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When Arsenal v Liverpool isn’t a big game

Published by Ian John on October 28, 2009

Tonight see’s Arsene Wenger’s Arsenal take on Rafa Benitez Liverpool at the Emirates in what would ordinarily be classified as a huge clash between the two sides. However tonight’s game is in the Carling Cup and with both sides set to field what will basically amount to an expensively assembled reserve team, it is hard to get truly excited at the prospect of the game between two of the Premier League’s heavyweights.

There are two sides to this, the first side is to take the stance that by playing weakened sides, as many Premiership and even Championship sides do in this competition now, it devalues the competition. Certainly if tonight’s game was to be contested by the first choice 11 for both teams, it would make for compulsive viewing. As it is, I will be going the pub instead to do a quiz. To me this is a reserve game. Yes it is in the Carling Cup, but it is still a reserve game. Managers may bleat on about this competition being “important” but the fact is, their team selections betray that. It is, at best, a tertiary consideration after the League, Europe (if they are in it) and FA cup.

The flip side of this is of course is that by “resting” players, managers are giving the talented youngsters and fringe players at their club a chance to play in games they would otherwise not get chance to play in. One of the biggest arguments for playing weakened teams in the competition is “Well, when am I supposed to play them?” A fair point? Is it? After all it means the best players get a much needed rest and the fringe/younger players get the exposure they deserve.

Personally I think it is utter tosh. If you buy these players and want to play them, then you should be able to do so in any game. What managers are doing is effectively stockpiling talent, preventing other clubs having these players where they can play regularly each week (and thus perhaps prove a threat to the bigger sides). They are using their financial muscle to over-inflate their squad and then arguing that this means that they must play a weakened side in order to give players the opportunities they deserve.

If I was Michael Owen, I’d be affronted that Sir Alex Ferguson signed me as a Carling Cup player and first team substitute. If I was a younger player, I’d want to know why I am only worthy of selection for one game a month, when all the other top players are being rested. Is this what we have now? An underclass of highly paid semi-professionals?

What is even worse is that this is now spreading into the FA Cup too. Once the showpiece competition of the world is now nothing more than an unwanted distraction for some teams, who choose to play their reserve team in the Semi Finals of the competition. How demeaning is that? Why should sponsors value and support these competitions when it is clear that clubs plaintively do not?

I think the time has come for Premier League teams to be banned from the Carling Cup. Let clubs who genuinely want to try and get to Wembley contest it. If Premier League teams want a cup competition for their reserve sides then let them organise one. Why should it be under the guise of a national competition for all first teams? It’s a joke and a betrayal of our traditions. So roll on the first Carling Cup final between Swindon Town and Northampton. It may not have the glamour of United’s Reserves v Liverpool’s reserves, but there is an honesty and integrity about it that the Premier league teams cannot match.

Image Courtesy of ***Action Sports*** at Flickr.com

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