This Community Shield has even less meaning than normal - but that doesn't mean it won't be entertaining
If this is to be even more of a friendly than usual, it should at least be an exhibition in the truest sense
It was only the Charity Shield but then this was a statement that could only have come from Bill Shankly.
The 1966-67 season-opener was taking place a mere two weeks after England had won the World Cup, yet starting hero Roger Hunt was already back and available for Liverpool. And brought right back down to Melwood earth.
“Well done, son,” Shankly told Hunt, “but we’ve got more important things now!”
A different world, and certainly a different message to that which was heard from Pep Guardiola and Maurizio Sarri to their returning World Cup winners in the past week… but not such a different timeframe.
With just 20 days and 21 hours from the end of the Moscow 2018 final to Sunday’s 3pm kick-off in the Community Shield, this is - by far - the shortest gap there’s been between the two fixtures since 1966.
None of Olivier Giroud, N’Golo Kante or Benjamin Mendy are expected to feature for Chelsea or Manchester City on Sunday, in contrast to Hunt and fellow Liverpool World Cup squad members Ian Callaghan and Gerry Byrne in 1966, as well as Everton’s Ray Wilson. The fact that 60s match involved both Merseyside clubs meant it was played at Goodison Park, with the Jules Rimet trophy paraded around by Wilson and Hunt beforehand, and the Liverpool striker scoring the game’s only goal.
The likely absence of his World Cup-winning successors on Sunday only emphasises how compromised this season’s shield will be. If there are already complaints from managers that they won’t be ready for the actual Premier League season, then what of this? It will be even more of a glorified friendly than normal, with even less meaning than normal, and this in a match that has not seen its winner go on to win the title since 2010 and that saw David Moyes start his Manchester United with the victorious tone that would very definitively not continue.
That isn’t to say there isn’t anything to look forward to, not least - well - the forward-thinking football. This match may be low on significance, but it is set to be high on entertainment, and a far cry from the mean-tempered affair that was the last time these sides met back in 2012.
That ugly fixture stood out all the more for the wrong reasons because it came in the middle of the happy English summer that saw the London Olympics, but there is at least the likelihood it will continue the adventurous spirit of the World Cup.
How could it not with two coaches like Sarri and Guardiola? Both like each other personally, both admire the other professionally, with much of that because both have a commitment to a proactive and attacking football.
If this is to be even more of a friendly than usual, it should at least be an exhibition in the truest sense, with some exhilarating attacks exchanged.
There might well be some meaning in that, too, as it will be telling to see how much of Sarri’s coaching has had an effect now that Chelsea are playing in a match that is at least notionally competitiveness; that has a context that will at least ensure it is all that bit sharper than the rest of their pre-season matches. How sharp Chelsea then look within that may at least indicate how quickly can get this side up to speed - or how off they are.
Given the specific way Sarri coaches and plays, and how it can take time for a squad to properly learn his approach, how that goes against Roman Abramovich’s notoriously high demands regarding results is one of the most engaging storylines of the season. It will then offer one of the subplots of this match.
Right in the centre, meanwhile, will be a player who adds another element of frisson to this friendly: Jorginho. He is the midfielder who really makes Sarri’s approach move, and the midfielder that Guardiola specifically wanted to make his squad complete. That is the one area City are still short in, with only Fernandinho really there as a senior player. Given that the Brazilian only came back this Monday, how they play without him might start to illustrate whether they can adjust to the absence of such a reinforcement.
It’s still difficult not to think that, if they are really going to go for the double of league and Champions League that they should, the single signing of Jorginho would have made some difference.
He is not the only player making a debut, as City’s own only signing so far is at least an eye-catching one - in every sense. Riyad Mahrez will have the stage of Wembley to express himself.
And that is really what this Community Shield should be about: expression, enjoyment... fun.
There will be more important games to come, even if that’s not quite how Shankly meant it at the time.
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