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THE ROAD, ER, BACK TO WEMBLEY

Given that the two teams contesting this season’s FA Cup final face more than 200 outstanding counts of financial chicanery between them, the atmosphere at Wembley will – as several Social Media Disgrace wags quickly pointed out – definitely be highly charged. In the blue corner, Chelsea still face 74 FA counts of financial misconduct, having already had their wrist lightly slapped by the Premier League. In the lighter blue corner, Manchester City continue to go about their business, apparently impervious to the outcome of the inquiry into the 130 or so charges of money-related shenanigans that may or may not be released before the next sighting of Halley’s Comet in 35 years. While this season’s renewal of the oldest cup competition in the world had more than its fair share of magic in the form of muddy pitches and giantkillings, it’s not unreasonable to think that some fans will go to Wembley on 16 May more preoccupied by the outcome of forensic audits and arbitration hearings than by the actual final being played.

While Football Daily is not one to relish pointing the finger, we blame Ally McCoist. Called upon to conduct the draw for this season’s semis, the former Scotland striker had the proverbial “just one job” of pitting Leeds against Southampton so that one was guaranteed a place in the final, but he met his match in an FA tombola that was inured to his legendary charm. The outcome? A Wembley FFP derby showpiece that is likely to be greeted with a collective shoulder-shrug from everyone without affiliations to either team and may suffer the indignity of not even selling out. “The reality of football is that you get some praise for a performance but by tomorrow no one cares,” sighed Southampton head coach Tonda Eckert, following his side’s spirited showing against a Manchester City team that was able to call on the likes of Erling Haaland, Jérémy Doku and Bernardo Silva from the bench. “We wanted to go to the final and we didn’t make it,” he added, before his side’s crucial league match against comparative church mice and promotion rivals Ipswich on Tuesday evening.

While Leeds will be disappointed not to have given a decent account of themselves in Sunday’s drab semi-final defeat against Chelsea, it was telling that Robert Sánchez was the only goalkeeper forced into making some impressive saves in between running down the clock. Having helped see off Liam Rosenior by downing tools in recent appearances, a rejuvenated Enzo Fernández helped win the game with a performance that spoke volumes about his character, albeit in an uncomplimentary way. “We come away disappointed,” parped Leeds boss Daniel Farke. “You could tell the players were a bit nervous, so much was made of this game. It’s also not that the players are used to playing in front of 90,000 on [Bigger Cup] level once a week. They were a bit nervous to be at their best level.” Now we await the final between two English footballing behemoths – may the best legal team win.

LIVE ON BIG WEBSITE

Join Daniel Harris from 8pm (BST) for Premier League updates on Manchester United 2-2 Brentford.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“You wouldn’t perform an operation with a Stanley knife. It wouldn’t heal. It’s like a surgeon’s scalpel – we need our blades to be as sharp as possible” – Karl Standley, Wembley groundsman, gives us a first-hand look behind the scenes at how they keep the 7,140 sq metres of grass in top order on a busy weekend of FA Cup semi-finals.

FOOTBALL DAILY LETTERS

The latest Chelsea exit raises the intriguing question of who will be the next manager lucky enough to secure a contract there well into the 2030s, only to be back on the market shortly after. Logic suggests Claudio Ranieri may yet return to Chelsea, if only because an anagram of Liam Rosenior is ‘Ranieri looms’. With Leicester preparing to parade their recent silverware in front of the directors of Bromley and Burton Albion next season, memories may yet stir in the Chelsea boardroom and prompt a nostalgic reappointment of the Tinkerman” – Phil Hearn.

Spurs fans: worried about relegation? Console yourselves with the trivia possibilities it will bring! For example, the last time Tottenham played Lincoln City in the league was 1 January 1949. That was also the day that Celestia was registered in Illinois, a micro-nation that claimed ownership of all outer space and chased that claim for decades. There’s a metaphor in there for having the loftiest of dreams that somehow always remain out of reach” – Jon Gregory.

If you have any, please send letters to the.boss@theguardian.com. Today’s letter o’ the day winner is … Jon Gregory, who gets a copy of Classic Football Shirts, courtesy of Penguin. It’s out on Thursday and you can order a copy here if you’re not successful. Terms and conditions for our competitions, when we run them, are here.

RECOMMENDED VIEWING

And Michael Butler has been to visit the Classic Football Shirts shop in Manchester, where he got to pore over some of the loveliest retro polyester you will ever see. Put your feet up and give your eyeballs a treat.

RECOMMENDED SUBSCRIBING

Want a newsletter that explains how the World Cup became the cultural, social and political behemoth that it is? Then look no further than The World Behind the Cup, a new email from Jonathan Wilson coming soon. You can pre-subscribe … but please stick with your faithful Football Daily too.

RECOMMENDED LISTENING

The Football Weekly pod squad are here to pick over all the latest action from the Premier League to the National League.

GAME OF THE WEEKEND

Speaking of which … “Football, bloody hell. We may never see the likes of it again” – and so began Will Unwin’s match report on the absolute scenes in Rochdale over the weekend as York City secured a 1-1 draw with pretty much the last kick of the season to win the National League title … at the Dale’s expense. After a fairly drab 90 minutes, there were two injury-time goals, three pitch invasions and the best of non-league agony and ecstasy in one chaotic cauldron. With just one automatic place up for grabs in England’s fifth tier, second-place Rochdale – who would have leapfrogged York with a win but finished the season with 106 points to City’s 108 – now have to pick themselves off the canvas and face the playoffs and a semi-final against either Firewall FC or Southend United, who finished 24 and 25 points behind them in the regular table, respectively. “We were just a moment away,” sobbed Baltimore police detective Rochdale manager Jimmy McNulty, while Ollie Banks summed up the mood in the York City camp: “It probably went from the worst moment of my life to the best in the space of two minutes. Crazy! I hope there’s some justice and [Rochdale] go up in the playoffs.” In the meantime, police will investigate a video which seems to show a York player punching a fan on the pitch.

NEWS, BITS AND BOBS

Missy Bo Kearns has described experiencing “a different type of grief” after having a miscarriage last month. The Aston Villa and England midfielder had announced her pregnancy just over two weeks before sharing the tragic loss of her and her partner Liam Walsh’s baby. “I’m so thankful for the doctors here at Villa, they probably saved my life because I had sepsis, and while having that, I wasn’t even thinking about the sepsis, it was: ‘I’ve lost my child,’” she said.

Tottenham’s Dutch international Xavi Simons has ruptured his ACL and will be out for eight months. “Honestly, I’m heartbroken,” he sighed. “All I’ve wanted to do is fight for my team and now the ability to do that has been snatched away from me, along with the [Geopolitics] World Cup.”

Scott Parker’s future as Burnley boss is in the balance, with imminent talks set to determine if he stays in the gig for next season’s Championship campaign.

Arsenal have the upper hand – just – in their Women’s Bigger Cup semi with OL Lyonnes, Olivia Smith’s late strike securing a 2-1 first-leg advantage.

Hearts are back in control of their Scottish Premiership destiny after a 2-1 win at nine-man Hibs followed Rangers losing at home to Motherwell.

And Real Zaragoza keeper Esteban Andrada faces a lengthy spell on the naughty step for landing a haymaker on Huesca skipper Jorge Pulido after being sent off in their Segunda División relegation scrap in Spain. “It’s hard to explain – I think it’s a complete loss of control,” sniffed Huesca’s manager, José Luis, after his team’s 1-0 win. “I can put myself in their shoes, given what was at stake and all. But it’s unjustifiable. It’s just that I don’t know what to do or how to stop it; a brawl breaks out. It’s ugly; this was supposed to be a celebration of Aragonese football. I’d like people to talk about the match, even though it was ugly, with little play but a lot of hard work.”

STILL WANT MORE?

“I felt fear I did not understand.” In this extract from his new book, Italy great Gigi Buffon opens up on the panic attack that threatened his career.

Arsenal hitting back to take a 2-1 lead in their Bigger Cup semi first leg against OL Lyonnes and a joint stumble from the two Manchester clubs. All that and more in this edition of WCL and WSL talking points.

You want talking points from the weekend’s Premier League and FA Cup action too? Good, as we have 10 of them right here.

Jonathan Wilson watched Chelsea beat Leeds and thinks it’s a bewildering prospect that the Blues could begin and end the season with silverware given the managerial changes and poor displays.

Barney Ronay on how a Premier League season previously dismissed as room temperature fare has boiled down not just to a gripping finish, but more to a kind of widescreen psychodrama.

It’s all gone swimmingly so far for Michael Carrick at Manchester United but, before being handed the job on a full-time basis, Jamie Jackson believes the club’s hierarchy need to ask how he’ll perform in a mini- or full-blown crisis.

After warming up for their Bigger Cup showdown with PSG by rallying from 3-0 down to beat Mainz, Andy Brassell reckons Bayern Munich’s wild comeback typifies Vincent Kompany’s outlook perfectly.

And with “incompetence at every level”, Nantes are staring down the barrel at relegation. Luke Entwistle reports.

MEMORY LANE

Happy birthday to former Liverpool and Crystal Palace defender Martin Kelly, 36 today. Here he is in June 2012, alongside Andy Carroll (left) and Steven Gerrard (right), being serenaded by trumpet at a civic reception at the 19th-century Polish Art Gallery in Krakow before England’s Euros match with France. Kelly didn’t play a minute in the tournament but does hold the record for the shortest England career, coming on for the final two minutes (plus injury time) of a friendly against Norway in May 2012, his sole cap. It has been argued that Nathaniel Chalobah had a shorter one after his 2018 appearance against Spain, the midfielder coming off the bench with less than a minute to go, but this claim failed to recognise the added injury time – Chalobah actually played six minutes and 54 seconds, one second more than Kelly.

BUT DID THEY RUN 27.2 MILES?