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Carefree (wherever you may be) What’s on your mind tonight? Global warming? Economic collapse? African poverty? Islamic terrorism? Demographic decline? Mass immigration? The rise of China? The fall of Europe? Avian flu? AIDS?
Well, none of that matters to me right now. I am content to float aimlessly in the warm bath of deep, spiritual joy that I have been immersed in since Saturday afternoon when I finally got to see my beloved Chelsea clinch the Premier League Title.
I have never been here before. The last time Chelsea lifted the crown was in 1955, several years before I was born. In my 37 years of devotion to this club I have known pain, disappointment, frustration, humiliation, exasperation and occasional (and infuriatingly short-lived) elation. The term ’emotional rollercoaster’ does not even come close.
Yet, on Saturday afternoon, all those years of hurt just seemed to melt away like April snow. My ‘ugly duckling’ team has grown into a beautiful swan and (for the moment at least) nothing else matters.
Colour me happy. Very happy.
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Who Are We? The Samizdata people are a bunch of sinister and heavily armed globalist illuminati who seek to infect the entire world with the values of personal liberty and several property. Amongst our many crimes is a sense of humour and the intermittent use of British spelling.
We are also a varied group made up of social individualists, classical liberals, whigs, libertarians, extropians, futurists, ‘Porcupines’, Karl Popper fetishists, recovering neo-conservatives, crazed Ayn Rand worshipers, over-caffeinated Virginia Postrel devotees, witty Frédéric Bastiat wannabes, cypherpunks, minarchists, kritarchists and wild-eyed anarcho-capitalists from Britain, North America, Australia and Europe.
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Congratulations! Now you know a small part of what the Red Sox Nation felt. (Side note: I am a Cardinals fan.)
Sorry, but Jose Mourinho’s siccing the Chelsea fans on Anders Frisk was monstrously wicked. I don’t see how anybody can root for scum like Chelsea after that.
It’s too bad Lucio scored two own-goals for Bayern München, or else Chelsea would already have been knocked out of the Champions League by now.
Oh, gosh, David! Thank you for your kind invitation to say what’s on my mind tonight!
Well, while you’re luxuriating in your warm bath of deep, spiritual joy for Chelsea, some of us on this side of the Atlantic are up and doing the heavy lifting – using our powers of concentration to try to ensure that the Prim Minister gets a spirutually uplifting kicking three days from now. Preferably right out of Downing St. Imagine the surge of warmth knowing you’d never have to hear him hiss “Look!” again. Yes, even though it has no esses in it, the word “look”, when employed by the Prim minister, is a hiss-o-rama.
No more hissy Peter Mandelson getting fired again, or having his expenses investigated again. (Although, I don’t know … is that a trough for life?) No more distraught David Blunkett giving interviews on national TV while sobbing into a dripping hanky like an adolescent girl. No more bossy interchangeable ZA-NULab Blair’s Babes with the impertinence to think they know how to order your life better than you do. Teresa Jowell freed up to comfort her husband during the investigations into his alleged criminal misdeeds. No more gap-mouthed, swivel-eyed Cher miming whatever.
These and other assaults on the consciousness of sentient beings gusted away like crisp packets dropped on the pavement an hour ago by feral 12-yr-old boys on their way to duff up a pensioner.
Well, I guess Chelsea was the more realistic triumph after all, but to be candid, I don’t intend to stop chanting until all the results are in and the hundreds of thousands of postal votes have been counted, disputed and wound their way through the courts, to the innocent merriment of the folks in Florida.
Now all we need is for the Chicago Cubs to win a penant, and we can be sure that the universe will be coming to an end.
Steven Den Beste,
If the Eagles win the SB this season it will be guaranteed. 🙂
You mean… that wasn’t the Argentine flag you were waving on Saturday night?
You’d better hope that Putin doesn’t fancy getting his hands on any of Roman’s ill-gotten. Chelsea made a loss of £86 million last year. They are a rich man’s plaything, they were about to go bust under Ken Bates’ wise leadership, and if Abramovich were to get an umbrella jabbed in his thigh they’d be bust again. It’s not that I’m bitter and want to see that slag kenyon on the dole or anything…
But until that happy day, enjoy the feeling, and let’s see if you can retain it!
You mean… that wasn’t the Argentine flag you were waving on Saturday night?
David
From this Gooner, many congratulations on your triumph. It is certainly a joy to finish top of the pile and don’t I know it. Do make sure that Roman doesn’t scrimp on the Duraglit. We’ll expect that trophy to be nice n shiny when you hand it back in a year. Ta.
Ah, the sweet smell of bought success. But remember the once-mighty Blackburn Rovers and tremble… One fan’s lifelong obsession is but a rich man’s passing fancy.
Back to reality on Tuesday.
But congrats for now.
Oh Lord I wish the Ashes would start.
Personally Ted, I thought it was monstrously clever rather than wicked, and as I’m stuck in London tomorrow evening, rather than able to get to Scally-land, I’ll be in a West London hostelry somewhere, to hopefully celebrate Chelsea’s getting to the European Champions’ League cup final. Go on you blues! 🙂
Jose is purposeful, clear, clever, sharp, inspirational, able to divorce himself from the trivialities of sport to focus on the importance of family, and with an incredible ability to judge and motivate other men (and the ability to demotivate others if it suits him). He is a total star and an uber-master of psychology.
If he was leading the Conservative Party, rather than Chelsea, I’d even be glad to vote for him, which is saying something for a Hoppeian. So let’s be thankful he’s steered clear of that particular blue pit of despair.
In the possible future world of Hoppeian monarchies, I would also be more than glad to live under King Mourinho, in the west London City State of Romanoville. I do wish he’d start wearing his grey Matalan coat again though. I start getting nervous when he wears the black-and-white striped tracksuit.
And for all you Arsenal fans out there, you dare but to dream to imagine that the Arse can win the title back again next year. Imagine the current Chelsea team, but this time with Andy Cole, Steven Gerrard, and A.N.Other World Class striker in attendance.
Nobody else has a prayer until Jose decides to move on, or Putin turns Abramovich over, Yukos style, or both. And if Mr Abramovich can build the base support, and turn a profit in five years, as he says he plans, maybe he really can break the dreadfully dull all-red duopoloy of Manchester United and Arsenal.
Forget Blackburn. I reckon Chelsea are here to stay. Go Jose, go! 🙂
David, enjoy your happiness. 50 years is a long time. My own club, Ipswich Town FC, has not won the championship since 1962. Blue is the colour!
A lot of hard things have been said about former Chelsea boss Ken Bates over the years, but he saved your club and the new owner has put it on top of the tree. A shame the Russian sugar daddy is such a shady chap, though.
Next year could be interesting.
As Michael Jennings said, on with the cricket.
I still can’t quite believe we’ve actually won it. And I have to say that Fergie was remarkably flattering with his wholesome praise of Chelsea – maybe he’s not a totally unsporting git after-all.
I seem to remember him claiming that Man U were the best team when Arsenal won the title.
Liverpool today…..
When Putin visited Israel recently he discussed with Ariel Sharon the possibility of getting the cuffs on seven ‘Russian’ oligarchs who are hiding out there. No dice: Israel only extradites for crimes allegedly committed in Israel.
So why doesn’t Blair cut a deal with the Seven Great Moguls, who must be feeling claustrophobic in a country the size of Wales with no team worth their largesse. British passports, and maybe taps on the shoulder, in exchange for sinking as much of your hard-earned (ahem) in seven Premiership clubs as Roman did in the Blues. The sort of immigrant whose skills we need, blah blah blah.
That will make a real race of the next few seasons, especially if clubs already well favoured by plutocrats (Man U, Arsenal, Fulham) are excluded from the plan. With so much cash coming in, seat prices could be cut and terrestrial broadcasters could make realistic bids for transmission rights, lifting the Premiership out of the Murdoch dungeon of invisibility. I mean, who wants to pay upwards of £33 a month to watch the Saints versus the Baggies? But the Southampton Muzhiks versus the West Brom Kulaks– now you’re talking.
Gareth
In may 2002, after Arsenal had when (yet) another championship, Fergie did say that Man Utd were the best team. Wenger’s reply was that each man thinks he has the prettiest wife at home. As if that wasn’t sweet enough, Fergie actually thought that Wenger was insulting his missus!
Luniversal
Who is the plutocrat in charge of Arsenal? Unlike Chelsea, we’re a solvent business, spending no more than we earn. On top of this we’re having to fund the building of the world’s best stadium.
Wenger’s success has been achieved on modest spending, on a par with a mid-table team in the last decade. Our achievements are therefore legitimate and a source of pride. Unlike certain others.
It’s clever to incite death threats?
I suppose if somebody had actually killed Frisk you’d be calling Mourinho a genius and nominating him for a Nobel prize.
Who is the plutocrat in charge of Arsenal? Unlike Chelsea, we’re a solvent business, spending no more than we earn. On top of this we’re having to fund the building of the world’s best stadium.
Exactly, neither Man Utd not the Arse have sugar and/or aluminium daddies, what they have, they’ve earned from their fans. That’s why Glazer wants to control Utd using other peoples’ money: to take cash out, not put cash in. Oh, and shame the Arse’s new stadium will be 15,000 smaller than Old Trafford by the time it’s finished.
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Pete_London: OK then, you can have one of the Seven Ratskywatsky Plutocratovichs to pump up the Gooners.
John K,
neither Man Utd not the Arse have sugar and/or aluminium daddies, what they have, they’ve earned from their fans….
What rubbish! Man Utd made their money from the Stock Market and I believe that Arsenal FC have made some very astute property deals. Good for both of them, I say.
Utd floated as a plc ostensibly to finance a redevelopment of the Stretford End. In fact, I think it had more to do with enabling Martin Edwards to cash in some of his shares, but that’s another matter. The point is, Utd was an attractive stock market proposition because it was a successful business, with a full stadium for every match. It did not have a sugar daddy, its financial success came from money from the fans, and, latterly, the Sky deal which has involved all Premiership clubs. But Utd, and indeed the Arse, did not have any rich outsider coming into the club and pumping it full of money. That’s a fact.