Carlo Ancelotti doing his best Carlo Ancelotti. Photo: Matthias Schräder/AP
DECADES AND DECADES
Ten years is a long time in football. At Southampton, Rickie Lambert, Jay Rodriguez, Gastón Ramírez and Adam Lallana may have formed the most Streets will not forget forward line since Sam Allardyce's Bolton side. Victor Anichebe is infamous "can you tweet something like" tweet didn't even exist yet. Steven Gerrard had just slipped. Busy days.
If your interests extend beyond Social Media Disgrace retro b@nter accounts - and Football Daily refuses to confirm or deny whether this is the case - then there was some football going on too. Real Madrid, the so-called kings of Europe, had not reached a major cup final since 2002 and ten years ago this week faced a tricky second leg in the semi-final at Bayern Munich's Allianz Arena. La Decima, the holy grail for Madridistas, was at stake. After winning 1-0 at the Bernabeu, Madrid beat Pep Guardiola's Bayern 4-0, with some guys named Cristiano Ronaldo and Sergio Ramos scoring twice each to book their final date in Lisbon.
So there are some obvious similarities with Tuesday's Big Cup semi-final in Munich between, yes, Bayern and Real Madrid. Despite the fact that ten years have passed, the 4-0 will remain at the forefront of Manuel Neuer, Thomas Müller, Luka Modric and Dani Carvajal, who all played a role that night. The world is a very different place to the one we lived in in 2014 - Pepe had a perm! - but some things don't change. Carlo Ancelotti is still manager of Los Blancos, albeit in a second stint. And Toni Kroos will put on his football boots again, although this time it will not be for Bayern.
The decade since 2014 may have been kinder to Madrid, at least when it came to the Major Cups, but that's all in the past now. The present and future of Madrid, Jude Bellingham, versus the present and future of Bayern, Jamal Musiala. The duo, both born in 2003, are former England youth teammates and housemates. "He's one of my best friends in football," Bellingham noted after guiding Musiala to the Kopa Trophy at last year's Ballon d'Or ceremony, about a year after the England international. biped his old friend in the Bundesliga while playing for Dortmund. From the England U-15s to The Classic, to the semi-finals of the Big Cup, it was a meteoric rise for Bellingham and Musiala. Tuesday's match won't be very friendly, but it should be a decent match.
The story continues
LIVE ON BIG WEBSITE
Join Scott Murray from 8pm BST for exciting Big Cup semi-final minute-by-minute coverage of Bayern Munich's 2-2 Real Madrid draw.
QUOTE OF THE DAY
"My feeling is that he will stay. If it was my decision, he would stay. Jamie Vardy is Leicester, Jamie Vardy has always scored goals and even when he is 45 years old he will score goals. Goals are in his blood" - Enzo Maresca hopes the former England striker sticks around when his contract expires this summer after scoring twice in their Championship title-confirming victory over Preston. But from the sounds of it, Vardy might need to seek medical advice first.
FOOTBALL DAILY LETTERS
Sean Dyche and Blossoms, you say (yesterday's Football Daily, full email edition). Yes, beautiful boys, worraboot Alan Shearer in Wor Bella at the Theater Royal, Newcastle, eh? This is the fantastic play/one-woman show about Bella Reay, who played 30 games for Blyth Spartans Ladies (in green and white stripes instead of black and white) for a short period from 1917, scoring 133 goals in 30 appearances , some at St James' Park and at least one in front of 23,000 people at Ayresome Park. Not only that, but she also developed a goal celebration with the right arm raised and the index finger pointing. Just when we were all thinking, "Who does that remind us of?" up, St Alan appears on a screen behind the stage, filmed in suitably grainy black and white, to suggest that 'others may copy that in the future'. The play is by Ed Waugh, so it's brilliant, moving and funny, with Catherine Dryden performing it wonderfully well. If the Toon sells Alexander Isak, they may find her available for £60m. The real Bella died in 1979, not long after Blyth Spartans reached the fifth round of the FA Cup in 1977-78. And if you haven't seen Hadaway Harry or The Cramlington Train Wreckers - more Waugh brilliance on Harry Clasper and some strikers in 1926 respectively, do so" - Pete Welsh.
Guess you're right about Blossoms delaying their crossover release until Everton are safe. With safety assured, borrowing from that band's catchy debut single, ' and the river always flows, so if you go, I know Dyche will continue through the rain '. Someone's going to have to tell Ashley Young that this won't work on his gramophone. Sorry" - Antony Train.
Send letters to [email protected]. Today's winner of our Prizeless Letter of the Day is...Pete Welsh.
RECOMMENDED LISTENING
The latest Women's Football Weekly podcast is fresh from the editing suite.
RECOMMENDED WATCH
Do you struggle to know who to blame when your attacker misses a sitter from six yards out? Then David Squires is here especially for you with a handy referee grudge tracker. And a reminder that you can get copies of his cartoon at the print shop.
YOU JUST HAVE TO RIDE IT
At 65 meters high, 1700 meters long and with a top speed of 120 km/h, Football Daily always thought The Big One at Blackpool Pleasure Beach was Britain's most thrilling rollercoaster. But it turns out it's not even the most exciting in the whole world northwest of England. No, because the rapid ups and downs at Everton FC in recent years have made tickets to Goodison Park an absolute must for adrenaline junkies. In the past few years alone, fans of the grand old club have been taken on a terrifying ride towards the abyss (on and off the pitch) more than once. White-knuckled fudges have been enjoying the whooooooooosh of zooming out of relegation... wheeeeeeee! ... before diving into another rapid descent towards the championship when you're hit with points deductions... whaaaaaaaaah! ... and then win back some points on appeal... whooooooooo! ...and with some good and bad performances on the field in between. The latest buzz came after he hit top speed in a three-match winning streak that secured survival. But just when Evertonians thought the 2023-2024 ride was over, it emerged the club had called in insolvency advisers amid fresh doubts over the proposed takeover by 777 partners. Yep, that's the sound of wheels whirring again. And in a sign of how terrifying the final descent could be, the 777 Partners airline has just entered administration. Time to buckle up again, Blues.
NEWS, BITS AND BOBS
Sixteen Premier League clubs have backed plans to continue curbing player spending. Three clubs opposed the measures (the Manchester pair, plus Aston Villa) and Chelsea abstained.
Vicente del Bosque has been parachuted in by the Spanish government on a top-secret mission as head of a committee overseeing the scandal-ridden RFEF.
Zambia's women could miss out on participating in the Paris Olympics after FIFA threatened the country's FA with suspension over allegations of money laundering against the president and "undue influence by third parties".
The winning bid for the next Women's World Cup in 2027 will come from Brazil or from the joint efforts of Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands, after the US, USA, USA and Mexico withdrew to focus on 2031 instead.
WSL clubs will be the subject of a three-year research initiative - Project ACL - designed to find ways to reduce the skill. "What makes this project so special is that it focuses on professional women's football and benefits from the collaboration of a wide range of stakeholders," welcomed Dr. Alex Culvin from Fifpro.
Grassroots clubs in England believe the ongoing cost of living crisis, insufficient funding and unforgiving weather conditions pose a serious threat to their survival, a new survey has found.
And in nerd news, Manchester City forward Erling Haaland has become a playable character - "Barbarian King" - in the mobile video game Clash of Clans. "It's been hard to keep this quiet, but I'm excited to finally talk about this epic collaboration," he raved.
MOVING THE GOAL POSTS
The latest edition of our sister email is out and you can read an extract focusing on Bristol City's relegation and why it highlights the grim reality of the WSL. Sign up to receive the full newsletter every Tuesday and Thursday.
DO YOU WANT MORE?
Jonathan Liew plays Kane against Bellingham Bayern Munich against Real Madrid.
Sid Lowe has the latest from Spain, where a third-string goalkeeper made headlines this weekend.
And discover Arne Slot, Jürgen Klopp's expected successor at Liverpool, through the medium of video.
MEMORY LONG
A real slice of the decade from July 1985 at Schiphol Airport in the Netherlands, where a large number of Ajax players (you can see the current Dutch national coach among them, second from the right) are having a photo shoot with members of pop group Mai Tai, just like you .
