Paul Lewis: Liverpool victory a silver lining

What a shame that Jose Mourinho, by some distance the most influential and impressive man in English football this year, couldn't summon a better response to losing 1-0 to Liverpool in the Champions League semifinal.

"No one knows if it was a goal - not even the linesman," said the Chelsea manager, struggling to overcome his frustration. "I don't want to criticise their tactics. They fought hard and I give them credit for that. I hope they win in the final. But the best team lost tonight."

That Mourinho is a driven individual who doesn't like losing is beyond dispute. But, after all his theatrical and, some would say, egotistical statements in Chelsea's effortless climb to the top of English football, Mourinho in defeat might have done better than "the best team lost".

Are Chelsea the better side? Man for man they are, and Mourinho's team have performed so well in winning the Premier League this season that they turned mighty Arsenal and Manchester United into mere bit players, no mean feat. But their dream of a treble - Premier League, FA Cup and Champions League - is as dead as ham and they ended up with just one slice, instead of the three they coveted.

Mourinho's response was churlish as, even though there was an element of doubt about the Liverpool goal, it was preceded by a blatant penalty which would also have seen goalkeeper Petr Cech sent off had the referee not played advantage. Mourinho's frustration will be music to the ears of people subject to what might be known as the 'silvertail syndrome'.

Around the world, legions of football fans rejoice at Chelsea's defeat - not because they are particularly anti-Chelsea but because the big money club suffered a loss that money could not recover. As the Liverpool fans chanted to Mourinho: "You can't buy tradition."

Money in sport is your archetypal double-edged sword. It makes winning more possible but also provokes resentment - mild resentment, sure enough, but resentment nonetheless. One of the key elements in any sport is the big favourite being tripped up by the less fancied. Add money to that equation and the silvertail syndrome is born.

Think Manly in the NRL when they were winning everything - they were even known as the 'silvertails'.

Manchester United have the biggest fan base in the world, probably of any club in any sport. But an almost equal number deride them as buying their way to success. This is slightly unfair, given United's success with its youth and many self-developed players but their detractors see only the van Nistelrooys and the Rooneys.

Think the England rugby team. There isn't a team on the planet which doesn't enjoy beating them. Think any team from any 'posh' school. How the others enjoy sticking it to the moneyed classes - or that's how they see it.

The point is that any idiot can buy their way to success. Roman Abramovic's gazillions would pay off our national debt and he'd have plenty left to buy the Warriors. I hasten to add that I'm not calling Abramovic an idiot. Far from it. There have been plenty of instances of sports-team owners spending billions and still not winning ...

It's like spending $100 or more for a good wine. Anyone can do that, wallet permitting. But the joy of wine is in finding one of quality and enjoying it even more because you found it for less than $20.

That's one of the reasons for the joy of Liverpool's victory, shaped by an old-fashioned gutsy display by players who cost a great deal less than Chelsea's tsar-studded line-up.

It was also in the fact that Jamie Carragher was the outstanding player on the pitch. Think of Carragher and the phrase journeyman springs to mind. He's not quick. He's not particularly skilled. He's certainly not a goalscorer and he isn't even a regular starter for England.

But he has a yeoman spirit and a deadly accurate tackle, sense of timing and judgment.

He was the best player on the field by some margin. Better even than the consistently brilliant Frank Lampard, the best player in the Premier League this year.

Maybe it wasn't a goal. But it was one for the common man. Mourinho might have recognised it as such and adopted a little more humility.

For it might be founded on base human traits like jealousy and resentment but the silvertail syndrome is alive and well and part of the tribalism of sport.

Wherever there is someone spending the GNP of Switzerland in sport, there will be millions who take pleasure in the sight of Carraghers beating it 1-0.

- HERALD ON SUNDAY