DECADES AND DECADES
Ten years is a long time in football. At Southampton in 2014, Rickie Lambert, Jay Rodriguez, Gastón Ramírez and Adam Lallana formed possibly the most Streets Won’t Forget forward line since Sam Allardyce’s Bolton side. Victor Anichebe’s infamous “can you tweet something like” tweet didn’t even exist yet. Steven Gerrard had just slipped. Heady days.
If your interests extend beyond Social Media Disgrace retro b@nter accounts – and Football Daily refuses to confirm or deny if this is the case – then there was also some football going on. Real Madrid, the so-called Kings of Europe, hadn’t reached a Big Cup final since 2002, and 10 years ago this week, faced a daunting semi-final second leg at Bayern Munich’s Allianz Arena. La Décima, the holy grail for Madridistas, was on the line. Having won 1-0 at the Bernabéu, Madrid destroyed Pep Guardiola’s Bayern 4-0, with some blokes called Cristiano Ronaldo and Sergio Ramos scoring twice each to book their final date in Lisbon.
Some obvious similarities, then, to Tuesday’s Big Cup semi-final in Munich between, yep, Bayern and Real Madrid. Despite a decade passing, the 4-0 will be at the forefront of the minds of Manuel Neuer, Thomas Müller, Luka Modric and Dani Carvajal, all of whom played a part that night. The world is a very different place to the one we lived in in 2014 – Pepe had a perm! – but some things don’t change. Carlo Ancelotti is still manager of Los Blancos, albeit in a second stint. And Toni Kroos will again strap up his boots, albeit this time, it won’t be for Bayern.
The decade since 2014 may have been kinder to Madrid, at least in terms of Big Cups, but that’s all in the past now. Madrid’s present and future, Jude Bellingham, facing Bayern’s present and future, Jamal Musiala. Both born in 2003, the duo are former England youth teammates and roommates. “He’s one of my best mates in football,” remarked Bellingham after pipping Musiala to the Kopa Trophy at last year’s Ballon d’Or ceremony, about a year after the England international two-footed his old pal in the Bundesliga while playing for Dortmund. From the England U-15s, to Der Klassiker, to Big Cup’s semi-finals, it’s been a meteoric rise for Bellingham and Musiala. Tuesday’s game is not going to be very friendly, but it should be a decent watch.
LIVE ON BIG WEBSITE
Join Scott Murray from 8pm BST for hot minute-by-minute Big Cup semi-final, first-leg coverage of Bayern Munich 2-2 Real Madrid.
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“My feeling is he is going to stay. If it was my decision he will stay. Jamie Vardy is Leicester, Jamie Vardy has always scored goals and even when he is 45 years old he will score goals. Goals are in his blood” – Enzo Maresca hopes the former England forward hangs around when his contract runs out this summer after scoring twice in their Championship title-confirming win at Preston. By the sound of it, though, perhaps Vardy should be seeking a medical opinion first.
FOOTBALL DAILY LETTERS
Sean Dyche and Blossoms, you say (yesterday’s Football Daily, full email edition). Aye, well, bonny lads, worraboot Alan Shearer in Wor Bella at the Theatre Royal, Newcastle, eh? This is the fantastic play/one-woman show about Bella Reay, who played 30 games for Blyth Spartans Ladies for a short spell from 1917 (in green and white stripes rather than black and white) and scored 133 goals in 30 appearances, some at St James’ Park and at least one in front of 23,000 at Ayresome Park. Not only that, but she developed a right arm up, index-finger-pointing goal celebration. Just as we were all thinking, ‘Now who does that remind us of?’ up pops St Alan on a back-of-stage screen, filmed in appropriately grainy black and white, to suggest that ‘others may copy that in the future’. The play is by Ed Waugh so it’s brilliant and moving and funny, with Catherine Dryden carrying it off wonderfully well. If the Toon sell Alexander Isak they may find her available for £60m. The real Bella died in 1979, not long after Blyth Spartans famously reached the fifth round of the FA Cup in 1977-78. And if you haven’t seen Hadaway Harry or The Cramlington Train Wreckers – more Waugh brilliance about, respectively, Harry Clasper and some strikers in 1926, do” – Pete Welsh.
Reckon you’re right with Blossoms holding off their crossover release until Everton were safe. With safety secured, borrowing from that catchy-as-heck debut single from the band, ‘and the river always flows, so if you go, I will know, by the rain, Dyche shall remain’. Someone will need to tell Ashley Young that this will not work on his gramophone. Sorry” – Antony Train.
Send letters to the.boss@theguardian.com. Today’s winner of our prizeless letter o’ the day is … Pete Welsh.
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