The Charity Shield was once a rousing curtain-raiser to a long winter in the mud. These days, rechristened the Community Shield for tax and fraud purposes, we head for the traditional clash between the league champions and FA Cup winners, with Liverpool having already played in Europe — and with winter and mud just a distant memory after the driest, hottest British summer ever.
And whoever heard of a Shield without Arsenal or Manchester United?
But this Chelsea vs Liverpool clash promises to be a fairly hot clash, with Iberian managers and the world’s greatest players assembling for what was once supposed to be a friendly.
Look, we all know about the big Chelsea signings — Andriy Shevchenko and Michael Ballack are now officially the two best-paid players in the world on more than £130 000 a week each — and the new crew-cut being sported by their extrovert Portuguese manager, Jose Mourinho. Personally I think Shevchenko is past it and Ballack is overrated, but what do I know?
They’ve got Shaun Wright-Phillips perpetually on the bench, if needed, and Joe Cole is out injured — which would be a blow to most other clubs. We know they’ve got two full teams of top-class international performers.
So let’s forget the Blues for a second; they can look after themselves with all that money.
But what about Liverpool, surprise Champions League winners in 2005, FA Cup winners last year and going places under Spaniard Rafa Benitez?
Let’s start with a lad from Chile called Mark Gonzalez, Chile’s greatest-ever player. Allegedly. Liverpool had to loan him out to Real Sociedad last season because he couldn’t get a work permit. The British Home Office didn’t think he was that good, though he did impress the Spaniards.
Then there’s the other South American acquisitions, Fabio Aurelio and Gabriel Paletta. Combined cost? About £8-million.
Will they go the way of Pellegrino, Morientes and Josemi at Anfield, or follow Xabi Alonso and Luis Garcia, two successful imports, into the hearts of Liverpool fans?
Then there’s Benitez’s two domestic acquisitions: Craig Bellamy, £6-million from Blackburn Rovers, and Jermaine Pennant, £6,7-million from Birmingham.
Yes, that’s right, Wales’s most controversial footballer, who faces assault charges for his footwork in a nightclub, and the former Arsenal starlet who can’t resist driving when he’s had a couple to drink.
Pennant, who left for Birmingham when Arsenal boss Arsène Wenger had endured too much, was famously found driving through Watford last year with a lamppost sticking out of his car’s bonnet.
Add to them characters like Harry Kewell and Robbie Fowler and you’ve got a recipe for disaster at the training ground. But if anyone can bring this disparate bunch together, I guess it’s Benitez. And good luck to him. Against Chelsea, he’ll need it.
But, then again, as Liverpool proved in the Champions League in 2005 and the FA Cup semi earlier this year, nothing’s impossible.