FA . cup how times have changed.

Go back a long way with the Cup games supporting Bolton, remember as a kid seeing us win the 58 final on my aunties telly up Halliwell.
We played Liverpool at Burnden in the mid 60's, 5th round over 57,000 on , fucking hell about 7.000 of us turned up yesterday, just shows how times and trends change.

Surely some of us remember the times when the FA cup mattered.... Stoke apart.

some of my happiest football memories are about cup games, especially my favourite game of all - the 3-1 win at Highbury when they were the cup holders. Being in the clock end and going mad when Andy Walker scored still makes me smile to this day.

Banks of the Croal wrote:

Surely some of us remember the times when the FA cup mattered.... Stoke apart.

I can remember a time in the 90's when the FA Cup football was far and away the most important part of the season. Back then we'd only seen the big boys on TV so to be actually playing them (and winning!) was fantastic. I used to take my radio to school with me when the cup draw was made on a Monday lunchtime.

20 years ago we took over 10,000 to Anfield to watch us destroy the scousers.

*I can't believe it was 20 years ago. Life is passing me by.

I love the Cup even though it's been allegedly devalued by assholes like Manu putting out shit teams and more recently clubs including ourselves focussing on league position and using the cup to try out fringe players. What pisses me off though is that if we're not going to take it seriously, we should go the whole hog and experiment with systems and selections that could be useful to us and generally be a bit more creative in our approach to the Cup.

Its money that has spoiled it. There is no money in the FA cup so clubs cant be arsed.

Here is how I would fix it...

Offer the last champions league spot to the winner instead of 4th place - if the winner has already qualified, the runner up gets it, if they both qualify the 3rd placed team gets it and so on. Clubs would fight more for the cup then, that potentially lucrative champions league spot being the spoils.

obviously, UEFA would get in the way of this so its a non-starter anyway, but it would work. give teams something to work towards.

only 7 different teams have won it since 1991. Thats why it's shit.

Rebel is right, the money isn't there, how that can be fixed im not sure.

Even our own players (Zat Knight) were calling it a distraction before the Sunderland game..

The FA cup is so lowly to Zat Knight its seen as a distraction... times have indeed changed

exactly hipster - smaller clubs are more arsed about staying up and not losing any players than going for it.

offer a big fat, juicy champions league spot and they will fight for it more.

These days a club from the Championship has close to 0% chance of actually winning the cup. A lower end of the Premier League club only has a slightly higher chance. Fans aren't stupid and they know this. I've always loved the romance of the FA Cup but I've also always considered the League Cup a far more winnable competition, as the big teams don't take it as seriously. We've come so close to winning it on a couple of occasions as well, far closer than we've come to winning the FA Cup in recent times anyway.

The times have changed and the reason for this is simple - CASH. It's the same as the league, if you've got the cash, you've got the chance of winning the league or cup. If you don't, you're just making up the numbers and hoping to cause an occasional upset.

If only we could return to the days where the whole top-flight and some of the second tier had a chance to win the cup and we only played the final at Wembley (making it more special getting to the final).

Hipster_Nebula wrote:only 7 different teams have won it since 1991. Thats why it's shit.

Only 5 teams have won the Premiership since it's inauguration in 1992, so I think your comment refers to the role of money in English football in general as opposed to the FA Cup in particular.

Reebok_Rebel wrote:exactly hipster - smaller clubs are more arsed about staying up and not losing any players than going for it.

offer a big fat, juicy champions league spot and they will fight for it more.

Id say you would need more money for getting through each stage, not just a big prize for winning it.

The amount of money we get now for passing each round is pitiful, almost negligible unless your a League 2 side.

That would make teams try harder to get through even at the earlier stages.

Hipster_Nebula wrote:only 7 different teams have won it since 1991. Thats why it's shit.

Utter shite.

Natasha Whittam wrote:

Hipster_Nebula wrote:only 7 different teams have won it since 1991. Thats why it's shit.

Utter shite.

Just my opinion Nat, as valid as yours.

I just think a lack of competitiveness makes competitions less exciting.

Many clubs used to view the fielding of second stream sides as an opportunity for lesser lights to get into Europe and if a CL team wins it, the runner-up could get a place (Millwall 2004/5) I think that's changed in the last year or so. It's apparent that PL teams who are expected to do well in the prem but are trailing off the pace are taking the FA Cup very seriously. Can't say there was much evidence of Chelsea, Liverpool or City playing substantially weakened teams last weekend so I'm assuming they are going for it. Maybe the kudos and competitiveness is returning to the cup already to some extent?

A "distraction" can be a blessing in disguise. It's not necessarily a good thing having two weeks to "prepare" for a league match, although it might seem it to the modern day professional.

What happened to relishing a challenge? What happened to people to whom it wasn't a challenge?

doffcocker wrote:A "distraction" can be a blessing in disguise. It's not necessarily a good thing having two weeks to "prepare" for a league match, although it might seem it to the modern day professional.

What happened to relishing a challenge? What happened to people to whom it wasn't a challenge?

What happened to making a challenge? Outlawed from the game since players became prized assets. Precious.