GLAD ALL OVER?
Like Selhurst Park, Football Daily’s local boozer is a fairly ramshackle, rough-and-ready establishment located in a small corner of south-west London that is an excellent place to go when the football’s on. During the FA Cup final, it was full of football fans whose allegiances lie with a wide variety of different teams across various divisions, none of whom happened to be Crystal Palace or Manchester City. You wouldn’t have thought it at the final whistle, mind, when for the first time in living memory this particular pub’s entire clientele was completely united in its celebration of the outcome of a football match shown live on the pub TV screens. With irritation or indifference conspicuous by its absence, each and every person present was genuinely thrilled that Palace had won and denied Pep Guardiola’s state-owned side the opportunity to salvage something from the wreckage of their season.
While “this means more” might be a twee marketing slogan dreamt up by some wonk in the Liverpool marketing department, it was abundantly clear that winning Saturday’s cup final meant far, far more to the tens of thousands of weeping fans who had won the march on Wembley, won the tifos, won the hearts of neutrals and eventually won the match courtesy of Eberechi Eze’s strike at the end of that signature Palace move in which the ball is wellied through the centre from deep, held up, played out right and then quickly back inside. When it comes to tactical analysis, Football Daily is the simplest of simple folk but even we could see that one coming. Pep couldn’t, despite getting paid the big bucks, a state of affairs that might explain why he was as gracious in defeat as we’ve come to expect.
While Saturday’s final was not without its controversy and Crystal Palace were undeniably lucky that an inexplicable VAR recommendation helped them to keep Dean Henderson on the pitch, you would need a swinging brick in place of a heart to begrudge them their success on a weekend in which various fond farewells and emotional wins helped maintain the charade that for most observers, this season’s top flight has been anything other than a massively underwhelming non-event. “To do something like that is pretty incredible,” said Joel Ward, who has played just 12 minutes of football this season, didn’t get summoned from the bench during the final but was handed the responsibility of accepting the club’s first major pot. “I don’t think there are real words for what it means, but to create history for this club, this set of players will go down in the history books for lifetimes.”
With football increasingly not as good as it used to be back in the Daily’s … er, day, it should go without saying that this seismic, life-changing Cup win doesn’t mark the end of Palace’s season and the club’s players and fans may or may not choose to sober up in time for what promises to be an even more raucous Selhurst Park evening than usual when they host Wolves tomorrow. After that, Oliver Glasner’s side will end their season at Anfield, in what could become the first recorded Premier League fixture in which both sets of players eschew the option of doing anything so vulgar as trying to win and decide instead to spend the entire 90 minutes giving each other those congratulatory guards of honour the British media are so obsessed with.
LIVE ON BIG WEBSITE
Join Michael Butler at 8pm (BST) for some live on-the-beach Premier League updates from Brighton 1-2 Liverpool.
QUOTES OF THE DAY
The management and I have the same goals for the future of Ajax, but we have different visions and timeframes. I feel deep in my heart that this is the best moment to part ways” – Francesco Farioli flings himself through the Ajax door marked Doe Een after his side missed out on a record 37th Eredivisie because a late-season choke handed the title to PSV.
I find this incredibly disappointing … it’s been an intense season filled with many memorable moments, and we achieved our goal: qualifying for next season’s [Bigger Cup]. This summer was already set to be a challenging transfer window, and it has now become even more so” – it’s fair to say Ajax technical director Alex Kroes does not sound happy with having been given even more work to fit in around his summer holiday plans.
FOOTBALL DAILY LETTERS
For those who say football is just a game; please look at the selfie of Ed Aarons. I rest my case” – Krishna Moorthy.
After that final maybe we have a replacement for John Lithgow in … Big Hand and the Hendersons” – Mike Turney.
Thursday morning should be, er, interesting for supporters of Arsenal and Manchester City. One lot will be able to unleash a tsunami of epic b@ntz about the disastrous end to a catastrophic season for their despised local rivals, while the others are going to have to endure a similar deluge from the fans of their despised local rivals, who will have not only – same as them – somehow managed to get into next season’s Big Cup, but also gone one better than them by – admittedly miraculously – winning a trophy. Should add a bit of spice to a game which, on form, both sides look sure to lose” – Simon Gill.
Thank you for publishing my letter on Friday regarding the battle at the top of the Eredivisie. Now that PSV have won I thought I would try my Luuk again and make the Siem joke – thank goodness for the de Jongs. However, had PSV lost I would have mentioned that’s it’s better to have bad Luuk than no Luuk at all. I wonder if I am pressing my Luuk? (I’ll get my coat)” – Michael Glogower.
Given that the Premier League champions and the FA Cup holders will both be present, will the Community Shield be brought forward to Anfield on 25 May?” – Declan Houton.
Send letters to the.boss@theguardian.com. Today’s letter o’ the day winners are … Simon Gill, who wins some Football Weekly merch. We’ll be in touch. Terms and conditions for our competitions, when we run them, can be viewed here.
RECOMMENDED LISTENING
Join Max Rushden, Barry Glendenning and the Football Weekly pod squad as they discuss Crystal Palace’s FA Cup final win and more.
This is an extract from our daily football email … Football Daily. To get the full version, just visit this page and follow the instructions.
