The general opinion in the circles of young men at the bar is more on the lines of "Bring on the special one" than something like "laugh out loud" after Arry's Tottenham Hotspur have drawn Real Madrid in the quarterfinals of the UEFA Champions League 2010-2011. On the other side of London, Carlo Ancelotti was found visiting a soothsayer to clear off some of his apprehensions. If you thought he was visiting the sages to find out his team's chances against Manchester United, you are absolutely, definitely, positively wrong. He has been reported to have gone there to find out if he himself had those mysterious powers of foretelling stuff. Not very long since he expressed his opinion on the general scheme of drawing Barcelona or Manchester United, the inevitable happened. He has ever since been wondering if what he says to executives from Fleet Street comes from some hidden part of his subconscious mind that has not surfaced hitherto in the 50+ years of existence.
Elsewhere, grapevine has got hints of people shouting "conspiracy" over Barcelona getting the weakest of the available 7 teams for a date in the UEFA CL quarters. One does wonder here, nevertheless, since it has been so for many a time in the recent past. Last year they got a team that had Manuel Almunia guarding the net. One should give some thought here. Manuel Almunia is definitely to Arsenal, what Kamran Akmal is to the Pakistan cricket team. The phrase "safe hands" has never been able to succeed in an attempt to peaceful coexistence with "Akmal" or "Almunia" in a singular sentence. So that was that. And 2 years before that, we all remember they drew Schalke. :-) Needless to say more. No, wait, it doesn't end there. They got Benfica a couple of years before that. It isn't very difficult for a man who can put two and two together to get the general drift here. But for people in my associated grapevine who are kings at the complex task of putting even three and four or for that matter, a five or six together, this one is child's play. They've deduced it all.
Having introduced to my readers, the intelligence levels of my associated grapevine, it would be to let the grapevine down if I didn't mention the other act of deduction they contrived to make. It is that, UEFA want a non english final showdown at England Football Stadiums' epitome - The Wembley. One of our reporters went on to say that he wouldn't be surprised if UEFA setup a shop in Scotland since he believes UEFA hate English Football so so much. That means, the last thing they would want to see is an all english final at the Wembley. What next? Draw the two english heavyweights together. Another one says, he was actually expecting all the three english teams to be drawn together. But a third one rightly corrected him by pointing out that football, unlike ludo or snakes and ladders, is a game where only two teams can play against each other at a given point in time and space.
So there it is. the two non english football teams which have realistic chances of lifting the trophy this year (Inter included only because of the sacking of Rafa "he-comes-with-a-relegation-plan Benitez") have their task cut out. A place in the final is now theirs to lose. And the English giants have been pitted against each other to kill the dominance. Anyone to disagree????
No comments:
Post a Comment