We could ease congestion by scrapping Cup replays: Pep
PEP Guardiola insists he enjoys the FA Cup and its traditions — but would like to see replays axed.
The Manchester City manager said earlier this week that ditching the Carabao Cup would be a good way to ease fixture congestion.
But he accepts that is not going to happen and instead would like to find ways to make the competitions better.
Speaking at a press conference to preview tomorrow’s FA Cup fourth-round tie with Fulham, Guardiola (below) said: “I’m not saying what the FA have to do. When I said what I did, I never expected that the Carabao Cup or FA Cup was going to go.
“What is nice about this country is how you maintain the traditions. In traditions you can involve some new things to make the competitions nicer, but all the traditions are there, not just in sport but in culture and society and that is top. I admire that. The Carabao Cup and FA Cup will be played.
“But maybe we could cancel the replays, have fewer teams in the Championship or Premier League.
“I tried to be honest and answer the question but I don’t think about what they have to do, it’s not my business. My business is to prepare my team.
“When they decide to play these games, and the other games, we do it.”
City won both domestic cups last season and they will target them again with the Premier League title now out of reach.
City are second in the table but trail runaway leaders Liverpool by 16 points.
The Merseysiders are on target to break City’s record 100-point tally of two years ago.
Guardiola said: “It can happen. The records are always there to be broken. We broke it when someone thought it couldn’t be broken. Sooner or later it is going to happen — this season or in the future. History speaks clearly about that.”
City defender Aymeric Laporte returned to action in Tuesday’s victory at Sheffield United after almost five months out with a knee injury.
The Frenchman was badly missed as City lost touch with Liverpool, but Guardiola has warned against expecting too much of him too soon.
He said: “He played a little bit more than 70 minutes for the first game. He played well but he’s not going to solve all the problems we have.”
IN the Manchester United dressing room at Selhurst Park, Sir Alex Ferguson was ripping into Eric Cantona “with a fury he’d rarely used before”, only to suddenly stop himself. It was as if the Old Trafford great had just registered the inherent madness of what he was saying. Ferguson actually laughed.
“When the boss is having a go at Eric, it wasn’t like a bad challenge or pass,” United right-back Paul Parker says. “He decided to jump two-footed into the chest of a supporter.
“And then the boss kind of starts grinning, and we start sniggering ourselves.”
This was mostly nervous laughter of disbelief, and that was despite the fact neither Ferguson nor the squad had realised just how bad that incident on January 25, 1995 was.
It wouldn’t occur to Ferguson until the next morning. He watched a video of United’s 1-1 draw with Crystal Palace, and sat there “appalled” as he witnessed his star launch himself at hooligan Matthew Simmons.
If the sensational nature of that moment was difficult to get your head around 25 years ago, it is almost the opposite now.
Cantona’s kung-fu kick has become such a part of football culture that its seriousness — a criminal offence — is almost underplayed, a piece of pantomime.
It is tempting to wonder what the reaction would be if similar took place in today’s uber-digital age. Back then, the first a general audience knew of it was with Des Lynam’s solemn introduction to BBC’s Sportsnight, a good hour after the incident.
That moment genuinely remains unmatched, though. It was, to quote Parker, “madness”.
It was also so astounding that it actually historically overshadowed the madness of what happened next, even as Cantona’s kick itself kick-started a chain reaction of moments that tested credulity themselves. Ferguson had another description: “a sequence of disasters”.
The story of that night has now been well told, but the story of what it provoked is probably more interesting, and much more relevant today.
It is not so much Cantona’s story, either. It is Ferguson’s. He displayed a will, vision, adaptability and absolute steel nerve that is sorely missing at Old Trafford now.
It is not an exaggeration to call 1995 one of the most tempestuous years of United’s history. Martin Edwards wrote in his book that the “whole affair was a complete nightmare”.
Aside from having to deal with the loss of his finest player in a tight league race with Blackburn and all the fall-out from that, Ferguson faced further disciplinary issues; three other key players agitating for moves; one of the most “miserable” ever finishes to a season, the break-up of a champion team and the open criticism of Ferguson by supporters and officials. All of it culminated in one of football’s great gambles.
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Mere hours after the kick happened, Edwards met with David
Davies of the FA, with one sentence summing up the severity.
“We’re not talking a life ban here, are we?” Edwards asked.
It is with the benefit of hindsight that it almost feels Cantona’s entire life in football had been building to something like this. Moments like disgraceful stamps on John Moncur were mere steps to this, the build-up.
It is now almost impossible to imagine Cantona without this career moment. At the time, however, it was almost impossible to imagine how this wouldn’t be the end of that career.
Even Ferguson admitted his “initial feeling was for letting Eric go”.
That quickly passed, and among a number of influences was a call from Sir Richard Greenbury, the head of Marks and Spencers. A United fan, he impressed upon Ferguson the distinctiveness of Cantona’s sporting personality, likening him to John McEnroe.
And this is how serious it was. Club solicitor Maurice Watkins warned the club that tough action or an apology could prejudice the player’s defence.
For their part, United knew this wasn’t just about the player, but also about the moral standards of the club.
After a day of meetings, while the football world demanded Cantona be “kicked out of the game”, United decided upon a four-month ban.
It had been indicated to Ferguson that action this swift and severe would be enough to assuage the FA from further punishment, only for Cantona to be summoned before the governing body for bringing the game into disrepute. The FA added a further four months’ suspension.
Watkins said he’d been “under tremendous strain”. That comment came in the press conference after Cantona’s two-week jail sentence had been reduced to 120 hours community service.
The initial court case was a media circus. It was one of many that doubtless prompted one of the most famous moments of the affair, in that press conference.
“When the seagulls follow the trawler, they think it will be because sardines will be thrown into the sea.”
Cantona was asking internally, did he really want to stay for this? It genuinely seemed like that kick could be his last for Manchester United.
Ferguson was already of a mind to make sure the club kept him. He first had to make sure the club kept the Premier League trophy.
The Blackburn players couldn’t believe their luck.
It was only three days before Selhurst Park that Cantona had scored the winner over Blackburn in a tight 1-0 victory that seemed to turn the title race.
Now, as Chris Sutton put it, “their talisman had gone!”
United hadn’t gone, however. Their response? They won the next three league games.
That in itself is testament to the side’s tenacity.
What is really remarkable about it is that there was no rallying call from Ferguson.
“It just carried on,” Parker says. “It was just about him knowing the players he had.”
That, without saying anything, was Ferguson’s implicit message. He knew that making any kind of big deal out of Cantona’s suspension might have played on the minds of the players.
He was perfectly willing to play on the minds of the Blackburn players. Ferguson had sensed a fragility there, noticing manager Kenny Dalglish was saying all the right things, but that his demeanour was different. He referenced Devon Loch.
“My line was that Blackburn were so much in command that now they could only throw the Championship away,” Ferguson wrote in his autobiography, drawing on the analogy of the Queen Mother’s steeplechaser that had collapsed on the Grand National run-in with the race won. “It may have been a pretty corny psychological tactic but it was worth a try.”
Whether it actually worked is hard to say, but Blackburn were feeling the pressure.
Ahead of the last day, Ferguson sincerely told his players Blackburn would “bottle it”.
The aim was to embolden United as they tried to get the win they needed at West Ham, and so ensure they weren’t in any way thinking about Blackburn’s trip to Liverpool.
This was just another incredible part of the Cantona affair, as it contributed to one of the wildest final days ever seen.