Fit to Wear The Shirt?

Reading Jim White’s column in Yahoo Sport this morning gave me pause for thought.   He tells of a Chelsea supporter who turned up at their training ground and – to quote verbatim – “staged a one-man protest. He hung bedsheet banners on the perimeter fence demanding the removal of everyone from Roman Abramovich to Carlo Ancelotti, then bellowed at the players that they were not fit to wear the shirt, before ritually ripping up his season ticket.“

This gave me pause for thought.   You see, in all the years since the days of Osgood, Bonetti and the like, I can only remember 1 person I knew who was a Chelsea supporter.   It was like they didn’t exist as a club for all that time when there was no silverware coming in.   On the other hand, I was bumping into Tottenham and West Ham supporters all the time despite the lean years that those clubs were suffering over the same period.   I would like to think that it was because I live in north London but the story was the same at work where my mates came from all over the capital.

Then it all changed… Suddenly Chelski were winning things under a new owner and with a manager who can certainly claim to be among the best, based on his record, but is a bit too boastful for my personal taste.   It’s amazing how the collapse of communism benefitted southwest London!   It was also as if the fans had been released from the gulags and crossed the now demolished Berlin Wall to re-appear all over London.   The once invisible Chelsea flag resurfaced on builders vans throughout the capital.

This season Chelsea are not doing so good and their fall from all conquering heroes to middle men seems to coincide with the departure of Ray Wilkins – perhaps it wasn’t that brilliant foreign manager who sparked the success after all, but a bit of the old ‘they don’t like it up ‘em’ approach from Wilkins in the background?   Perhaps the power behind the throne was doing the real deal with the players – who knows?

What is apparent from this supporter’s outburst at the training ground is that the nouveau Chelsea fans are fickle.   Their loyalty may only be counted on for as long as the trophies keep coming.   The players are not fit to wear the shirt?  I suspect the boot is on the other foot!

Coaching Before the Donkey Derby

The Carling Cup final and hoards of Brummies heading for norf London.   Now, for me that represented a chance of some transport photos on the M1.   Ok, I was also going to watch the match on TV – my son having decided last year that he’s an Arsenal fan as well as a Wingate & Finchley supporter – but first things first, off to Hendon and the bridge over the M1.

The M1 on a Sunday morning is relatively quiet – not too many cars or trucks, and the adjacent railway station is on a half hourly service each way.   Just the regular 757 Greenline coach services to and from Luton Airport seem to pass at something like weekday frequencies.

1930's Greenline Coach - an AEC Regal on Victoria Embankment

Greenline! – now there’s a historic name in the annals of London Transport.  Last year saw the 80th anniversary of the first Greenline service introduced between Victoria Embankment and Guildford in Surrey.    With the growth of car ownership following the last war and increasing congestion in central London, the radial routes that crossed the capital were gradually withdrawn or split into northern and southern routes that met at Victoria – I can still remember the 714 to Dorking passing through Finchley up until the mid-1970′s.   But the 1970′s saw an effort to restructure the brand and fast inter-airport links were one of the new services that were introduced along with routes that connected the outer suburbs with each other.

Modern Greenline Coach - Van Hool Acron in Hendon

Restructuring of bus services in London brought a brief period of the Green bus area of London Transport continuing the Greenline tradition as a member of the National Bus Company, but the company was soon broken up following deregulation of the UK bus industry.      You can read up the full and detailed history elsewhere on the web.

The current Greenline carriers are Arriva The Shires and services are limited to the north and west of the Capital.   It seems odd that the other Arriva group members to the east and south have not chosen to retain what was a well respected brand for commuters.

So, back to my reasons for being in Hendon.  Birmingham City were playing Arsenal in the Carling Cup final and the club had organised 90 coaches to deliver their fans to Wembley stadium – a show of confidence from the 4-1 outsiders!   I had no way of knowing which route down they would choose – M1 or M4o – either being good options – but the M1 was handiest for me so I could only go there and hope.

Leons 178 passing through Hendon

In the end, there were only a few and those that did put in an appearance were probably privately chartered.   Star vehicles were a brace of Van Hool T916 Astron’s in a very smart metallic red livery, operated by Leons of Stafford.   In the shot on the right, the overtaking BMW driver looks positively envious – now why didn’t I order that colour!

Harry Shaw

Harry Shaw of Coventry put in an appearance with a smartly turned out Scania/Irizar PB.  This was definitely a private hire with Birmingham City scarves and a placard proclaiming ‘St. Andrews Tavern, Small Heath, Birmingham City Supporters’ on the dash.

The skies clouded and rain threatened – time to go.   I’ll never know whether any of the official coaches passed along the M1, but it was not a bad bag for a couple of hours stood in the sunshine.   I took a 142 bus down to Brent Cross and the 232 home from there in plenty of time to watch the start of England’s innings against India in the Cricket World Cup, have some lunch and settle down with a drink to watch the match.

So did the 90 coach gamble pay off?   It was a game in which Arsenal looked like a group of strangers for much of the time whilst Birmingham hustled and bustled on and off the ball.   Birmingham took the lead after they could have had a penalty and had been ruled off-side in one of those ‘how did he not see that defender’ moments from the assistant.   The goal was a header by Zigic from a set piece with his marker chasing a daydream somewhere in the summer break.   Although Arsenal equalised with a well taken strike by Van Persil (sorry, couldn’t resist that one), they always looked shaky at the back.   In the end it was that defensive weakness that was to be their undoing with Koscielny and Szczesny not dealing with a flick on and super-sub Oberfemi Martins pouncing on the loose ball.   Communication error or lack of commitment?   We’ll probably never know – after all, Arsene Wenger thinks it’s all down to injuries.   But I’ve never seen defending that bad at Wingate & Finchley!   Tony Adams, along with the rest of George Graham’s hardmen, must be holding his head in his hands.   Man of the match for me? – toss up between Ben Foster and Stephen Carr of Birmingham’s solid defence – how Gooners must wish that their defensive line could be like that!

90 coaches at 4-1, I make that 360 coaches + the original stake – enough to take over from National Express.  Anyone fancy a ride on Birmingham City Motors

Tweeting Decisions

So Ryan Babel is likely to face an FA Inquisition after posting a depiction of Howard Webb in a Manchester United shirt on his twitter account.   In truth he was probably only displaying a visual representation of what most Liverpool Fans believe and probably a lot of neutrals as well – that Mr. Webb has made a pact with the Red Devils, though quite what he is getting for selling his soul remains a mystery.  The keys to Sir Alex’s wine cellar perhaps?

The penalty decision that seems to have prompted Babel’s ill judged efforts in Adobe Photoshop certainly looked a bit harsh (to a neutral).  The fact that Dimitar Berbatov has felt the need to claim that there was enough contact for him to lose his balance suggests that he is concerned that people believe that he dived.  The various slow motion camera views of the incident suggest that he must have felt the hairs on Agger’s socks.   Whatever the truth of the matter, it seems to be written into every striker’s contract today that they must go to ground in the box at any time when there is the possibility of gaining a penalty.

Is Howard Webb (or any other referee) actually likely to show favouritism to Manchester United? -  Probably not.   The reality is that everyone wants their team, and frequently other people’s teams, to beat Man U.   Anything that seems to make that more difficult is likely to upset non-Man U fans everywhere.   Never can a club have become so universally hated that refereeing decisions or errors are dressed up as bias in favour of that club.   Referees tend to have bad days (too many of them) but the fans only tend to notice the decisions that go against what they wish to be – so Man U 1 any other team 0 will always be Ref’s Fault.   I did notice that there wasn’t much injury time today – if it had been 1-0 to Liverpool on 90 minutes there would have been at least 6 minutes wouldn’t there