My blue friends tell me I am wrong to be so glum. Anything can happen in a one-off final, they say.\u00a0United have beaten City this season, they add. And you know City, they say, no one shoots themselves in the foot with quite such alacrity. Except they are guys of my generation, who remember the old days. And this is not the City of a chairman with a comedy comb-over, this is not the City whose manager ordered his players to keep the ball in the corner when they needed to win a match to avoid relegation, this is not the City plagued with City-itis. This is the City turbocharged by oil wealth, the City blessed with the most charismatic coach of his generation, the City playing with the ruthless facility of a footballing machine. As for the idea that their concentration might be undermined by the prospect of a Champions League final: this City squad is so substantial, they could field a second XI for the cup final and it would still be stronger than United\u2019s best.<\/p>\n

The optimist would point to the fact United too have significant motivation. Not just lifting a second piece of silverware this season, but defending their club\u2019s defining honour. Besides, they have done it before. In 1977, they stopped a Liverpool Treble, beating them at Wembley in a Cup final sandwiched between them lifting the league title and the European Cup. And how delightful it would be if\u00a0Casemiro\u00a0and\u00a0Marcus Rashford could replicate Lou Macari and Jimmy Greenhoff\u2019s double act that day and produce a comedy-winning goal to stymie blue ambition. How delicious to chant at the departing City hordes as\u00a0Bruno Fernandes\u00a0went up to lift the Cup \u201cHave you ever won the Treble?\u201d<\/p>\n

But pessimism is the prevailing trait of the football supporter: such thoughts are increasingly rare as the day approaches. What is occupying the mind is the immediate aftermath of defeat. The smirking texts filling my inbox from the blue mate who calls his dog Sergio; the leaked itinerary for a Treble celebrating open-top bus trip round the city centre; the gloating sense of prevailing superiority. All topped off by the worst news of all: that the Glazers have decided not to sell up. The horror result can happen!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When the phone call came a fortnight ago offering me an\u00a0FA Cup final ticket, I<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24216,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,45],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/nkyeremunews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/BeFunky-collage-2023-05-19T113118.668.jpg",1200,640,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/nkyeremunews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/BeFunky-collage-2023-05-19T113118.668-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/nkyeremunews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/BeFunky-collage-2023-05-19T113118.668-300x160.jpg",300,160,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/nkyeremunews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/BeFunky-collage-2023-05-19T113118.668-768x410.jpg",640,342,true],"large":["https:\/\/nkyeremunews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/BeFunky-collage-2023-05-19T113118.668-1024x546.jpg",640,341,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/nkyeremunews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/BeFunky-collage-2023-05-19T113118.668.jpg",1200,640,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/nkyeremunews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/BeFunky-collage-2023-05-19T113118.668.jpg",1200,640,false],"chromenews-featured":["https:\/\/nkyeremunews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/BeFunky-collage-2023-05-19T113118.668.jpg",1024,546,false],"chromenews-large":["https:\/\/nkyeremunews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/BeFunky-collage-2023-05-19T113118.668.jpg",825,440,false],"chromenews-medium":["https:\/\/nkyeremunews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/BeFunky-collage-2023-05-19T113118.668.jpg",590,315,false]},"author_info":{"display_name":"nkyeremunews","author_link":"https:\/\/nkyeremunews.com\/index.php\/author\/nkyeremunews\/"},"category_info":"Nkyeremu<\/a> Sports<\/a>","tag_info":"Sports","comment_count":"9","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nkyeremunews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24214"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nkyeremunews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nkyeremunews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nkyeremunews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nkyeremunews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24214"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nkyeremunews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24214\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nkyeremunews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24216"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nkyeremunews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24214"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nkyeremunews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24214"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nkyeremunews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24214"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}