Premier League Nonsense

It has long been thought that the big English clubs have looked down their noses at the Carling Cup. With the stature of the English Premier League as well as the importance clubs place on qualifying for the UEFA Champions League the Carling Cup is assumed to have slipped down the list of priorities at the big teams.

The facts however suggest otherwise. One from Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester United has appeared in every final in 2004. If you add Tottenham Hotspur to that list, they have always taken the competition more seriously than other clubs, then only one final since 1998 has featured none of the five.

Managers like Sir Alex Ferguson and Jose Mourinho would suggest that winning is a habit that needs to run through the whole club and that by winning even the ‘lowly’ Carling Cup would provide a boost throughout the football club as well as giving the fans something to cheer. And certainly Manchester United fans have had plenty to cheer about having won the trophy three times in the last six years.

Contrast that with Arsenal where manager Arsene Wenger has frequently expressed his contempt for the competition though after the heartbreaking defeat to Birmingham City last season perhaps he has now changed his view.

This season’s quarter final draw shows how seriously the big teams take the competition. The new money bags of English football, Manchester City, travel to London to take on last season’s beaten finalists, Arsenal who have turned around a season that was heading to debacle a couple of months back.

Chelsea host Liverpool. The Blues have appeared in four finals since 1998, winning two, while Liverpool have appeared in more finals than any other team, ten, and won more than any other team, seven. Liverpool have been showing signs of starting to gel and Kenny Dalglish, part of the Liverpool team that won the trophy in four successive years back in the 1980s knows all about how important picking up a winners medal is for a player’s self esteem.

At Old Trafford Manchester United will take on Crystal Palace. Ironically, given the perceived wisdom of big club apathy being a recent phenomena, United have never really rated the competition and it wasn’t until 1983 that they made their first final. They lost to Liverpool but Sir Alex has been less condescending and under his reign they have appeared in seven finals, winning four. Including back to back triumphs in 2009 and 2010.

The only romance on the cards will come from Wales where Cardiff City host Blackburn Rovers. The Lancashire side of course won the trophy back in 2002, their only success so far.

The odds are the final this year will yet again be dominated by the big boys of English football leaving the minnows to fight for the scraps and pray for the occasional home draw, like Aldershot hosting Manchester United in the last round, which can provide a much needed financial windfall. Still, Birmingham City showed last season what is possible.

The likes of Manchester United and Arsenal have used the cup as a training ground for their younger players as well as an opportunity for players on the fringes of the squad to show their worth.

The facts though suggest that

# posted by Me @ 9:42 AM