View from a non-fan

[capriccioso 2,545]

To answer the question of the opening poster:

This is a celebration of a frankly awful (relative to the stature of our opposition from the semi finals and onward) team winning the greatest prize in club football. Overcoming all the odds. Overcoming ourselves and our painful history in this tournament. It is a celebration of passion and positive mentality and never giving up. It is a celebration of David triumphing over monsters far larger than Goliath. It is being stuck up shit creek without so much as a banana leaf to paddle with and getting out of there in one piece. In short, it is a celebration of what truly makes football great- not a million passes in 90 minutes and winning every game 7-0; not taking 42 shots and having 20 corners. No, what makes football great is that anyone and everyone can dare to dream.

On a more detached and less emotional note, the suggestion that our playing style in this tournament is in any way lacking or liable for criticism is insane. The difference in the quality of our players vs theirs, the difference in the club ethos- since 2004 we've always been Mourinho, pragmatic, 4-3-3 and it's many variants (4-1-4-1, 4-2-3-1, 4-3-2-1, 4-5-1) - and finally the type of players available to us, makes any other style of football suicidal. As I said when Frank de Boer criticised our playing style; people who think 2-3-5 up and at them are as backward as early 20th century military leaders. 2-3-5 is as effective in the modern world as climbing out of your trench between the years 1914 and 1917 and walking very slowly towards the enemy who has a machine gun capable of killing 400 a minute.

I know there's a school of thought that goes "Chelsea have spent 800 million putting this squad together, spend that kind of money and you are honour bound to 'play' the right way."; but that is incredibly flawed. For one thing, nearly all of that was spent in the opening years of Roman's rule. And transfer fee's don't dictate how to play football. Barcelona have only spent some 75 million less than us since 2007 (take out David Luiz and Fernando Torres and that's identical) and play football a completely different way. What influences the style of football played by a team is it's mentality and technical ability of its players. Look at Schweinsteiger and Kroos, look at Xavi and Iniesta, then cast a glance at Ramires and Meireles. There is simply no way we can compete with them on their game. We play to our strengths, discipline and physicality, they play to theirs. What's wrong with that? It is another thing that makes football the greatest game in the world, the diversity in playing styles.

[buccaneer 16]

"I support Celtic and we won the European cup in 1967 with the Lisbon Lions and with the way we won it pushed our club to where it is today"

You lost me there.