Monday, March 27, 2006

I am going to tell you a secret

Want to be chic, or to stay on the cutting edge of fashion this year? Forget fancy shoes, clothes, bags, phones or whatever it is that makes people trendy, air a confession. Confession is all the rage: There was Usher with his Confessions album, Lindsay Lohan’s Confessions of a spoiled brat, Josh Groban’s My Confession, Paris Hilton’s Confessions of an heiress, and now Maddona’s Confessions on the dance floor. And the sweet part is that you need not be constrained by such trifles as truth, and honesty; you have license to embellish, omit, invent truth; the more shocking the better. Think a million little pieces. Having become something of a fashionista myself it’s only fitting that I should air my own confession.

The object of my affection is neither my first, nor second, nor only one at the moment! He’s only the latest in a long line of incarnations of “the beloved”;
I’ll not, for fear of being labelled whorish or capricious, name previous incarnations. He is everything my ex wasn’t: the model of resolve, drive, and diligence, reliability, and best of all, loyalty. The FA cup quarter final match between Chelsea and Newcastle on wednesday was a wonderful affirmation of Chelsea’s appeal; loyalty. The game itself was rather disappointing; Chelsea put up a disjointed, and passionless performance that I’ll not describe because it has already been splendidly done. It’s just as well that we won: the team played awfully, and it failed to drive the advantage home when they could have done it many times; winning is all they could have been proud of after such a dismal performance. But, no need then to belabour what must have been painfully obvious even to them; we’re in the semi finals and for now that’s all that matters. But I digress.
The applause accorded to Celestine Babayaro and Scott Parker, both former Chelsea players, at the outset was so gratifying that even the dismal performance could not entirely counter point it. Such loyalty you might say can be found at any number of clubs. But that when viewed along with the fact that big daddy, Mr Abramovich to non chelskovites, and the special one made the trip to Abidjan to support Drogda and the Ivorians in the world cup qualifier against Cameroon late last year then my point begins to become a little clearer. Note to reader, Ivory Coast is in the thick of civil conflict.
Loyalty of the fans through 50 years during which Chelsea had with which to lure and entrance further proves my point. But it’s not all one-way traffic: Chelsea’s devotion to its fans is touching. The decision to grant free tickets to all its disabled fans is a case in point.
Even the recent dip in form is a product of devotion. Am not in any way trying to defend the indefensible, only trying to explain it. The start of the dip traces back to the lose to Barcelona at the Bridge. Since then, we’ve lost to Middlesbrough, Fulham, narrowly won against Tottenham, and gotten away with a few bad performances. The Newcastle caretaker manager reckons it’s because Mourinho was deeply affected by our exit from the competition, and I agree with him. The proponent of clinical play has become dis-centred and it’s rubbing off onto the team. While that’s not a good thing, it shows how much the manager cares about the club; after all, one must care to bother to get upset. Cynics will say it’s all selfish, that he’s ultra competitive and would react similarly no matter what team it was he coached but am convinced that he is deeply devoted to the club and that's all there's to it. Take the celebrations after the winning goal against Tottenham two weeks ago, and if you’re not convinced, then you’re blind!

Ps : I realise that am blogging a great deal about Football lately; perhaps because am always in a parallel soccer universe, either looking forward to a game, enjoying it, or revelling in its after glow. But i'll try an leave it every so often so that the footaball inspired stories don't surfeit

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