By Saturday evening the FA Cup was an irrelevance once again. It had been pushed to the margins by the return of Jose Mourinho, who was minding his own business ringside at the David Haye fight in London when the news came through that he is expected to take over at Old Trafford on Tuesday.
Some saw the timing as another indictment of the modern Manchester United. Louis Van Gaal could barely enjoy the traditional post-match walkabout before it became known that his first trophy at the club would also be his last.
David Moyes found out he was to be sacked when it was reported by well-connected journalists the day after a defeat at Everton, and LVG may as well have had the FA Cup snatched from his hands, such was the brutal swiftness of the news this weekend.
“I don’t want to speak about Louis van Gaal leaving. He’s still our manager and I think it’s a bit unfair after we’ve just won the FA Cup to speak about him as if he isn’t here,” Wayne Rooney said, reflecting the point of view that a man who had led the team to this triumph deserved more.
The club which had done so much to usher the FA Cup into this era of irrelevance by skipping the competition in 2000 at the encouragement of the Football Association – who felt it would help England’s 2006 World Cup bid – had now demonstrated the FA Cup’s pointlessness once again.
Manchester United had more on their minds than a trophy. Mourinho could claim with some justification that he is bigger than the FA Cup, but everything the FA does to promote its own competition illustrates its smallness.
Instead of embracing real change by abolishing replays and moving the early rounds to midweek, they tinker with the final itself, somehow believing that Tinie Tempah singing ‘Abide with Me’ will persuade us it’s relevant.
Of course, they don’t really wish to persuade us, they just want to give the appearance that it has meaning.
When the FA Cup third round arrives in January, many football fans greet it with a sigh as they know their cycle of life has been interrupted. This interruption is made more jarring by the forced and artificial attempts to hail this interruption as something wonderful. “The FA Cup is like Father Christmas,” one commentator said a couple of years ago, “if you believe in it, it’s there.”
Sport is often sentimental so there is no harm in tapping into nostalgia, but those who promote the ongoing magnificence forget that it’s best to show, not tell.
The sense that they don’t mean any of it is underlined when something joyous does happen.
Last season, Aston Villa supporters celebrated their sixth round victory against West Brom with a pitch invasion that seemed to be entirely in keeping with the history of the FA Cup.
Some of the greatest moments in the competition from Wembley in 1923 to Ronnie Radford’s goal involved supporters running onto the pitch in joyous celebration. Nothing good had happened to Villa in a while, so maybe we should have delighted in this joy. Instead Villa were told they were tarnishing the tournament and ended up being fined £200,000 for the incident.
In Scotland on Saturday, it was possible to witness similar scenes of happiness when Hibernian won the Scottish Cup for the first time since 1902.
While nobody would condone violence, some of us would accept that after waiting 114 years things might get a little out of hand.
Commentators insisted the pitch invasion had ruined the day, but anyone who watched 30,000 Hibs fans singing ‘Sunshine on Leith’ after their team was presented with the Cup knew they were looking at the real thing.
Wow. Incredible rendition of Sunshine on Leith from the Hibs fans. Sky Sports 1. https://t.co/45a0SGb5EJ
— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) May 21, 2016
This was messy and wonderful authenticity. There was no need for ersatz talk of magic, all done in the most controlled circumstances, which turns out to be code for the exact opposite of magic, corporate bullshit.
It helped, of course, that ‘Sunshine on Leith’ is a good song which is made even better by being part of this explosion of joy.
Meanwhile at Wembley, Tinie Tempah was doing his thing and Alan Pardew was doing his also.
Will Pardew’s dance feature in the great moments from Wembley in years to come? Certainly, it seemed to reveal much about Pards and his impressive self-regard. In many ways, you could define it as magic.
Some fecker for one fecker pic.twitter.com/JcU51bpVt1
— SportsJOE (@SportsJOEdotie) May 21, 2016
There are those who will have considered Andrea Bocelli’s performance at the King Power the most impressive non-football moment of the season, but Pardew’s dancing seemed to capture the mood at Wembley, reflecting the appeal of the modern FA Cup.
Pardew might have expected United to wilt, but there seemed to be a new energy in Van Gaal’s side which allowed them to recover and win the trophy.
This was a good moment for Van Gaal, but nobody believed it would be enough after United had missed out on the top four.
Van Gaal can’t be blamed for everything that went wrong this season. He alone did not sign players, he alone didn’t decide that Morgan Schneiderlin and Bastian Schweinsteiger would provide the necessary thrust in midfield to allow his philosophy to work.
The decision to hand Wayne Rooney a contract of staggering expense predates Van Gaal. By its very enormity, this deal ensured Rooney would always have to play. Van Gaal has managed with more success than Moyes to persuade Rooney that he would be better off in midfield, even if the emergence of Marcus Rashford has helped.
The dependence on Marouane Fellaini would suggest that Van Gaal has abandoned all he once believed in, even if the dependence also points to the failure of those who were supposed to offer alternatives.
There have been collective failures which may explain the hesitancy in moving Van Gaal on, long after it became clear he would not succeed. This weekend, United were ready to abandon the idea of collective responsibility. This may come as a relief, although in 18 months they might be wondering what they have done.
Mourinho will take over. There are no guarantees of success, but if he is hailing an FA Cup victory as a great triumph in a couple of years, it may be a sign that he has failed.
