Twice UEFA Cup winners Tottenham Hotspur are most likely heading out of the competition after a 2-0 first-leg defeat at Shakhtar Donetsk in the first knockout round on Thursday.
The fact they fielded a ‘B’ team was not surprising. Manager Harry Redknapp had already stated several times that Premier League survival and the League Cup were his priorities. After the game Redknapp said: “I had a 17-year-old playing tonight and I will probably have four playing next week.”
The reason they will play with an under-strength team in the return leg next Thursday is that it comes three days after a crunch league match at Hull City and three days before their League Cup final against Manchester United.
Spurs have already lost to the Old Trafford side in the FA Cup fourth round after selecting a weakened team so it will be a welcome change for their fans that the starting lineup for the Wembley final will be the strongest they can muster.
The irony is that it was their surprise victory over Chelsea in last year’s League Cup final that got Spurs into the UEFA Cup in the first place. The delight that the supporters took in qualifying for a European campaign has been soured by the fact that it was not a priority to try to win the competition.
Fans spent their hard-earned money stumping up for tickets for the group stage matches only to find that the competition has almost turned into an irrelevance.
Of course, if Spurs were not struggling near the foot of the Premier League, cups would be more important but it is a sad indictment of the UEFA Cup’s standing that a team with a proud European history have had to relegate the competition to an irritant.
There will be a 48-team group stage in the competition next season when it is renamed the Europa League. I doubt Harry will be relishing the prospect.
For more blogs on other sports than soccer, check out http://blogs.reuters.com/sport
PHOTO: Shakhtar Donetsk’s Yevgen Seleznov scores against Tottenham Hotspur during their UEFA Cup match in Ukraine. Feb 19, 2009. REUTERS/Valery Belokryl
Trackback
5 comments so far
[...] Source: Ken Ferris [...]
- Posted by Soccer Camps » Blog Archive » UEFA Cup becomes an irrelevance for clubs like Spurs[...] the original post: UEFA Cup becomes an irrelevance for clubs like Spurs Tags: argentina, copyright, desktop-alerts, entertainment, germany, mobile, News, picture, [...]
- Posted by UEFA Cup becomes an irrelevance for clubs like Spurs - Everything related to European Football[...] to Source Share and [...]
- Posted by UEFA Cup becomes an irrelevance for clubs like Spurs | Soccer News Info[...] already expressed individual nowadays that Premier League activity and the League Cup were [...] Go to Source Last 5 posts in Premier LeagueFriday afternoon question: Should Giggs win PFA player of the year? - [...]
- Posted by UEFA Cup becomes an irrelevance for clubs like Spurs | TotalClubFootball[...] Go to Source [...]
- Posted by UEFA Cup becomes an irrelevance for clubs like Spurs | Sports 40