Dear Liverpool,
Things between our two clubs haven`t been great in recent years. We`ve faced each other far too often since Chelsea became a big club. Let`s be honest, most of us are all a bit sick of the sight of each other in the Champions League.
There was all that business with José Mourinho, who was certainly the expert in getting under anyone`s skin, and he went to town with your club. If only the games on the pitch matched up the needling off it, but most of those games were pretty bad. A special mention has to go to the European ties which were so stultifyingly awful as to test even the most blinkered masochist.
So most of us probably groaned outwardly when we were drawn together yet again. That`s the 5th time in as many years. Aren`t there other European clubs to play?
We perhaps glossed over last year`s vintage, which was considerably better than the 3 previous ones. Nothing, however, can have prepared anyone for this year`s epic. 5-7 on aggregate? Does such a scoreline even exist?
You will note that world football is falling over itself to find the vocabulary to talk about last night`s match. I, for one, have not witnessed a more mental game ever. Bar none. I don`t know the final in Istanbul was more breathless, you will forgive me if I didn`t pay so much attention to that particular match.
Anyway, the point of this missive is to ask that we try to start afresh. Both of us were complicit in serving up an instant classic. You were on the losing side, that`s football. We are all acutely aware that for very little it could be another way. By the looks of things, the players last night were pretty shell-shocked at what had just happened. Us fans certainly are, having witnessed two sides throwing caution to the wind and gone hell for leather, helped by some comically awful goalkeeping. It was great entertainment for neutrals, even if it was a bit stressful for all of us with a stake in the result.
And I`m thinking that, having shared something like that, maybe we can do things a bit differently from now on because the needling between us just doesn`t feel right anymore.
We haven`t got on well these past 5 years, that`s quite enough. On our side we have the impression that you rather resented the way Chelsea gatecrashed football`s top table. We`re the nouveau-riche club who just made it a bit harder for everyone else. It`s new money versus old money. You`ve done the schtick whereby you try to tell us that our money can never buy history, class or all those other things. Plus, as you never fail to tell us, our fans are all plastic.
And we`ve given as good as we get. For every moronic ‘5 times / rent boys` reflex, we`ve replied with an equally intelligent remark about Liverpool being a city of burnt out cars ‘guarded` by bubble-permed dole monkeys in a mid-1990s shell-suit. That business with burglars hitting your player`s houses was quite funny but we`ve done that to death. We`re also done with taunting you for a lack of League titles in recent years.
So here`s what I`m thinking: rather going back to the needling, bickering, niggling, insulting etc, we can try to treat each other a bit better. From our side, I promise that we will lay off some of the stereotyping, crude or otherwise. Let`s keep it limited to football and not extend any rivalry to dissing your city or inhabitants. We can also stop some of the childish games we love to play about Ickle Stevie G MBE MoTM M&S or Tubby Benítez. As a manager, Benítez certainly deserves all our respect for having engineered a few astonishing games and results this season. And that Leagues success looks like it could well be coming.
We`re prepared to do all of that (and believe us, we`re giving up something that causes us much mirth) if you help us out here. We`re not going to pretend that we have anything like your history (note: no inverted commas there) and our trophy cabinet is not as voluminous as yours. That doesn`t mean that we have no history at all, nor does it mean that our trophy haul in recent years deserves belittling. As for money, well you might have noticed that nowadays everyone`s doing what Chelsea have done, and that includes your own club.
Can we also ask for a modicum of respect for a club that has made its own greatness in recent years, and just did a little bit more last night (with your help, of course)? I mean in the 5 rounds our two clubs have gone in recent Champions League campaigns, there was one stalemate, 2 victories for Liverpool, and now two victories for Chelsea. Surely that invites you to look at us a bit differently now, not to mention where Chelsea are right now.
I have the feeling that for many of us, fans of both clubs, there is now a shared experience of having gone through the emotional wringer. It could have gone either way, the fact that it went our way is perhaps less important than the fact that, as fans we went through something similar. Yes, that`s right: our fans are the same as yours, our feelings for our club are pretty much like yours. What unites us is more important than the petty rivalries that we`ve served up these past few years.
Before I sign off, I wanted to say thanks a million though. Last night`s game will go down in legend as one of the great European ties. Both our clubs were involved in writing a page of football history. Cheers Liverpool, we couldn`t have done that without you. We really are grateful. Believe me, I`m not gloating, we are genuinely grateful for that.
It`s been fun, we`ve enjoyed it, but let`s move on now to some begrudging respect. In the light of last night`s game, we owe it to football to behave differently.
How about it?
Yours, respectfully,
The Vital Chelsea team
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