35 years.

So today is the big day: the FA Cup final! I don’t know about you but this year’s final just isn’t doing it for me. I honestly don’t care, and that’s really quite sad as it’s a competition with such great memories for me.

I know I’m a Manchester United fan, and Manchester City are in the final, but that isn’t the reason I’m not interested, heck I couldn’t actually care less if City won it or not. What the hell is wrong with me!? I am letting the red half of Manchester down big time.

It could be because United will most likely pick up at least a point today at Ewood Park and collect their nineteenth league title, surpassing the old rival Liverpool, and hence shadowing over the success of either City or Stoke down at Wembley. Yeah, that might have something to do with it actually, but it’s probably not the only reason.

Whatever the reason is, the FA need to stop this slow mutilation of the FA Cup. It was once the pride of the English game, now it’s just a cup. Manchester United didn’t seem to care about losing the semi final to their neighbours and in truth Fergie is probably happy that he got to focus on the more important Premier League and Champions League.

Where is the FA Cup heading? Sooner or later it will just be on a par with the league cup. It’s heartbreaking to see a competition so great become so meaningless in just a few short years.

And the FA certainly are not helping its cause at all. It is most likely that today will be the last FA Cup final to have a 3 O’Clock kick-off. This really is bad news. TV money wins the day again and it’s the fans who are off to Wembley who will pay dearly. They will now have to get there for a 5.15pm kick-off and somehow get themselves to trains out of the city with very little time. It’s going to be a nightmare, especially if your team is Northern.

Which brings me to my next point. The FA Cup semis this year were made up of four North-western clubs: Manchester United, Manchester City, Stoke City, and Bolton Wanderers. Why then do all four teams and their fans have to traipse down to London to watch their side at Wembley? Well the answer is obvious: to line the pockets of the FA.

Wembley should be for finals only. Using it as a semi final ground just takes the gloss off the final and rips off fans while it’s at it. Manchester City and Stoke have made two journeys down to Wembley this season, and in such a short space of time. It must be costing the fans a fortune! But do the FA care? Not one bit.

The semi finals should just be at a neutral ground. Sending four Northern sides to play at Wembley is so ridiculous considering the wealth of great football stadia we have up in the North. United and City could have played their semi at Villa Park for example. Stoke and Bolton could have played in Manchester, either at Old Trafford or Eastlands. Remember those days when you won the semi final and sang: “we‘re off to Wem-ber-ley!” what do you sing now? “We‘re coming back in a month!” doesn’t have quite the same ring to it, and singing it after the quarters is a little premature. But then again I am being too logical.

I suppose the FA Cup’s cause hasn’t really been helped by the fact there is other football on today. It’s bemusing to see other football being played today, especially in the Premier League. There are four matches being played in the Premier League, most notably the match between Manchester United and Blackburn where United could win the title. Why have the FA done this? Idiots.

United won’t receive the trophy today whatever happens, but that won’t stop the occasion dwarfing the FA Cup final. Nobody wants this, especially the Manchester City fans who, if they win, will finally end their trophy drought, while all eyes are on their red neighbours up North. But do the FA care? Not one bit.

So what about today’s game, (the FA Cup final, not the other one!) who will most likely be the victor? Well it seems Manchester City have been acting a little too confidently for my liking. After beating United they acted as if they’d won it, which is always a dangerous reaction. Maybe the fact they beat United had something to do with it, but either way they didn’t do themselves any favours.

Stoke will have been watching them, and they hardly need more motivation to go and win this thing. Seeing the City players acting as if the trophy is theirs because they only have to play little Stoke, will suit them just right. Stoke thumped Bolton 5-0 in their semi final and just last week beat Arsenal 3-1 with absolute ease. Okay, so they won’t be at the Britannia but I’d say they are very close to being City’s equals. More than their fans would admit anyway.

There’s been two types of City fans over the past month. The nervy ones who are so desperate to win for obvious reasons, and then there are the over-confident ones who’ve tattooed the FA Cup onto their back with “FA Cup winners 2011” written across it. When will they learn? This is football, and although City may well be favourites today, writing Stoke off is probably the worst thing you can do.

For City, the best thing that can happen to them today is to lose. It will dramatically help them in the long term. They need to learn a lesson. Never, ever, underestimate your opponent, ever! If City win today then they’ll carry on thinking like this and their quest for glory will be a lot harder. Losing today will give them a very valuable lesson. One that could see them go far in the Champions League next year. If they don’t learn this lesson then Shakhtar Donetsk will knock them out.

For me, I’d like to see Stoke win. All the talk is about the 35 years and all the rest of it, but Stoke have never won the FA Cup. They’re a great team that impress me every year and I’d like to see them lift a trophy for their efforts. They certainly didn’t get millions and millions of pounds pumped into their veins either, unlike their opponents. It’d also be good for Tony Pulis, a brilliant manager who unfortunately lost his mother earlier this year. If anyone deserves to win this trophy it’s him. He’s built a brilliant team that’s taken years of hard work with very little money. It’s going to be an emotional day for Stoke win or lose.

If City do go on to win today though they will end their 35 year drought. An amazing achievement and one that will quieten the chants heard from Old Trafford every other weekend. If they lose then it’ll just add another year, not that it’ll matter, they will win something soon, they’re too good not to.

Of course a win today will be huge for City fans, no prizes for obvious statement of the day. They’ll finally be able to say they’ve won a trophy. Their fans will be overjoyed that they’ve got one over on their big rivals United. But will United care? Not one bit.

You see, the thing is City’s biggest rival is Manchester United. It always has been and it always will be. For years City have watched as their red neighbours have gone on to win league titles, cups and Champions League trophies, while they’ve had nothing. They long to be like United; to win trophies like United.

Flip it the other way round though, United’s biggest rival is not Manchester City. It’s Liverpool, it always has been and it always will be. When the league schedule comes out where do Manchester City fans look? “When’s the derby?” they say as they furiously scramble to find the United-City matches with their fingers. Now look at what game United fans look for: United-Liverpool. Sure they look at when the Manchester derby is, right after they’ve found the Liverpool, Arsenal and Chelsea matches. City is a big game to United, there’s no question about that, but ask any United fan if they would rather lose to Liverpool or Manchester City and they’d tell you City every single time.

To City, United are their biggest and only rivals. But to United, City are just their neighbours. All be it a very noisy bunch of neighbours.