David Beckham’s recent visit to Old Trafford in the company of AC Milan received such a tremendous welcome from Manchester United fans that it reminded one of the famous Biblical story of the return of the prodigal son.  The fans could not so easily forget Beckam’s contribution to the huge success story of United and they gave him a fitting welcome home.

If Jose Mourino” the special one”, who guided Chelsea to their first Premiership title in 50 years was expecting a similar reception on his visit to Stamford Bridge in the company of Inter Milan, then he really saw the difference between Stamford Bridge and Old Trafford. He was totally ignored and Chelsea fans did not show any appreciation for his impeccable record of not losing a single home match during his illustrious stay at the Bridge.

Unlike Beckham, Mourino was not mobbed at the end of the match maybe, because unlike Old Trafford the home team were celebrating a good win as against Chelsea’s bad home loss twice in succession in the Champions’ League. Star performer Didier Drogba must be cursing his ill luck for being sacked twice in recent times at crucial stages of the competition.

Two seasons ago, he was red carded in the final against Manchester United and the recent one coming in the shadow of his controversial CAF award as Africa’s best footballer for 2009, gives him a really bad image. The snag is Drogba had been the butt of several rough tackles in the match and its just unfortunate that his somewhat innocuous offence caught the attention of the referee who took that harsh decision.

It is becoming fashionable these days for hard nut strikers like Drogba, Etoo, Rooney and Co to be always bullied by defenders and they need to keep a steady head. Rooney is learning fast to control his temper as shown in the last match against Fulham. Etoo is also managing hard to maintain his composure in the face of numerous brutal tackles, no wonder he got that killer goal that sank Chelsea and perhaps strengthened his claim to be Africa’s current best footballer.

With their exit from the Champions League, Chelsea have no option but to concentrate on the Premier league where they are facing stiff challenge from defending champions Manchester United and Arsenal. The Stamford Bridge heroes can also stake a claim for the FA Cup where their chances of success seem brighter than the Premier league since Alex Ferguson appears not prepared to surrender the cup that easily.

United’s determination to keep the Cup is akin to that of Ghana’s Premier league title holders Accra Hearts of Oak who have made a remarkable recovery after a shaky start to  place second to Ashgold. With eight more matches to go, it looks like a two horse race between Hearts and Ashgold.

I like the similarities between the English League and that of Ghana despite the wide gulf in the quality of play. There is a strong desire by football purists to see a change in the duopoly of the league by Asante Kotoko and Hearts of Oak just as many people loathe the domination of Manchester United in the English league.

But as the saying goes if wishes were horses, beggars would ride. Those so called top clubs have not reached the top by accident. They are building on the solid foundation laid by their predecessors and the others must learn to catch up. My contention is that, if the football world can produce more of the Alex Fergusons and Arsene Wengers, football will continue to be the most attractive spectator sport in the world. And that to me is a worthy substitute to all the war mongering around the globe.

Meanwhile let’s await the exciting pairings of the European Champions league which promises to be a fitting prelude to the first World Cup to be staged in Africa.

Cheers everybody and keep loving sports.

From My Archives:

March 17th 1995: British police investigating allegations of match rigging in English soccer have arrested two Premier league players, a Malaysian businessman and the girl friend of a top striker.

The suspects are Zimbabwean Bruce Grobbelaar, English soccer’s most successful goalkeeper and Dutchman Hans Seeger, Malaysian businessman Hong Suan Lin who lives in London and the girl friend of Aston Villa striker John Fashanu.The allegations are that Grobbelaar took bribes from an unidentified Asian gambling syndicate.