ABC.....another bitter cynic

ON THE train the other day, I bumped into a casual acquaintance who revealed he was a Chelsea fan.

He seemed a little self-conscious saying it, and quickly added that he was the real thing, going on to prove his credentials by describing David Webb's winning Cup Final goal in the 1970 replay against Leeds, and generally waxing misty-eyed about boyhood days absorbed in Match of the Day highlights from the Bridge when Osgood was good, Charlie Cooke dribbled and 'Chopper' Harris, well, chopped.

I stopped him before he felt obliged to time-tunnel back to Ted Drake and the Brylcreem years, not least because he wasn't even born then, but also because he already had a sympathetic ear for his earnest desire not to be mistaken for a Boris-come-lately member of the caviar sandwich brigade.

Also, being a sensitive chap, I was aware that even possession of a 1970 Chelsea Subbuteo team, with the players' names carefully written under each little man in the box, doesn't render the genuine Blues supporter immune from what has now become a relentless chorus of knee-jerk derision from what must seem like the whole of the football world.

You know the charge sheet: Chelsea have bought success, Mourinho is a clown, the team play boring football, and Roman Abramovich is the worst thing to happen to English football since the invention of the penalty shoot-out.

Never mind the 13-point gap which separates the teams ahead of tomorrow's match at Old Trafford the real measure of the eclipse of Manchester United by Chelsea is that the latter have taken over as the team everybody loves to hate. ABC has replaced ABU, and it's hardly an exaggeration to say that all neutrals will be rooting for those poor, embattled northern underdogs at Old Trafford.

Which is fair enough. If it helps to keep the Premiership competitive, a United victory unlikely though that might be in the current climate would be welcome. But that's not the same as saying Chelsea are bad for football, or won't deserve back-to-back titles if that's the way it pans out.

Au contraire, as Arsene might say; it seems to me that most of the criticism directed at the Bridge is born of nothing other than pure, simple envy.

For sure, Abramovich has raised the bar to almost ludicrous levels in terms of the price he is willing to put on success, but in terms of English football at the top level the change is only one of degree, not of basic principle. Manchester United were always willing to pay top dollar to get whatever they wanted from Roy Keane to Wayne Rooney, it's not as if the game's top players stars turned up at Old Trafford in a lucky bag.

Money can buy you top players but it can't buy you a top team, and it's a testament to Mourinho's qualities as a motivational manager that last season and this, he has his side playing with that combination of discipline, drive and desire which is so conspicuously lacking just now at Old Trafford.

As for boring? Sure, Chelsea do 1-0, but 28 goals scored in 11 Premiership games so far makes it pretty clear that Lampard and company swagger more often than they stifle.

Let me put my cards on the table. I think Mourinho is just about the best thing to happen to the Premiership in years. Just as the United/Arsenal duopoly had begun to render everything too predictable in terms of the championship, so the Ferguson/Wenger rivalry off the pitch had started to resemble a soap whose plot lines had long grown weary through familiarity.

Enter Mourinho to overturn the cardboard set. Both Wenger and Ferguson have outstanding attributes as men and managers but, in their public utterances at least, neither could reasonably be accused of possessing an advanced sense of humour. And mind games without a few laughs quickly become dull.

Mourinho is refreshingly different. He goes about the serious business of the day with passion, knowledge and a scrupulous attention to detail and then he kicks back and puts on his deadpan face to wind up rivals and press alike, with some of the best sit-down routines in football.

Wenger as a "voyeur" who keeps a telescope in his garden? Who couldn't fail to love that image? Apart, obviously, from Arsene himself, an admirably thoughtful man, to be sure, but one who clearly needs to lighten up a little bit.

But then I suppose it's much easier to smile when your view is from the top.

The Charlton and Real Betis results give the lie to the notion that Chelsea are so unassailable the title is as good as in the bag already. And maybe we will see a very different Mourinho if his side lose their way at home or, as they did last season, in Europe.

Meanwhile, Manchester United find themselves in the singularly uncomfortable position of going into a big home game with all the serious slagging coming from within, and the outside world looking on in the hope that they can somehow puncture the blue balloon.

After Middlesbrough and Lille, it's a tall order for a side which, in the absence of the likes of Keane, Neville and Heinze, has been suffering an acute does of that leadership which ultimately did for Ireland in the World Cup qualifiers.

A few months ago, all the talk was about how Malcolm Glazer would change the ethos of a great club forever. Well, they can't blame the American for their current dilemma, any more than the Russian is the man who has made Chelsea the team everyone has to beat.