Money can't buy you love

Last night was an unbelievable night. Chelsea are everything I hate about modern football, Liverpool everything that remains great. Chelsea are nouveau riche oiks, whose unprecedented, unlimited wealth from a Russian billionaire has brought them recent success. Liverpool are a people's club, a team of their City. A team people identify with in terms of the narrative of their lives.


Now we've beaten them again when it mattered most and their manager - who called us a small club - once again whinges that the best team lost. Hilarious.

But I was interested in the wider metaphor that sprang to mind last night.

The brilliant Simon Barnes drew comparisons between the clubs' two best players: Gerrard of Liverpool and Lampard of Chelsea. "Lampard changes a game by what he does. Gerrard changes it by what he is", says Barnes.

This is true. Gerrard is a man of emotion; figurehead for an emotional team in an emotional city. This is why he wins critical games at critical times with blockbusting goals - he has theatricality coursing through his veins. Lampard is a 21st century player, 'carrying his wealth and fame with a becoming ease'. This matches his team, Chelsea. They are about knowing style and sophistication, like West London itself. Passion for them is slightly uncool.

And this is where the metaphor - for me - gets interesting. For what we were watching was a clash of money against meaning. And as I watched Anfield last night, with the flags and songs, the sheer volume of a People's Club once more defying the odds, it became even clearer to me what takes priority. When it comes down to it, it's meaning that wins.

And with passion in your life, you'll never walk alone.