So begins the long goodbye. A chance for fans to express their appreciation for a man who everyone knows will not be in the job for very much longer; a chance to reward a celebrated coach with a valedictory trophy and a clutch of sacred memories. Yes: it’s a huge afternoon for Mauricio Pochettino, for whom Sunday’s Carabao Cup final represents his best route to salvaging Chelsea’s season, and perhaps even his own ailing project.
Naturally, history is against him. It’s more than a decade since the final served up a genuine surprise. Every winner since 2013 has also gone on to qualify for the Champions League, which Chelsea almost certainly will not. For eight of the last 10 winners, the League Cup was not the only trophy they lifted that season. If this competition was once a chance for upstarts and underdogs to upset the established order of English football – think Oxford, Leicester, Birmingham, Swansea – these days it tends to uphold that same order, confirm what we already knew, reward the serial winners.
