The end of the League Cup

[Paulus]

How about making it an 'opt-in' kind of thing?

It started off that way, led to Rochdale's great moment of glory and indeed Norwich's at the time.

 

[BettingBlade]

I've said it before and I'll say it again - any team competing in a European competition is removed from the EFL Cup for that season. Either that, or as Ainsley Harriott has suggested, give them an "opt in" option. If it's that much of a ball ache to them they'll opt out anyway.

I was thinking the exact same reading through. Gives other teams a chance to win some silverware in the same way that the paint pot trophy does for leagues one and two. Let UEFA have their tournaments. For most of the remaining clubs I think the league cup would not only retain its significance but increase for many others too.

 

[thawot]

So not the bottom 13-15 of the Prem? i.e. the teams who would really like to win it, and already play the least games out of all the teams in the country?

Teams fighting to retain their Premier League status? Nah.

 

[bongleblade]

Could we not just play League cup games earlier and make the semi-finals 1 leg? This would mean that the Semis would be in the build up to Xmas, and the final could be scheduled for New Years Day (would make a cracking match).

The EFL starts on 2nd August, with 1st League cup fixture on Aug 8th, but could we not make an exception for the League cup and have it's 1st rounds amongst the usual friendly games pre-season? And scrapping the Semis 2nd leg helps de-congest the fixtures further.

Some Championship teams would consider 1st round a friendly game anyway, and most Lower league teams play a higher-up team in their friendlies.

Just a thought on a more simple solution to scrapping it completely, or am i over-simplifying it?

 

[Working Class Hero]

The bottom 13-15 Premier League teams are more bothered about making sure they stay in the Premier League than winning the League Cup. Hence why we played the reserves for all the matches. You can't pin the League Cup's demise solely on the big clubs when the Premier League bottom clubs as well as the Championship clubs aren't arsed about it.

But what would be the benefit be to those clubs, of not being entered (or the cup scrapped)? All you've done is take away a potential trophy and stop them from being able to give fringe players a run.

 

[corner_flag]

Remove the Premier League, let the EFL clubs play it among themselves. It's their competition, after all. Maybe they can then cancel the Autowindscreens as well. EFL can even play with it a bit more, invite the Scottish leagues plus another 14 clubs from Wales/Norn Iron to make it more interesting, who wouldn't want to see Airbus UK v Scunthorpe

I really like that idea. Can't believe we don't have a competition across England, Wales, Scotland and NI

Maybe First two rounds in home Nation to cut down on the travelling

 

[Hamburg Blade]

I really like that idea. Can't believe we don't have a competition across England, Wales, Scotland and NI

Maybe First two rounds in home Nation to cut down on the travelling

The FAs of Wales Scotland and NI won't go for it because of the danger of it being a first step to merging the associations and having a UK league and national team.

 

[itsinyerblood]

The world goes around and around, and changes are arrived at that sometimes should have happened already.

The League Cup, in whatever guise it adopted, was always the poor relative to the FA Cup. Too many domestic competitions was a sure way of devaluing the significance not only of Cup competitions generally, but of football as a whole. We now have football on a scale that was once considered unimaginable. Although there's still an appetite for the game, driven by a paying customer whose desire to watch football 24/7, I can see parallels with the old cinema versus TV debate. There was a time when the audience that attended cinema seemed secure and couldn't be budged...until, that is, TV came along, and in not too short a time frame the grip of the Hollywood studios, via their ownership and monopoly of cinema theatres across the USA, began to crumble as TV offered the luxury of home entertainment and offered something that cinema couldn't compete with.

I'm not suggesting that the current model for professional football is under threat, but there's every point in considering the need to remove some of the less appealing sideshows that have tagged along, often acting like dead weight, performing as a drag on the main proposition that is otherwise healthy. To my mind the League Cup exhausted it's reason for being long ago, in effect it had become just another competition, not something that had a legitimate value as the FA Cup has managed to retain. Perceptions can still change, and if a casual indifference became a hardened belief then what was once an integral item on the football calendar would join a list of the many competitions that were once viewed as domestic football's essential competitions. The FA is a behemoth that is alert to the main generators of football income, but has lost it's focus where football's lesser competitions are concerned, hence the demise of the League Cup and whether it still merits a place in our football calendar.

 

[bladesmanluke]

What fucking fixture congestion? We've only played about twice since Christmas

 

[YES Blade]

But what would be the benefit be to those clubs, of not being entered (or the cup scrapped)? All you've done is take away a potential trophy and stop them from being able to give fringe players a run.

On the flip side to that, what are we losing if it's scrapped? Will anyone actually care?

We aren't going to try and win it unless our reserves get us to the Semis, so why should I care about it?

 

[Hamburg Blade]

I'm not suggesting that the current model for professional football is under threat, but there's every point in considering the need to remove some of the less appealing sideshows that have tagged along, often acting like dead weight, performing as a drag on the main proposition that is otherwise healthy. To my mind the League Cup exhausted it's reason for being long ago, in effect it had become just another competition, not something that had a legitimate value as the FA Cup has managed to retain. Perceptions can still change, and if a casual indifference became a hardened belief then what was once an integral item on the football calendar would join a list of the many competitions that were once viewed as domestic football's essential competitions. The FA is a behemoth that is alert to the main generators of football income, but has lost it's focus where football's lesser competitions are concerned, hence the demise of the League Cup and whether it still merits a place in our football calendar.

You'll get into some reight trouble talking about women's football like that.

 

[Working Class Hero]

On the flip side to that, what are we losing if it's scrapped? Will anyone actually care?

33% of all domestic trophies that every fan in this country will ever see their team lift.

 

[YES Blade]

33% of all domestic trophies that every fan in this country will ever see their team lift.

But we don't try and win it, if Wilder and the club aren't bothered about trying to win it, why should I care if it's scrapped?

 

[Hamburg Blade]

But we don't try and win it, if Wilder and the club aren't bothered about trying to win it, why should I care if it's scrapped?

I'm not sure that that's entirely true. Just because you don't put out your first team doesn't mean you aren't trying to win the game. Squad players, fringe and youth players tipped for a first team place should be able to go out and win games against teams from lower divisions.

 

[Working Class Hero]

But we don't try and win it, if Wilder and the club aren't bothered about trying to win it, why should I care if it's scrapped?

Are you bothered about the FA Cup quarter final? Wilder didn't name any stronger team in the early rounds of that cup than he did in the EFL cup.

I don't understand why fans get so annoyed at weakened teams in the early rounds. It's always happened and always will. Once you get to the later rounds we all love it.

 

[itsinyerblood]

You'll get into some reight trouble talking about women's football like that.

Especially after the way they played against the USA.......apparently Phil Neville has brought in the football science person who has masterminded the rise of American football, whether this will be enough to flip the current lack of success may not be enough to keep him in a job if they lose their next few games.

Interesting topic whether women's football merits it's current use of BBC resources (personally I'm in favour, but dependent on certain conditions or improvements being met). Exactly the same can be said about the resources dedicated to American Football that the Beeb seems to think helps the growth of the game throughout the UK.

 

[Hamburg Blade]

Especially after the way they played against the USA.......apparently Phil Neville has brought in the football science person who has masterminded the rise of American football, whether this will be enough to flip the current lack of success may not be enough to keep him in a job if they lose their next few games.

Interesting topic whether women's football merits it's current use of BBC resources (personally I'm in favour, but dependent on certain conditions or improvements being met). Exactly the same can be said about the resources dedicated to American Football that the Beeb seems to think helps the growth of the game throughout the UK.

It will be interesting to see whether Phil Neville can go from managing the women's team to a job managing a men's professional team, or whether clubs will ignore him. (If he wants to, of course).

 

[itsinyerblood]

It will be interesting to see whether Phil Neville can go from managing the women's team to a job managing a men's professional team, or whether clubs will ignore him. (If he wants to, of course).

An interesting one, one moment Phil's trajectory is an upward one, the next it's as if he can't prevent the slide. I'm not up to scratch regarding why Phil first took the role as manager of the women's national team - the need to be employed seems obvious - but how the men's game perceive managers within the women's game is a mystery to me

 

[JayGreen17]

The 2 legged semis need to be scrapped and be at neutral grounds, NOT Wembley.

 

[Westran]

David Moyes has suggested the League Cup should be replaced by a British Cup: "My opinion on it is I've always thought we should have included Scotland.

It's in need of some way of being revamped. A couple of teams from Northern Ireland, maybe two of the Welsh League clubs."


Not a bad idea really. A trip to some of the scottish grounds would be great.