In November 1960 my father took me to watch my first soccer match to see Chelsea beat Manchester City 6-3 at Stamford Bridge. Bert Trautman the Nazi German was in goal for City and Peter Bonetti debut in goal for Chelsea. Jimmy Greaves scored a hat trick for Chelsea and I watched Dennis Law notch goals for City in this nine goal thriller. The stadium was full to its 80,000 capacity.
Last night I went back over 60 years on to watch them draw 0-0 with Liverpool in a stadium with half capacity lots of fireworks flag waving and razzmatazz. In 1960 Greaves earned £200 per week today the Chelsea German centre forward £200,000 a week. The match was awful and though a game played at a much faster pace it’s a rush to nowhere. What went wrong ?
Speaking of nowhere that’s where I went after the match as the M4 motorway west out of London was down to one lane and the hour journey home took 3 hours. What went wrong ?
In the now third world we are all stuck in the freeze of hopelessness where failure is rewarded , mediocrity reigns and Joe Public resigned to below average. The tragedy is that soccer the fodder to feed the masses from their escape of life reality has deadened our nerves and paralyzed our National spirit. We accommodate so much below par we end up apathetic.
We queue for hours in single lanes on motorways burning fossil fuels and being captured on speed cameras if we go above 20mph. Life in the fast lane no longer exists. We build monuments to idols that continuously fail us and we tolerate so much wrong. Where did we go wrong. ? You can’t score goals unless someone shoots a goal , you can’t drive on motorways unless they are open. Hammersmith Bridge is still closed and for cost reasons can’t get fixed. London is fast coming to a standstill and the TFL App can only take money for congestion and environmental charge, whilst not telling you that the road is closed.
Or shall we just shut down London switch off the lights and stay at home to watch it on TV. Is that where Mayor Kahn wants us? Chelsea owned by the Yanks, City owned by the Arabs, motorways sold to sovereign funds. That’s what went wrong.
qbitblogger 