MAGIC MOMENTS
Long live the League Cup
AS A football fan, there are always key dates you look out for at the start of every season - the opening (and final) day, renewing rivalries in local derbies, FA Cup third round weekend plus the Christmas, Easter and Bank Holiday fixtures.
The first round of the League Cup may not be such an obvious favourite, especially this year when it coincided with the unveiling of Barcelona legend Lionel Messi as a Paris Saint-Germain player.
But if you were paying more attention to Messi, who seemed rather pleased to be in Paris for a bloke who was broken-hearted to be saying adios to Barca 72 hours earlier, then you may have missed further examples of why watching football as day turns to night, with the chance of an upset or penalty shoot-out and an opportunity to see emerging young players, can be one of the best weeks of the campaign.
Seven Championship sides - Blackburn Rovers, Barnsley, Hull City, Bristol City, Coventry City, Peterborough United and Luton Town - were eliminated by clubs from a lower division at the earliest possible stage, while 14 matches in all went to spot-kicks after 90 minutes.
We also saw moments of the highest quality, such as Ravel Morrison’s strike that spared Derby County from defeat at home to Salford City, and no doubt as the season progresses we’ll see more shocks as the Premier League teams enter the fray.
Admittedly, with some managers using the competition as a chance to give minutes to fringe players and with a pyramid as fluid as the one we have in English football, it can be hard at times to tell the difference between David and Goliath and work out who the genuine giant-killers are.
Equally, it’s fair to say this tournament has never been the most loved on the football calendar. When the Football League launched the League Cup in 1960, the leading clubs of the time condemned it as an unnecessary burden on the players with Wolverhampton Wanderers, Tottenham Hotspur, West Bromwich Albion, Arsenal and Sheffield Wednesday all refusing to take part in the first edition.
Ever since that troubled inception the point of the event has been questioned, particularly now that the winners are ‘rewarded’ with a place in the recently formed Europa Conference League rather than the UEFA Cup/Europa League, while the fixture congestion brigade are always complaining about
the semi-finals in January being played over two legs. However, now that France have got rid of their League Cup, having a secondary major cup competition is unique to the so-called top five European leagues and is part of the charm of English football.
Scaling things back, or scrapping it altogether, might also make the English game less attractive to Europe’s most successful managers, who are just as tempted by the amount of silverware on offer in this country as they are by the Premier League money they receive in their weekly pay packet.
That sentiment is mostly true for bosses such as Jose Mourinho, who used the 2005 League Cup as the catalyst for success in his first spell as Chelsea.
Pep Guardiola has been even more ruthless in guiding Manchester City to triumph in each of the last four seasons, so much so that you could forgive the Football League for asking the Catalan coach to sponsor the trophy rather than energy drink giants Carabao.
You could also argue this tournament has been just as memorable for unfancied sides as the FA Cup. Just ask fans of Bradford City and Tranmere Rovers, who have seen their respective clubs reach a major Wembley final this century.
Or supporters of Burton Albion, who enjoyed a run to the semi-finals in 2019. Or followers of York City, who witnessed a triumph against Manchester United over two legs in 1995. Or spectators of Swindon Town, Oxford United and Swansea City (to name just a few) for whom the League Cup is their only major domestic trophy to date.
It’s not as if there are no other ways of downsizing the schedule either. For instance, if two-legged semis are such a problem, why do we need clubs to travel across the continent to play Champions and Europa League ties over the same format?
And if the burden on players and staff is so great, why have we had an all-English Champions League final in two of the last three seasons, including last term when the response to the pandemic meant that the pile-up of games was greater than ever?
With the amount of money these topflight clubs still receive, you can build squads to any standard you like to cope with any backlog.
With those things in mind, let’s hope the League Cup is something we can still look forward to and that it continues to create magic moments and memories for all of us.