Lionel Messi scores, again and again.
Hardly a headline is it?
The main way to tell the difference between the sea front at Fuengirola and the sea front at Blackpool, they both have fish and chip shops and Bingo, is not the weather but the many shops selling Barcelona mementos, from shirts and shorts, pennants and photos of the team, to bracelets and badges.
When I lived in Newcastle business and civic leaders used to say that production was up and people smiled more on a Monday after Newcastle had won on a Saturday.
In Spain with unemployment running at 25% people are smiling because Barcelona keep winning and Real Madrid aren't doing too badly either.
Football as the barometer of national pride and a measure of success is not a new idea.
But to put seven goals past Bayer Leverkusen is enough to put a smile on any self respecting supporter.
Lionel Messi accounted for five of them so he keeps the match ball again.
With a budget around the corner and the Chancellor desperate to kick start the economy maybe there is a clue for him and his treasury colleagues in the success of Barcelona.
Of course he would have to pick the right team, the two Manchester Teams are doing OK on their own, but Tottenham could fly the flag for UK Plc or maybe a team from one of the towns with a Japanese car maker, Derby, Swindon or Sunderland?
With some help possibly Arsenal could be re-configured with a new striker to help the South East recover its position as the industrial heart of the nation, making things as well as earning money through the always hard to comprehend financial services?
Who knows?
It could be a winning formula.
Forget mansion taxes and reducing child benefit for the averagely rich.
Invest the national wealth into a winning football team.
It would lift the nations spirits, restore pride in our once again great nation and perhaps even persuade the Scottish to stay in the union, although in truth the Catalans have quite a strong sense of independence so that might not work unless Celtic or Heart of Midlothian become the team chosen to carry the spirit of UK Plc forward into the next century.
Of course it won't change the weather unless the Chancellor also invests in Cloud Technology and sends bombs into the atmosphere to drive away the grey cold and bring some blue Spanish style skies so we can watch our iconic British team play in sunshine every Saturday.
It won't happen, there will be the usual fiddling whilst Rome burns, taxes will go up or down, the price of petrol and diesel will continue to rise and the poor will be with us always.
Except ..........
Mr Abramovitch is hoping to persuade Pepe Guardiola to switch allegiance and to come over to London to manage Chelsea maybe his first signing will be a young Argentinian and it will start raining goals and years of optimism will come to replace the ennui of coalition government?
Hardly a headline is it?
The main way to tell the difference between the sea front at Fuengirola and the sea front at Blackpool, they both have fish and chip shops and Bingo, is not the weather but the many shops selling Barcelona mementos, from shirts and shorts, pennants and photos of the team, to bracelets and badges.
When I lived in Newcastle business and civic leaders used to say that production was up and people smiled more on a Monday after Newcastle had won on a Saturday.
In Spain with unemployment running at 25% people are smiling because Barcelona keep winning and Real Madrid aren't doing too badly either.
Football as the barometer of national pride and a measure of success is not a new idea.
But to put seven goals past Bayer Leverkusen is enough to put a smile on any self respecting supporter.
Lionel Messi accounted for five of them so he keeps the match ball again.
With a budget around the corner and the Chancellor desperate to kick start the economy maybe there is a clue for him and his treasury colleagues in the success of Barcelona.
Of course he would have to pick the right team, the two Manchester Teams are doing OK on their own, but Tottenham could fly the flag for UK Plc or maybe a team from one of the towns with a Japanese car maker, Derby, Swindon or Sunderland?
With some help possibly Arsenal could be re-configured with a new striker to help the South East recover its position as the industrial heart of the nation, making things as well as earning money through the always hard to comprehend financial services?
Who knows?
It could be a winning formula.
Forget mansion taxes and reducing child benefit for the averagely rich.
Invest the national wealth into a winning football team.
It would lift the nations spirits, restore pride in our once again great nation and perhaps even persuade the Scottish to stay in the union, although in truth the Catalans have quite a strong sense of independence so that might not work unless Celtic or Heart of Midlothian become the team chosen to carry the spirit of UK Plc forward into the next century.
Of course it won't change the weather unless the Chancellor also invests in Cloud Technology and sends bombs into the atmosphere to drive away the grey cold and bring some blue Spanish style skies so we can watch our iconic British team play in sunshine every Saturday.
It won't happen, there will be the usual fiddling whilst Rome burns, taxes will go up or down, the price of petrol and diesel will continue to rise and the poor will be with us always.
Except ..........
Mr Abramovitch is hoping to persuade Pepe Guardiola to switch allegiance and to come over to London to manage Chelsea maybe his first signing will be a young Argentinian and it will start raining goals and years of optimism will come to replace the ennui of coalition government?
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