Friday, August 31, 2012

Is the League Cup still worthwhile?

The second round of English football's shunned cousin has just finished, signifying the introduction of the genuinely big teams (no offence, Fulham) into the third round draw.

As is the way with these things, there's no standout glamour tie. Your eyes are probably drawn to Manchester United vs Newcastle United as the first two cubes out of the tub, but even that clash between two of last season's top five will most likely be a letdown for whichever poor bunch of mugs pick it to screen on tv.

In years past, it was Man United who were seen as 'ruining the Coca Cola Cup' and 'not giving it the credit it deserves', but that seems to have changed to a degree as they've won three out of the last seven finals. Indeed, if you look at the recent winners, since Middlesbrough's win in 2004, 10 of the 16 finalists have been from the top six of the Premier League, and the winning sides have been United (3), Chelsea (2), Spurs, Liverpool and Birmingham.

If it wasn't for Arsenal's appalling capitulation to Birmingham in 2011, you're looking at a roll of honour arguably better than that of the FA Cup in the same timeframe, considering the glorious old trophy was sullied by Portsmouth's name in 2008, after a final that, quite frankly, football should be ashamed of in both its participants and for the quality of the match itself. Indeed, of those teams outside the top six, Spurs make up two of them in 2008 and 09, and last season's final accounts for another two.

Anyway, enough stats, time for a reasoned argument. My point it, it would appear that any 'big' club that decides it wants to win the League Cup in any given season can pretty much do so at will. All it took United was playing Dimitar Berbatov, for Christ's sake. And while the Ferguson-inspired trend for playing fringe players does continue, it's not only the title chasing sides doing it now, but seemingly everyone from the Premier League, and even some from the Championship.

It used to be that the League Cup was a handy route into Europe for teams that had no hope of making it on the merit of league position. Blackburn in 2002, Middlesbrough in 2004 and Liverpool in 2012 all made it into the UEFA Cup or Europa League through this least noble of non-Intertoto routes. But even those midtable chancers aren't pulling their weight now.

Take that Man U v Newcastle game, for instance. Alan Pardew has already come out and said that the Europa League and Capital One Cup are not a priority, and even Stoke were at it, making six changes that would ultimately contribute to them being knocked out by Paolo di Canio's Swindon. Surely this is a competition made for Stoke to get some glory and weasel their way into Europe again to give Tony Pulis some fixture congestion to moan about after Sporting Lisbon are forced to be tested on a wet Thursday night at the Britannia.

The point is, nobody seems to take this competition seriously any more. Attendances around the country are down on League Cup nights compared to midweek league games. I pointed out that the big clubs seem to be coming back into dominance, but that's seemingly just because everyone is putting their second string out, and you'd fancy City, United or Chelsea's bench to be better than Villa, QPR or Wigan's any day of the week.

Even the incumbent sponsors don't want that third handle being shown.

So with nobody really caring about it, and the aforementioned fixture congestion an ever-increasing cliché in every football manager's press conference repertoire, what should be done with the League Cup, or whatever sponsor-driven name it's masquerading as this year. Well, in my humble opinion as a revered football blogger and armchair management genius, I say to the FA, just get rid of it.

Yes, it started in 1960, so it's got Over Fifty Years Of History tied to its three ridiculous handles, but what does history REALLY mean in football? In 1960 Wolves were a dominant force in world football, so shall we give them a bye until the fourth round in reverence? No, don't be ridiculous. They put out their second string against Northampton in the second round, anyway. And lest we forget that teams with a lot more than fifty years of history have been allowed to rot away into oblivion by an FA who prefer simply to sit back and apply a 10-point deduction rather than offering much-needed assistance.

Perhaps the focus for the history brigade should be that the FA Cup also seems to be taking a backseat in many managers' priorities. That is a competition that should have its integrity preserved, and if removing the League Cup from the schedules of teams, so be it.

Perhaps, since it's used as such anyway, and with the recent introduction of the Under 21 Premier League suggesting a focus on helping younger players progress through the ranks more effectively, the League Cup should be replaced by an official, higher-profile Under 21 cup, and the European spot be re-allocated to the league finishing positions again.

Whatever it is, I'd say something needs to be done to stop the League Cup becoming even more of an afterthought, and to stop it dragging down more important things with it. Because as it stands the cup shows no signs of becoming anything more than a waste of everyone's time.

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