Oh I didn't realise that was your version of being cheerful, St.G.And you told me to stop being such a miserable old git FFS!
Oh I didn't realise that was your version of being cheerful, St.G.And you told me to stop being such a miserable old git FFS!
No it's one of the only things we have a chance of winning. We need more cups!![]()
The reason City did it is because they have a CL game on Wednesday and the League Cup Final next weekend, poor dears. I have no sympathy with them whatsoever. You should always do your best to win every match you play, with no exceptions, otherwise you may as well not bother to play at all. I agree that the more games the top clubs play, the more chance there is of lesser clubs winning something, but it shouldn't be at the expense of maximum effort by the Cities of this world.
Fair enough, and I must admit I'd forgotten how long their injury list is when I wrote that. Generally though, clubs like City have enough strength in depth to cope with these situations but I agree that yesterday was exceptional circumstances.I disagree slightly here Chilcs. If it was Saints and we had a CL knockout game followed by a cup final a few days later again, I'd perfectly understand our manager being selective in who he plays. I'd want us to win the cup final and make sure the team was ready for it. I'd also say Pellegrini got the priority right. He's not devaluing anything, he is just deciding which games at this very moment mean more. One means winning a trophy there and then, one means progressing in a trophy they've never won and I understand that. They've paid the penalty by getting knocked out, so people that don't like them leaving players out should be happy.
Perhaps if the reward for winning the FA Cup was one of the Champions League spots, its esteem would be raised and top flight sides would play stronger teams in the competition.
The trouble is , at the moment, that the prize money for the FA Cup is so miniscule compared to the league that you're financially worse of if you win the damn thing at the cost of dropping a couple of places in the league. Even sides at the top end of the Championship will field their under 11s girls team in the third round if drawn against a League One or Two side as the lure of the play-offs is greater than winning the world's oldest knockout competition.
As mentioned above, perhaps each club should name a 24 man squad for each cup competition. How often do you have the kids playing in the early rounds of the FA or League Cup, only for the 'stars' to take their place once they get to Wembley?
As for scrapping the League Cup, as suggested above, how about this for a radical idea:
Remove the Premier League clubs from the competition and have a place in the Premier League as the prize for the winners (a fourth team relegated from the Premier League unless the club winning the league Cup is promoted via the Championship)
I'm gonna sue.Scrap the League Cup.