Hi Myles,
Alex Mark was spot on in his article.
I plead with you not to light up your hard-earned cash betting Chelsea will win!
Bayern will be champions come Saturday night for the following reasons.
1) This may not sound logical but it is true.
Winners of the champions league always tend to be past winners!
Even FC Porto that won in 2004 had won it in the past in 1987.
What am I trying to say? There is no room for first time winners. At least not for now. It is for this same reason John Terry slipped with just a penalty kick away from glory. Sad but true.
2) Teams from London don’t win the Champions League, for reasons I can’t explain.
Check history and I don’t think we have ever had a winner from London even in the days when it was called the European cup. I was not surprised when my beloved Arsenal lost in 2006. I had very much expected it to happen the way it did.
3) Bayern has not won since 2001, 11 years ago.
We have also not had a German winner in this time. Now, I am a strong believer of the law of averages which ensures that success has a way of going around and not staying in one place.
With this in mind, we should have a German champ this time around. Shocking a major power house like Germany has not given us a winner in 11 years and nobody is discerning enough to see something odd about it. The problem is the Germans are not as noisy about their football. unlike a certain country I dare not mention!
4) The Germans, don’t forget emerged from the group of death in the preliminary rounds made up of Man City, Napoli and the other team I can’t remember(? Villareal)
5) Bayern play at home.
6) They won in 2001 two years after losing to Man United in 1999. Two years ago, they lost to Inter Milan. Is this victory time yet again? I think so.
7) Chelsea remind me of Valencia, who in 2000 and 2001 got to the finals and never won it.
Your winning it has nothing to do with how many times you have recently being in the finals.
Believe me Myles, these all may sound metaphysical but they are true.
Not surprised Barca didn’t make it to the finals.
Have you observed that no matter how good they are, defending champs never retain the Champions league? Something always goes wrong.
Have you also realised that one same country has never produced two different winners of the CL back to back? There is always at least a two-year interval in between.
Anybody reading this article with a good sense of history would ponder about these facts. The problem with the Western world is the tendency to want to explain events either by science or believing things happen by chance.
I beg to differ, as this is not always true.
Take it or leave it, there is a metaphysical side to this game. If there isn’t, City were dead and buried up until the last five minutes last Sunday.
I agree they are a good side, but it was also destined to be theirs, Myles.
Time will tell.