Well, as I sit here writing this another FA Cup weekend has just finished, and you wonder whether the career at Anfield of Liverpool manager Rafa Benitez is not far off going the same way. At least results like the Barnsley win though, masterminded by former Blue Simon Davey, make you wonder if the FA Cup still has some life left in it after the way a lot of people and clubs have lost interest in it over the last few years. Having said that the words of Reading striker Dave Kitson last month ahead of his side's third round game with Spurs hardly gave the competition a glowing endorsement, Kitson saying :"We are not going to win the FA Cup and I do not care less about it, to be honest. I care about staying in the Premier League, as does everybody at this club. Our league status is not protected by winning the FA Cup - simple as that." That's the way football is now though with the vast amounts of cash involved in doing well in the Champions League or staying in the Premier League itself. Worldwide auditors Deloitte themselves estimate that relegation from the top tier costs a club between £25 and £30 million over the course of two seasons, that loss having the potential to increase if the relegated club fails to get promoted back before the two-year parachute payments it receives end. When you look at the figures, a club like Manchester United would pick up £40,000 for winning an FA Cup third round tie, whereas they would receive £600,000 for tasting victory in a Champions League group match. The FA Cup prize fund obviously increases as the stages goes on, but so does the Champions League, the pot of gold for winning the final being a cool £7 million. So you can see why the clubs at the very top end of the Premier League don't have the vastest amount of interest in the FA Cup these days. Although the obvious problem now is that they can still, due to their huge squads, put our reserve teams and still get through to the latter stages of the competition. Look at the way what it isn't far off an Arsenal youth side has done in the Carling Cup over the last few years as a fine example. It still surprises me that clubs like Reading treat the competition with such disdain though, despite the financial pitfalls of dropping out of the Premier League. They no doubt already play a second-string side in the Carling Cup, so considering their first team players, bar any internationals, only play 38 games in nine months it's hardly a lot to expect the poor souls to play another seven or eight matches at the most in an effort to grab some silverware. You have to wonder what the fans of some of these mid and lower-table Premier League think about the fact that they often field very weakened teams in the competition and thus get knocked out early on. I wouldn't be happy about it at Carlisle for sure, and, before anyone mentions the Johnstone's Paint Trophy, I find that excusable as it is pretty low down on the wish list for me compared to a real money-spinning run in the FA Cup. And we're certainly due one of those that's for sure, the last time we even got as far as the excitement of the third round being the Arsenal match at Brunton Park way back in January 2001 under the management of Ian Atkins. As for the fourth round, well, that's the 2-0 home defeat against Sheffield Wednesday that was featured on Saturday night's Match of the Day in the 1996-97 season. That was a campaign in which we also got promoted and tasted victory on penalties at Wembley against Colchester in the Auto Windscreens Shield, as it then it was, to add weight to the point that you can be successful on numerous fronts. The United lads that season actually playing a mammoth 61 games over the course of nine months, so if we can do it at our level then I'm sure that clubs like Reading can manage to take on 45 matches. All these Premier League and Championship sides putting out weakened teams in the last few years though could just be helping to reignite the efforts of clubs in the bottom two tiers who can claim a big scalp easier than in years gone by. Bristol Rovers have shown the way this season by reaching the last eight, let's hope that we can get a run going in the FA Cup next year, but let's just make sure that we get past the opening round first before we worry about going any further. |