Moving on, I ought to explain myself. Not on the basis of this erratic blog or my main form of employment (obviously my only form of employment if the taxman or indeed my main employer is reading), I managed to secure a position in the press box at Wembley for not one, not two, but, oh, two actually, both in fact, semi-finals of the FA Cup in association with E-On at the brand new Wemlbey stadium swponsored by, among others, Betfred and npower.
To be as tangential as usual, I'm unure as to who to credit the power behind the semis and the final of the FA Cup to. As a sponsor I would be very unhappy if I was npower, the official energy supplier to Wembley (and Rugby League's Superleague, which always seems far more energetic) that E-On are the energy behind the FA Cup. If you consider there can't be more than a dozen or so games at Wembley each season, there's a clash for a quarter of them if all FA Cup semis are to be played there and E-On continue their association.
As someone who buys advertising space for a living, the concept of 'solus' brands, ie the only brand of a certain type to be associated with a certain publication or event at a certain time, is inherent. Quite who at E-On or npower thought that either of their brands could somehow co-exist at an FA Cup semi or final at Wembley is a mystery to me. There's a serious devaluation for all concerned.
My professional opinion aside, we'll move back to the layman's stuff. Not to be confused with the Lehmann's stuff, which this week has involved the throwing off of all shackles into an Incredible Hulk style hissy fit of 'if I'd been in goal we wouldn't have lost to Liverpool' that has been simmering all along underneath the 'I'll wait for my chance and Almunia is a good lad' bravado.
To get the whole Wembley for the semi-finals and final out of the way, there was something slightly incongruous about the whole weekend. Portsmouth fans began to sing 'We're going to Wembley' in Wembley. Irony wasn't exactly prevalent on the day, replaced by 1980s sincerity that usually comes along with any English provincial events that move into the public consciousness (just look at the Shannon Matthews coverage). I genuinely think they were confused. I appreciate the need to milk the Wembley cash cow, but the Emirates would have provided a sumptuous setting for West Brom and Portsmouth, while Villa Park, Anfield or Old Trafford would have done the trick for Barnsley and Cardiff. Much as Manchester United and Arsenal shouldn't have to play neutral games in venues smaller than their own grounds, as they have had to on numerous occasions.
There were a couple of extremely surreal experiences surrounding my Wembley days out, which I will go into in my next missive. Neither of them involved the opportunity to steal Graham Taylor's well-lavelled 'football file' which I had the split second chance to steal three years ago in the press room at Southampton's St Mary's Stadium. I briefly saw the former England boss in the East Media Lounge but the folder was nowhere to be seen. I would suspect he wouldn't have much information in it pertaining to Cardiff or Barnsley anyway, although Kayode Odejayi could have filed himself in the same tab as England's Geoff Thomas (can you believe neither of these is on YouTube?) for ridiculous Wembley misses.
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