Sparks that would have guaranteed fireworks at the Final

IT'S not just a pity for Chelsea and Arsenal fans that one team will be dumped out of the FA Cup on Sunday.

It's a pity for the whole competition because this tie would have made a great Final.

Anyone who has attended their two Premiership encounters (both ended all square) this season will know sparks always fly when they meet.

It used to be the games against Spurs that got both teams going. Now these are generally sad affairs, always rancorous but rarely exhilarating whereas, although the result is unpredictable, a thriller this weekend is a certainty.

Even neutrals will be glued to the box at 2pm on Sunday.

When you look at the other fifth-round ties there's little else to stir the blood beyond Sunderland against West Ham.

Spurs v Stockport, Leicester v Bristol City, Southampton v Tranmere, need I continue? Most people would pay good money to get out of watching games like that.

The FA Cup needed a bit of luck this season and it hasn't had it. It has turned into an even duller affair than the Worthington Cup, where interest evaporated long before the semi-finals.

While I'm on the subject of Chelsea, a couple of things I'll never understand about football came out of the pulsating game between them and Manchester United.

How dare United manager Sir Alex Ferguson say referee David Elleray is biased against United after he refused Chelsea a blatant penalty.

Ferguson had spent all week winding up Elleray and got his reward.

The great art of substitutions is also obviously beyond me. Jesper Gronkjaer had caused such havoc in the United defence that Roy Keane was pulled away from his other duties to shadow him. Yet after only 70 minutes the winger was removed and lumbering Slavisa Jokanovic put on.

Then, just as United were pressing hard for a late winner, Albert Ferrer, who had played a blinder against Ryan Giggs was withdrawn to be replaced by Bernard Lambourde, a defender of limited ability who hadn't made a first-team appearance all season.

What was Chelsea manager Claudio Ranieri thinking of?

Now for some things I am certain of.

Gronkjaer is a fantastic talent and all credit to Ranieri for spotting him.

All manner of berks rant on at me about Chelsea not giving English players a chance. So if you're a member of this club, I've a question for you: where in England is a Jesper Gronkjaer to be found?

I'll publish any sensible suggestions but I don't expect the postie to get a hernia carrying them in.

Gronkjaer did all England fans a favour last Saturday making a fool of Gary Neville in front of England coach Sven-Goran Eriksson.

I'm sure Neville's a nice bloke but for ages now he and his wretched brother, Phil, have summed up for me everything that's wrong about the England set-up in all its mind-numbing mediocrity.

With any luck we've seen the last of the hapless Gary and if so a statue of Jesper should be erected in every English market square.

After a fantastic match Chelsea are left to ponder two statistics that sum up their season: Record against Manchester United Played 3, Won 1, Drawn 2, Lost 0 Record against Leicester Played 2, Won 0, Drawn 0, Lost 2 You couldn't make it up and sadly I don't have to.

Young pretender has made an enemy out of the old master ADAM CROZIER thinks he's hard done by getting so much stick from the likes of me.

It's certainly true I do think he's got a flimsy CV, and a glib adman's attitude, that makes him grandstand in a self-dramatising way on issues that don't matter, like the present fuss over passports, a real storm in a teacup.

But when he gets things right, I'm happy to say so, as I did over the appointment of Sven-Goran Eriksson.

But he's wrong too often for high marks.

Take his much vaunted disciplinary arrangements, that collapsed in a heap last week when Patrick Vieira got away with a one-match ban. And the panel were right to be lenient.

After Crozier's absurd decision to initiate no action against Carlisle's Richard Prokas for his two-footed tackle on Vieira in the third round of the FA Cup - a load of cobblers about it being different if the ref saw something and got it wrong than if he didn't see it at all - how could the panel have done anything else without it looking as if the FA were running a vendetta against the Frenchman?

As for Bates resigning from Wembley, enough said, except Ken used to be Crozier's No1 fan, frequently ticking me off for being so cheeky about the Young Pretender. Now Crozier has no more determined enemy.

Bates blames him for all the muddle, incompetence and anonymous badmouthing that has characterised the FA's Wembley campaign.

Rightly or wrongly he blames Crozier, or people Crozier controls, for telling the Press he's finished. In fact, Bates is highly regarded by the Premiership chairmen, and regularly tops the poll in their ballots. He does their dirty work for them, and Crozier's a fool to forget it. Chances are Ken will still be around to dance on young Adam's grave.

England ticket trouble hits the fan

QUIETLY, shabbily and without any consultation with the fans, the FA are continuing to downgrade the England Members Club - a point first made in Standard Sport last year.

At one time, the club were regarded as the principal bastion against hooliganism, an unimpeachable way of separating the loyal wheat from the violent chaff.

On the back of official assertions that being vetted and accepted into membership was the only way of getting a ticket to England matches, membership soared. However, ticketing arrangements for the crucial Finland game at Anfield tell a very different story.

Capacity is 45,000, EMC membership 30,000, but their allocation only 15,000.

What's going on? Do the FA no longer care who attends?

I think we should be told.

Charlton have capacity to stand firm

WARMEST congratulations to Charlton. With 40 points from a possible 81, it's a dream return to the top flight. Far from having relegation worries, they could get into Europe.

Even a more established outfit might have been traumatised by leaking four second-half goals against Spurs in the FA Cup last week, so Sunday's win over Newcastle is a testament to the great work manager Alan Curbishley has done to stop the kind of collapse that saw Charlton relegated from the Premiership two seasons ago.

With any luck things can only get better too, especially when the new stand gives them an increased capacity that, on present form, will be snapped up for every Premiership game.

THE carelessness of some managers with their club's money beggars belief.

Usual suspect John Gregory paid 1 million for Israeli international Najwan Grayeb at the beginning of last season. He played him only once and has now sold him for 150,000. That makes 850,000 poured down the drain.

But of one thing you can be certain. Gregory will blame it all on chairman Doug Ellis. Such a shame all that ingenuity cannot be more constructively channelled into identifying the right signings in the first place.

Copyright 2001
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved.