Is it worth entering? What can be done to improve it? What foreign equivalents work, or not? What is de-valuing it? Do clubs have a choice in what team they field? Are the Football Association a credible organisation anymore? How should the FA and PL evolve to manage the influence of TV cash. What is the players role in all of this? A chance to throw in your thoughts, ideas, no matter how good, bad or indifferent.
I think it's only since these billionaire owners took over the top clubs that it started to become devalued. Which is sadly the case. Signing players that don't give a toss about our trophies. The only way to get English football back to how it was imo would be to put a cap on the amount of foreign players, say 5 in a match-day squad. Maybe then we'd get players which would play with passion for their clubs, desire to win the domestic trophies and even improve our farcical national team.
It's obviously the TV money. I remember back when the FA Cup was a much bigger trophy to win than the European Cup for English clubs. The Fairs Cup, The Cup Winners Cup, and the European cup was just a distraction for 3 teams in the first division. Nowadays there are millions splashed around just for avoiding relegation from the prem and the FA Cup means nothing. Ask Pompey how winning it felt a few years back and where are they now. No changing it now I'm affraid the genie is out of the bottle, the whole world is pouring money into the so called best league in the world and the champions league. They don't want to see Hull City V Norwich in an FA Cup final and wont pay for that, but they will comeup with ungodly amounts of money to see Man Utd V Barca in a european final. That is what we are left with I'm affraid a glorified paint pot trophy for the also rans that the big clubs like Liverpool might takes seriously in the later rounds if they are struggling a bit later in the season as a back door into europe
What is de-valuing it?. Did you go yesterday and see the team we put out, there maybe your answer, and how about Cardiff. How can the big four put out an almost full strength team (when they have only the premier league and champions league to play for), and we play our second string and only the Npower Championship to play for . Or how about Newcastle fans travelling 450 ish miles and back to watch their second string , that is de-valueing it. For years people blamed the Big Four but its not the case .
We're stuck with it even though no one gives a ****, and plus if we don't win at Orient then we won't be playing next FA cup weekend(26th/27th Jan) Because Derby who we would be playing that weekend are already through, so I want us to beat Orient as weekends without City are ****e.
Because the price of promotion is far greater than risking the first team players in the cup. Thats part of the issue. There needs to be an incentive in line with league achievement's. Which, unless a broadcasting company gets behind the cup, they will never rival 100m for reach the promised land (for example). For us now, it must be seen as a great chance of reaching the 5th round, and we should be pushing for that.
