Good afternoon.
I’m finding the attitude of some Tottingham fans laughable. And that’s as generous as I’m going to get. Tell me, just what is your position on cups these days? I mean do they still hold any appeal at all?
I was recently accused (no really it happened, some boys pointed at me, said something then pegged it) of being some dreadful type who expected to win every game 5-0. An immediate gratification merchant.
This was in response to the fact that I dared to acknowledge the truth that watching our Yoofsters and second stringers I find [A] largely boring [B]Not very good value for money.
The kids so far have scraped past less than mediocre opposition in the Europa Cup and been a pivotal element in being dumped out of the Carling Cup.
So if we forget about my feeble attention span and ignore my miserly approach to life, tell me this and tell me true. What value do the cups actually have to you these days?
Here’s the poll.
[poll id=23]
Unfortunately we had a league game 48hours before so we were never going to field a strong side.
If we didnt have the number of injuries to players such as Hudd, Gallas, Pienaar, Lennon etc then we wouldve been able to field more of a first team. It was just unlucky for us we drew Stoke away and not some League 2 outfit which our yoofs couldve knocked out.
Not giving a toss about the League Cup isnt on in my eyes, however having an away game two days after a big Premier League game isnt on either.
Pav was never going to be on top form when he’s had hardly any minutes on the pitch, and playing with unfamiliar players not to mention the fact he’s on a hiding to nothing even if he put in a hat trick – he’d still be out of the weekends match.
Another first round exit in the League Cup in such a fashion isn’t acceptable, but it was inevitable considering the circumstance.
Lets hope we pay the FA Cup more attention this year. It’s about winning things, and success breed success. Why you cant do well in both the league and cup is beyond me. We have the squad and the PROFESSIONAL players should be able to handle different competitions and playing more than one game a week.
Bet Birmingham would disagree….
With…?
Winning cups breeds success… winning the CC and then getting relegated …
There’s no problem with rotating the squad. Any club with with a decent squad size does it. The difference with Spurs is that we do so with the pre-acceptance that we are likely to lose. Any consistently successful club (look around at any sport) hates to lose. Spurs don’t hate to lose…”one of those days”, or “bad calls” is too often the refrain, and that’s what mires us a culture of victimization and mediocrity.
I agree with both points in the poll.
Hope this helps.
Would you compare a Roman chariot race to the Monaco Grand Prix?, both have vehicles and both go around in circles tryin to win, but times change and footballs no diffrence. Since the inception of the PL it’s inferred that cups comps have been devalued yet far more big teams have won the CC since 91 than before. Swindon,Aston Villa,QPR and lesser sides such as Oxford and Norwich. In the FA it wasn’t unsual for a second div side to reach the final or indeed win it. In the earlier rounds we’ve always experiented, perhaps not wholesale changes but it was always a chance to blood youngesters, nothing new there. In my early years Chris McGrath, Gary Brooke are a few names that spring to mind. The difference is unless you attended the games, you wouldn’t really know anything other than the result or a few lines in next day’s paper. Now, every detail is there and the microscope is fully focused via the net or TV coverage.Cup comps are essential to football, but the CL because of its financial rewards has taken precedent, but there’s no reason why it has to be either or, why not encourage both. As stated earlier, I’ve no problem with losing last night, I did however have a problem with some of the players out there, and they were 1st teamers not the ressies or yoot, but highly paid professionals, supposedly!
Get to CL level consistency and cups will follow.
Carling Cup and Loser League = Mickey Mouse
We should be aiming higher.