West Ham Vice-Chairman Karren Brady says that “Staying up seems to have become more important than trophies as clubs and fans follow the money”
Writing in her Sun newspaper column
“Wigan won the FA Cup in 2013 and were relegated from the Premier League three days later. I wonder what their fans think about that now their team is third from bottom of the Championship. And I also wonder whether Blues followers in Birmingham feel similarly about their club doing roughly the same thing in 2011, although their trophy was the rather less hallowed League Cup.
My guess is their fans never boast of 12th in the top division while memories of their cup triumphs will take decades to die.
Staying up seems to have grown more important than trophies. “Following the money” is the ailment passed on from owners to supporters, chiefly by way of managers who pick weakened teams because no one ever heard of a sacking as a result of the loss of a cup match.
It’s called a knockout competition for another reason. This is a sad circumstance, it really is.
I was glad to see David Moyes made only three changes for our third-round tie at Gillingham, maybe because he sees the Cup as a way of making this a memorable season at West Ham — or it could also have been to avoid the kind of confidence-crushing defeat by Oxford United in the Carabao Cup last September.
I’m making no pretence that our board would prefer Wembley Way to firmly in the Prem way.
But there should be room in the fixture list to enable managers to pick their best teams.
It isn’t just the possible loss of players to injury or the weary state of stars that persuades a manager his club can do without a cup run.
They know league performance is examination for their future employment at the current or higher level.
Managers of the elite clubs do not have to bother very much about cups.
Only the league and European tournaments can guarantee them bumper salaries, a big-city football playhouse and a special reputation.
Some have found winning the FA Cup has value, though.
After his Wigan experience, Roberto Martinez was later to win the Belgium job.
And, conversely, it is true that leading the title winners was not a strong commendation to save Manuel Pellegrini at Manchester City or for Claudio Ranieri at Leicester.
It isn’t hard to understand why Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp picked a subs-and-kids side for Sunday’s tie against Everton.
What is much more difficult to comprehend is why mid-table men of the Premier League and Championship neglect to try to add some serious thrills to the season by fielding less than their best. It’s also a long time since a second-tier team reached the final and there has never been a better chance than now to do it. Some teams fielded last weekend were seriously undercooked.
One of the best things in football has always been that clubs right down to the tenth tier qualify and even dream of making the first round proper.
A run to round three can mean big money but, more than this, the football community prospers.
Instead of treating our oldest competition as an awkward necessity we have to find proper room and time for it — not including cups in season tickets hasn’t helped, either.”
To take both domestic cups and the league seriously requires a squad of sufficient depth and capability.
That requires identifying and recruiting suitable players of quality who preferably don’t come with a history of injuries and are not nearing retirement age.
And all that in turn requires sufficient funding! Not something this current board is overly concerned about.
The power of the Cup is still so important to many of us of a certain vintage who can remember us actually winning something – Cardiff 2006 still gets to me. With a heavy heart I’d swop further progress this year for staying in the Premiership but we should be achieving both. Wish KB would stop her column and spend her energy helping us get some new blood into the squad – she talks such a great negotiating game with TV’s Lord Spud after all.