... as some of you will recall I was rather pissed off when Mr Pearson made wholesale changes to our team for the FA Cup tie at Huddersfield last season ... I felt it was quite disrespectful towards the 5,000 traveling fans ... ....took some pelters from some of ours on here who felt getting to the Premier League was the priority and cups were a bit of a distraction. That got me to thinking - and I realised that there is a bit of a generation divide amongst us - I was brought up with the magic of the FA cup and in particularly for Leicester fans - didn't matter how crap we were doing in the league we would turn out in force for the 3rd round (wherever we were drawn) and it was always an amazing atmosphere ... ... this photo and article says it all ... http://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/Gary-Silke-lads-let-Lenny-corner/story-20081862-detail/story.html
Morning Fosse, I think you are right, there is a bit of a generation divide on this one. In a way, I wish I could have been part of that generation, where football was proper, anyone could pop along to a ground on a Saturday and buy a ticket (and not spend a fortune in doing so!), squeeze in to the ground, stand where you like, create a fantasic atmosphere. It's all too much hassle getting a ticket these days, not to mention the money. I hardly get to any games as a result!
Problem is that health and safety regulations just won't allow these kind of things to happen anymore, there's no point in sending thousands down to a lower league clubs away match without a ticket. Premier League football has increased so much in exposure & financing that the cup competitions are being left behind and are seen as non-essential to teams pushing for the Premier league. Credit to Bradford last season though for being able to manage to do both (but nb. they have been knocked out of both competitions in the first round this year ... have their priorities changed? ...) If you ask a footballer what his dreams are, they are to play in the premier league, not to win a cup.
I disagree with this - most footballers, even now, will speak of having watched the FA Cup as a kid etc and how the dream was/is to win the cup at Wembley ...
There is many reasons why the FA Cup have lost his magic but for me the main reason is the half empty stadiums. Nothing kills a game more then a poor atmosphere. Playing with 2 or 3 stands closed makes it look like a pre season friendly. IMO the FA Cup winners should get the 4th champions League spot instead of 4th place in the prem. That would make everyone take the competition alot more seriously. The FA Cup has lost some of its magic in recent years and that cant be denied.
Not that often we agree Proud, but 100% agree here - have made that suggestion many times myself on different forums ... the fact that we award a fourth best team with that enormous reward is IMHO, quite frankly, ludicrous ... and how you can then call the competition "The Champions League" is plain daft
Only when they're talking for the promotional pieces for the FA Cup scheduling or doing an interview ahead of a televised game. It's like any player that signs for any club will say it's down to them being a massive club and having amazing fans. If it's a currently successful club then they say they want to play a part in continuing the success, if it's not a currently successful club it's all about wanting to play a part in getting them to where they deserve to be.
I think you are being a little too cynical here Ricardo - the FA Cup final has been broadcast around the world for many years (pre dating Rupert Murdoch's Shylock existence) and whilst first introcution to fooball is possibly les important now, certainly many a foreigh star as well as British born players have cited early memories of cup finals as being significant factors in their desire to become professional players etc ... now whilst I'm a bit of a cynic myself about most things in life, I do believe that to be true ... mainly because it was the dream of many a school kid having a kickabout in the schoil playground ... me included.
Generational divide again. Most of the players now won't remember much before 1990, we had the PL and the Champions League when we grew up and teams rested players for the other competitions. (to be fair they "rested" players in the CL as well, but that was down to the 3 foreigners rule and Scottish/Welsh/Irish players counting as foreign)
