Have cup tournaments had their day?

Bluecabinboy

Bluecabinboy

Well-known member
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not pitching a ‘back in th’old days life were better’ o/p, but in all honesty, I recall that FA/League Cup ties used to be hugely competitive affairs, with full-strength teams competing for advancement or even potential, if unlikely, Wembley glory.

Now, the cup competitions seem to be totally devalued - at best, an opportunity to give squad players a run-out, or, at worst, an irritant that creates an unnecessary risk of injury to those key players who may be involved to better purpose.

Much as I enjoyed the old Home International tournament, is it realistically time to send the domestic cup competitions the same way - I really hate to say this, but, to be honest, I’ve no real interest in tonight’s game at all, other than to see who gets a run-out & how they perform vis-a-vis league matches.
 
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I like the early round of the FA cup when the none league teams are in it, but they could get rid of the league Cup for all I care. Its handy for fringe players to get minutes early in the season and that's it. Bit like the pizza cup, I only care about that if we get to the final.
 
Cups need rebranding and treated properly again.

Eg carabao - any team qualified in Europe are exempt, winners get a place in europa qualification league.
 
Lost Seasider said:
Personally, I'd drop the PL teams from the EFL cup.
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I think that's a good idea, and also scrap the lower league cup (whatever it's called these days). We would then have a completion that lots of teams have a chance of winning, and so play full strength teams. I'm not interested in any cup games playing against championship of premier league reserve teams.
 
Bluecabinboy said:
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not pitching a ‘back in th’old days life were better’ o/p, but in all honesty, I recall that FA/League Cup ties used to be hugely competitive affairs, with full-strength teams competing for advancement or even potential, if unlikely, Wembley glory.

Now, the cup competitions seem to be totally devalued - at best, an opportunity to give squad players a run-out, or, at worst, an irritant that creates an unnecessary risk of injury to those key players who may be involved to better purpose.

Much as I enjoyed the old Home International tournament, is it realistically time to send the domestic cup competitions the same way - I really hate to say this, but, to be honest, I’ve no real interest in tonight’s game at all, other than to see who gets a run-out & how they perform vis-a-vis league matches.
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I remember when the big teams started to play weakened teams and how that devalued the competition. The format now is so stupid, big teams only entering very late in the competition that there is no interest anymore for any lower level teams as they just play and knock each other out in the early rounds.

Now we even have third tier teams like ourselves playing a weakened team by making 7 changes despite playing away to a Premier League team, knowing they will play their own weakened team.

The whole thing might as well be scrapped. It only serves now as a squad run out game.
 
I would scrap the (WHAT I STILL CALL,) the 3rd and 4th division cup.
For the League Cup, a great idea was put earlier, to exclude Premiership teams, and include The National League Division.
I wouldn't include the North and South leagues.
🧡UTMP🧡
 
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