The Prestige Of Wembley And The FA Cup

I watched both Millwall and Manchester United have to settle for replays in the FA Cup quarter finals over the weekend – as I said on Twitter, I wish Millwall all the very best in their replay tonight against Blackburn.

United, meanwhile, might be happy that they got a replay with the way the second half went on Sunday – it’s a cliche in football that you can “score too early” but I think that’s what happened with United – they couldn’t get that third goal and as we saw in the League Cup, Chelsea are capable of recovering from two goals down. It’s going to be a tough ask for my former clubs but I’m sure with a bit of luck they can get through to the semi finals.

All of that is what I’ve more or less said on Twitter but I wanted to write an article on how great I think the FA Cup still is; for me it’s still the best Cup competition, the most complete, and the more prestigious. People go on about how the Cup has changed over the years but it hasn’t, it’s remained exactly the same, it’s only the perception of it that’s changed. When you consider how many foreign players have come into the game over the last twenty years you begin to understand the correlation between that and people saying that it’s changed. It’s not as important to a foreign player, they don’t always understand the tradition of the competition. But people will talk about the magic of the Cup for years to come – I think it is underplayed, because I honestly feel it is the greatest Cup competition in the world.

I must confess from the outset that I’m not a huge fan of Arsene Wenger and his style of football anyway; so when I’ve heard him downplay the importance of the Cup in the past, reckoning that fourth spot in the Premier League is a bigger achievement, then that doesn’t exactly enamour me to him either. The football he plays at time can be good but isn’t effective when it matters; managers get their teams to play the game the way they would have liked to play and it hasn’t been a trophy winning style for Arsenal. But then it’s no surprise with the kind of attitude that Wenger has had with the Cup competitions. If I was a Premier League manager I wouldn’t be saying it would be okay to sacrifice a Cup competition to finish fourth. What’s fourth? I would want to win the Cup and win the League, or come as close as I could to it. Second, as they say, is nowhere. The hunger has gone from Wenger; the game has evolved, and his approach of trying to play good football and mixing that with young athletic French and African players doesn’t seem to be a successful one today. He’s not getting your Vieira’s from Senegal and not able to purchase the Henry’s – people have cottoned on to it, and he hasn’t moved forward with it. Before the Bayern Munich game Wenger has hinted he will rest players for the Swansea game at the weekend – what a joke, basically giving up on the very competition that you’ve sacrificed all others to qualify for.

I live in the USA and people love the FA Cup; it’s like the Superbowl. In America they play a league to get to the final of the Cup. In England, you get the League AND the Cup! The League is your bread and butter and the Cups are all jam; I love the knockout aspect of it.

Wemb-er-ley, Wemb-er-ley

I haven’t been to Wembley yet but I don’t look at the stands anyway, I look at the field. When I get back to Old Trafford, I’ll go to the stadium when it’s empty and just sit in the stands for about half an hour. No matter how much it changes, it’s always Old Trafford to me and the home of so many memories. Wembley is exactly the same, and it should be the pinnacle to play there. You look at all the ghosts of the players who have played there, you touch the goalposts of the nets you once tried to score in.

Absolutely magic, or it should be, shouldn’t it? Wembley should be that kind of achievement but now the stadium seems to be used every month. It’s a wrong move, in my opinion, to have the semi finals held there. Why not just play every game there in that case? Why not the quarters, seriously? Hold the semi finals, one North, and one South, the way it used to be. The national home is Wembley and the final should be there. It gets watered down, the achievement looks less. Promotions and relegations are watered down; you now have playoff’s, and where are those finals held? Wembley.

It just becomes a venue where the sixth placed team in the league has a chance of knocking out the third placed team. Again, if you’re going to go to that extreme and reward the team in sixth, why not give the entire division a play off? Play-off’s, if they should stay in, should be played home and away with the winner promoted. It gives a chance for both clubs to get revenue in the right way. What about those who can’t afford to go to Wembley – they might like the day out, but I just feel it should be done home and away. What’s next? The first semi final at 2pm, and the second at 4pm? It’s publicity overkill.

It’s just my opinion of course, but if you are worried about the prestige of the Cup, then maybe restoring the prestige of playing at Wembley might be a good first step.

Thanks for reading. I’ll be back later in the week to tell you about a project I’m involved with and hope you will be interested in finding out more. Bye for now, Gordon.