‘What’s the difference between the top of the Premiership and the city of New Orleans? A year ago today both looked radically different, but given time and money the world believes New Orleans may one day return to the way it was.
‘As for the Premiership, who on this planet has a clue how to reverse the havoc caused by Hurricane Abramovich? Back-to-back titles sewn up after nine games by a 22-strong, £400million squad of focussed tigers, managed by a lethal winning machine in Jose Mourinho.
‘Their nearest rivals, Manchester United and Arsenal, are crumbling empires. Chelsea's youth coach Frank Arnesen is promising to produce a future England star through their £20m academy every year and Red Roman is vowing to plough in limitless funds to keep them at the top for the next 100 years.
‘Well I'm sick of the defeatism. Sick of people like Alex Ferguson, who runs a club which five minutes ago were the richest in the world with average gates of 67,000, throwing in the towel in October. All so he can buy more time in a job he has stayed in too long.
‘All empires eventually fall. And former emperor Ferguson knows that more than most. And the landscape will inevitably change again. The current crop of great English players that is Chelsea's spine will age, the replacements won't be the same and the collective hunger will go.
‘The best English kids, like the top foreigners, will tire of a bench that saps their "ambitions". Mourinho's ego will grow along with his irritation at being kicked all over Ewood Park on wet Monday nights, and he'll move on.
‘The fans, spoiled by success, will turn on the owners. Abramovich will move on to the next thrill, and a new domestic force, under the next whizz-kid coach, with a nucleus of young talent, will emerge. It's called football. It happens to every great team, and it will again. Who in 1990 thought Liverpool would go more than 15 years without a title win? Who in 2000 thought Real Madrid's Galacticos system would become a joke?
‘Who thought a year ago that Arsenal would be shipping talent and scrambling to make it into the top six. Or that United would be playing before 7,000 empty seats, £500m in debt, a ghost team without Wayne Rooney, getting booed off at Old Trafford?’