By Myles Palmer
RAIN is forecast in Cardiff.
So the roof will be closed and the noise will be kept in.
It should be Thierry’s final.
He is Europe’s top goalscorer/assist-provider in league competition.
24 Premiership goals scored and 20 assists- phenomenal !
This FA Cup Final day is really set up for Thierry Henry. He is fit and in form and he has had two rehearsals and its a global game and he is due a global performance.
He’s 25 and in his prime and he has the talent to take the Saints apart.
I’ve been to loads of cup finals, mainly as a journalist, but sometimes as a punter.
The underdog finals I remember best are Coventry and Luton.
Spurs had never lost at Wembley and Clive Allen scored after five or ten minutes but it went to extra time and Coventry won 3-2.
The tunnel outside the dressing rooms was full of reporters and guys with headphones.
The door to the Spurs dressing room was shut and two navy-blazered security men guarded it.
Amazingly, the Coventry dressing room door was open, so I went in.
Most reporters are too polite and too bogged down in their habits.
There was only me and Steve Curry and a French hack in that joyful dressing room.
I heard a jolly, raucous singsong from the bath, sipped a paper cup of champagne with David Moorcroft and MD George Curtis and manager John Sillet, saw veteran defender Trevor Peake grinning as he came out of the bath wearing a towel, shook the hand of Cyrille Regis, who had played a blinder.
It was great fun to have a laugh with guys who were enjoying the greatest day of their lives.
Meanwhile sixty reporters still stood around in the tunnel interviewing each other.
LUTON was the Gus Caesar match.
George ran out of centrebacks but he expected to retain the Littlewoods Cup by beating Luton.
I sat with Kevin Connolly, who edited the Arsenal programme,Lambros Lambrou, who interviewed players for the programme and Nigel Bidmead, who was doing ClubCall.
Arsenal played badly even when they were winning that day and we talked all through the game about how badly they were playing and how disappointed we were and Winterburn missed a penalty and they lost 3-2 and we went into the press conference where George said, “We’ll be back, you can be sure of that.”
Ten minutes later we stood with George in the room next door, a TV interview room.
It is a scene that is branded in my brain. George was furious.He was absolutely livid.
It was supposed to be George’s day. I expected it to be his day and I wanted to see him enjoy his day, just like the year before when they surprised everybody by beating Liverpool 2-1.
I have never seen George as angry as he was that day.
And I will never forget the grim determination on his face when he said,“We’ll be back. You can be fucking sure of that.”
I got over it by 6.30 pm.I walked out of Wembley and left the game there.
There was nothing more to be said. We had talked it all away.There was nothing to be said that we had not already said,during the game.
SO UNDERDOGS DO HAVE THEIR DAYS.
Back in 1976 Southampton’s Jim McCalliog produced three fantastic passes and from the third Bobby Stokes scored the goal that beat manchester United.
In a match as tight as that, McCalliog’s three passes were priceless.
What do I think of Southampton today?
Basically, I respect Rupert Lowe and Gordon Strachan.
Lowe is a good guy, relatively new to football, doing a difficult job well.
He handles all the contracts and takes that pressure off wee Gordon.
The Saints are mixture of British journeymen and solid Scandinavians like Finnish keeper Antti Niemi and stoppers Claus Lundevkvam and Michael Svensson.
They finished eighth and are in the UEFA Cup.
Can Anders Svensson do a McCalliog? Can Ormerod or Marsden be the Bobby Stokes of 2003 ?
Strachan’s’s best players are Wayne Bridge, James Beattie and Fabrice Fernandes, a left-footed right winger who can curve dangerous balls in like Chris Waddle used to do for Gary Lineker.
Beattie will be really glad that Vieira and Campbell are missing.
We often lament that Arsene never signed a centre forward after selling John Hartson.
He does not believe in centre forwards.
Can big James Beattie bounce Arsenal of the FA Cup in the same way as big John Carew bounced them out of the Champions League?
No, I don’t think so.
This will be Thierry’s final.
It will be tight, but Thierry will score
And Ashley Cole will be Arsenal’s best player.
16th May 2003.