but I do wonder if it exposes your writers to vitriol from fans of the teams and players you gently roast on a daily basis. What security measures are you taking to mitigate the risks?” – Tom Dowler.
Send your letters to the.boss@theguardian.com. Today’s winner of our prizeless letter o’ the day is … Tom Dowler.
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