Cup Runneths Over?
When the book finally comes to be written on the slow, lingering death of the FA Cup (working title: ‘Manchester United Ruined our Cup’ – well it worked for Colin Shindler), United’s misadventure in Brazil will of course get a hefty chapter. But surely worthy of a little more than a footnote will be Harry Redknapp’s comment earlier this week about fielding his weakest possible side at Old Trafford tomorrow evening. Many possible reactions suggest themselves, chief among them ‘how will we possibly tell Harry’s weakest from his strongest line-up?’Then there’s the slight issue of the contempt flung in the faces of those us who’ve been automatically cup schemed into forking out close to fifty quid for the pleasure of being there – not to mention in the faces of his own travelling support. Predictably Harry backtracked a little today, and we can chalk this up as another of his narky outbursts as he gets twitchily near to relegation.
Not that I’m here to whip up some fake outrage at his slighting of the venerable old competition. It’s clearly slid down the list of priorities right across the game and I class it along with the existence of Father Christmas and my love of Erasure as things that illuminated my childhood but have no place in my adult existence. What sticks in the craw is the fact that the real culprits behind the smothering of the cup are the Bolton’s and Boro’s of the world, the clubs that field drastically depleted sides because their sole priority is Premiership survival.
I’m not naïve. I understand the financial expediency behind such thinking. But when they finally find the murder weapon in this case, it won’t just be Alex Ferguson’s fingerprints all over it.
posted by Royton Red @ 10:01 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home