Have we lost the magic of the F.A. Cup?
Been apparent over the years that some clubs would rather field a reserve team than put out a first team due to other commitments.
Would it now be an idea to look at maybe allowing teams from Scotland,Wales and Ireland to be able to enter the competition.
This i feel would add more interest and bring back some much needed life into the competition, it's slowly being marginalised and slipping down the list of Priorities. Would certainly make an interesting draw.
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4th round draw Charlton v Cowdenbeath, can't see it catching on.
How about Total Network Solutions away ?
30,000 rod stewart wannabees every 2 years would help to boost the London economy (if you sell Tennants extra in large cans)
As for inviting the Scots and Welsh clubs in, I can see why they might like that but why would we? Once the novelty wears off could you really see attendances improving if , for example, Exeter drew Inverness?
Set the prize money at £1 million for a win from the 3rd round onwards , i'm sure we'd put out a full strength team then.
Don't know untill you try it, i think it could work. Chelsea vs Brentford is great but what team will Chelsea put out?
As for ITV billing West Ham vs Man U as the "tie of the third round"...who can get genuinely excited about something like that? Why would they? It's a regular Prem game.
It just seems as though each time the Cup comes around there are more and more publicly stated reasons as to why people don't want it:
- Replays cause us fixture congestion
- We don't want injuries
- The prize doesn't provide much money
Even when the little team draws the big team, all that seems to come up is "ooh, we can make some good money from that!".....If that's what the main attraction is for the smaller clubs these days, then yes the magic of the cup that was once there is now gone.
The closer it gets to the Final, the more tedious the tournament seems to be. Did Chelsea fans go absolutely nuts with excitement when they got to the final last year? No, probably not. They were happy of course but it pales in insignificance to two more important competitions.
And for crying out loud, take the Semi Finals away from Wembley. That for me is one of the ultimate sins of English Football.
I went on Saturday, I believed CP when he said he was genuinely going to try to win the game. I've fallen for that many times and I have to say that dropping Jackson, Morrison and Solly indicated, to me, that we weren't, genuinely, trying to win it.
If we'd been playing Sheffield Wednesday, a team that is likely to be involved in the relegation battle until April at least, on Saturday, I believe we would not have seen the same team.
I get that the tickets are cheaper, but for all season ticket holders this does not constitute a cheap visit to The Valley as our seats are already paid for normally. To ask fans that don't pay an entrance fee all season to stump up 50% more than the cinema to watch a reserve team play is going to drive the attendances down.
I probably won't go next season unless we draw a team that I believe will (a) generate a big enough crowd for an atmosphere and (b) generate enough interest that we will see the first team play.
As it happens the draw for the 4th round is, amazingly, less inspiring than the 3rd round, so I'm happy to be out of the competition.
Ironically I was particularly looking forward to Saturday's game because I could really relax and enjoy it safe in the knowledge that if we lost it wouldn't bother me. Now I'm glad we did lose.
Attendances: Disrespectful managers team selection affects attendances which ultimately means parts of the ground are closed resulting in no atmosphere. If the managers dont take the games seriously then how can they expect the fans to.
Tv: Why show Swansea v Arsenal and West Ham v United, those games do not represent the magic of the cup. Surely Luton v Wolves and Macclesfield v Cardiff were stand out fixtures, the results proved that.
Also why allow ESPN to show matches, that channel hardly shows any football for 12.99 a month so most people didnt even see yesterdays games unless you could be bothered to go to the pub.
Charlton: For games like Saturdays, put Charlton fans in the JSS and put the away fans in the lower north where there's no atmosphere, at least it gives us a chance to create some sort of atmosphere - that decision would not affect policing/stewarding if the north upper is closed. Its just "like for like" ...but we get the better of it.
Took my son on Saturday, fortunately i don't think he is traumatised long term but curious to know from East Stand regulars whether the view from the side makes us look even worse when we are bad ..and likewise is it pretty good when we play well. I used to stand on the East when i was a kid and I don't harbour any bad memories from games we lost so hopefully he will do the same.
We could been drawn against Utd, City, Chelsea etc at the Valley in round 4 with 27,000+, tv money, raise the profile of the club etc. Surely if the club needs money then try and win the game at all costs.
...all good reasons to play your strongest team surely ?
If people are so obsessed with facing one of the top 3, why not support someone else ?
Yes it would definitely be worth it.
Yes, gambling a season have you seen our injury record this season ? Hamer or solly out long term and our season would be pretty much finished. Id rather chase league security than 1 game against a Premier league team. At the end of the day, a couple of decent seasons and we could be playing all those great teams everyone here seems to be so desperate for.
Long term injuries to Yann, Wiggins and Fuller haven't exactly seen our season 'finish' have they?
Compare that to the old 'FA Cup Final Day' they used to have.
I think a lot of this is down to tv coverage in general though. Nowadays you can watch a live tv game on pretty much any day of the week, whereas back in the old days the cup final was one of only a few games shown during an entire season. So naturally it was the highlight of the season whereas now it's just another game.