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Retirement beckons for doddery League Cup
The League Cup came through a difficult birth and a forgettable youth to enjoy a long, proud middle age but the time has come for this doddery old relative to be shuffled off into retirement.
When it was launched in the early 1960s the new, midweek competition was pretty much ignored by the big clubs, as evidenced by Rotherham and Rochdale reaching the first two finals.
In 1966/67 the format was changed, the final switching from a two-legged affair to a one-off Wembley showcase, and with the subsequent additional carrot of a place in Europe for the winners, it eventually became a serious tournament.
Throughout the 1970s, 80s and early 90s a League Cup winners’ medal was something worth having and the idea of Liverpool, who won it four times in a row from 1981 while still managing to compete and win in Europe, fielding a weakened team in the competition would have been preposterous.
However, the arrival of the Premier and Champions Leagues and the associated money, meant it quickly lost its appeal for most of the top-flight clubs.
Current Liverpool manager Rafa Benitez changed all 11 players from the team who drew with Stoke in the league last weekend for Tuesday’s home game against Crewe, while Manchester United and Arsenal were not far behind.
I am afraid, Mitch, that I have to disagree with you on this one, and instead side with Joe Brock’s article on the benefits of the Carling Cup. It is of course true that the big teams take less of an interest in the Carling Cup, though not perhaps to the extent that you suggest, given that Chelsea’s team by the end of their game against Burnley included Drogba, Malouda and Lampard, but far from devaluing the competition, this in fact heightens the interest for many fans. In the first place, it provides them with the opportunity to see exciting new players, many of them English, who may well be in Arsenal and Manchester United teams of the future, (Cesc Fabregas’ career at Arsenal began in a Carling cup fixture against Rotherham). It is also a chance for managers of such teams to blood their young talent, something that is essential when injuries hit, when in high profile matches they simply cannot afford to do so. Most importantly however, the fact that the big clubs field “weaker” sides means that the carling cup is an opportunity for lesser teams. It is not as though every fan in this country is a fan of one of the “big four” and those who aren’t may be quite glad to see someone else win a competition for a change. Tottenham’s delight at winning their first major trophy for over 50 years was plain to see last season, and most of the country was enthralled by what happened in the fa cup last year, when all the big teams were knocked out by the semi finals, and the whole point is that in the carling cup, if not in the fa cup, something like that could happen again.