Neutrals hoping for fairytale in final

14 May 2010 14:11
TEAMtalk feels every neutral fan will be hoping Avram Grant and Portsmouth are walking around Wembley Stadium with the FA Cup on Saturday.[LNB] If relegated Pompey could overcome champions Chelsea it would be another fairytale to grace the world's most famous domestic knockout competition.[LNB]It would be something to grasp for those Portsmouth fans who have watched their club engulfed in debts which appear to have risen by the week until they now stand at an astronomical £138million.[LNB]A source of pride to cut through the shame of a club which has come to represent all that is reckless and profligate in the modern game.[LNB]Let us recap. Portsmouth owe former and current players a total of £4.7million, owe other clubs more than £17m in transfer fees, owe agents and cleaners and all manner of small businesses.[LNB]They are a club who have had four owners just this season in a league which is supposed to have stringent 'fit and proper' person regulations.[LNB]A club whose future is uncertain and who almost certainly are travelling to Wembley for the last time in their foreseeable future.[LNB]A fairytale triumph to go with the 2008 victory against Cardiff would at least give the loyal and colourful Pompey fans, who have been let down time after time by consecutive regimes, something to remember in the dark days ahead.[LNB]But it is not going to happen.[LNB]Chelsea simply have too much firepower and professional steel.[LNB]They also have the motivation of going for the first Double in the club's history and as captain John Terry says: "We have a great chance to go down in the club's history. It will be a special day if we do. Right up there at the top of my achievements."[LNB]Not bad for manager Carlo Ancelotti, too, who in his first season in English football has gone about his business with the composure and style you might expect from a man who has won the Champions League twice as a player and twice as a coach.[LNB]That is the prize he will prioritise at Stamford Bridge next season when he has the task of injecting youth and fresh vigour into an ageing Chelsea team.[LNB]Tomorrow, however, he will have a defence led by Terry, who has shaken off a foot injury, a midfield still masterfully orchestrated by Frank Lampard and forwards of the calibre of Florent Malouda, Nicolas Anelka and Golden Boot winner Didier Drogba.[LNB]Portsmouth do have some class of their own in Frederic Piquionne, Aruna Dindane and Kevin-Prince Boateng.[LNB]But not enough to trouble Chelsea who have the potential to turn the 2010 FA Cup final into one-way traffic. Potentially a non-event.[LNB]The final by tradition is a tense affair. Not this year. Portsmouth have excelled by just being there. Chelsea, with the Premier League title safely gathered and 103 goals scored in the process, can play with freedom.[LNB]There could be goals, plenty of them, with perhaps a scoreline to match the 4-0 defeat suffered by Chelsea at the hands of Manchester United in 1994. Except this time Chelsea would be handing out the battering.[LNB]There is also the sub-plot of Portsmouth manager Avram Grant plotting against the side he took to the Champions League final two years ago and who sacked him for his trouble.[LNB]But come 5pm almost certainly it will be the blue ribbons of Chelsea wrapped around the FA Cup while for Portsmouth the romance will give way to reality.[LNB]And the crushing consequences of debt and despair.

Source: Team_Talk