As Ben Hinchliffe shakes the hands of Wolves players not old enough to wear the betting sponsor on their shirts, I find myself asking, “Is this what the founders of this competition had in mind?”
Take nothing away from anyone involved in this week’s Vertu Trophy group stage clash. Eight goals and a glimpse at the emerging talent is enough to pique mild interest among the 949 County fans rattling around the Danny Bergara Stand.
But this fixture follows hot on the heels of the first two rounds of the League Cup in which Chally and his counterparts Lee Bell and Ryan Lowe made wholesale changes to their starting XIs. They are far from alone. Managers up and down the country are treating the League Cup and the EFL Trophy with ever-decreasing priority.
A sparsely-populated EP for the Vertu Trophy ‘clash’ vs Wolves U21s. At least there were flags and banners behind the goal during Covid.
Crewe fans had arrived at EP three weeks earlier in good numbers, expectant and undoubtedly buoyed by their winning start in the league and fond memories of that rare off night at EP for County during our League 2 title-winning campaign.
Imagine their disappointment when Lee Bell made nine changes to the team who had beaten Accrington at the Mornflake four days earlier. At least they didn’t take their frustration out on the Pop Side bogs this time.
It’s a similar story in the second round. The quirk of the draw which saw County visit the Brick Community Stadium twice in five days only served to highlight fans’ apathy for the League Cup. A crowd of 11,078 attend the league game – almost four times more than the Carabao Cup attendance four days earlier.
Fans of Grimsby, Mansfield or Doncaster will call me churlish. As will the friends and family of those lads who represented Wolves (and County) this week. But what is the future for our domestic cup competitions?
Fixture congestion is a problem for our game, and professional sport in general. Yet a look back at the history of the League Cup tells us that the football calendar has always been thus.
The final of the inaugural 1960/61 season, which saw Villa beat second-tier Rotherham, was delayed until the start of the following season due to… fixture congestion. They had a valid excuse in the 60s. Replays settled drawn ties in earlier rounds, and the semi-finals and final were played across two legs. The 1977 final between Everton and Villa lasted 330 minutes when the sides couldn’t be separated after a final and two replays, both of which went to extra time. There was certainly no time for post-season tours to America or the Far East.
And yet for decades, managers played their strongest possible side, resulting in some incredible cup runs which gave supporters some of the greatest moments following their team.
Even after the introduction of automatic European qualification for the League Cup winners in 1968 made the competition more attractive to top-flight clubs who had hitherto abstained from the competition, there were frequent latter stage appearances for lower league clubs. There were even famous trophies for third-tier Swindon in 1969, second-tier Villa in 1975, and Oldham and Sheffield Wednesday more recently in the early 90s. The Owls remain the last side outside the top tier to win the competition in 1991, and it is now hard to see that ever being emulated. Incidentally, in a sign of just how little football has changed in one respect since the 60s, Swindon were denied the opportunity to participate in Europe due to their third-tier status.
The graph below shows how the number clubs outside the top flight of English football to reach the latter stages of the League Cup has gradually diminished over the decades. 24 clubs outside the top tier, including County, reached the last eight of the competition in the 90s. Just six have achieved that so far in the 2020s, with none doing so last season. The growing disparity between the Premier League and the rest of the pyramid is of course a contributing factor, but more significant is the constant selection of second-string XIs by managers at all levels.
You could even make a case that the diminishing importance of the competition in managers’ and fans’ eyes is reflected in its sponsorship. Before Carling’s nine-year tenure from 2003-2012, the naming rights changed hands frequently. Carabao, arguably the least-known of the beverage brands to have (almost exclusively) sponsored the League Cup, has now been the rather low-key incumbent since 2016.
So should managers heed fan frustration and field stronger sides?
In the halcyon days of that 96/97 season when County slew the Saints and dispatched the Hammers before bravely bowing out at the Riverside in the semis, they played 67 games and used just 24 players. For context, last season’s County squad which reached the third round of the FA Cup, the knock-out stages of the Vertu Trophy and of course had two play-off fixtures, played 56 first-team games, with 34 players making five appearances or more. But sports science and player welfare has changed, and for the better. Medical staff make managers acutely aware of which players are operating in ‘red zones’ and you can set your watch by Chally’s pre-subs on the pre-determined hour mark.
County were awarded just £5,000 for progressing to the second round of the Carabao Cup, and there was just £7,000 on offer for getting past Wigan. The big Premier League sides only enter the competition in the third round. I don’t know if County budget for cup runs, however it may be a moot point when attendances like Tuesday night’s at EP and a week earlier at Wigan mean clubs might not even break even on overheads for hosting cup games.
If we do not find a way to incentivise clubs, de-clutter the calendar, or both, I’d argue we are better off scrapping the League Cup and the EFL Trophy altogether.
Admittedly, I am not old enough to remember the Autoglass Trophy Final appearances in the early 90s, but I do remember watching the 96/97 League Cup run on TV, so I do not suggest this lightly.
But when managers are being judged almost exclusively on league position (just ask Ange Postecoglu), can you really blame them for deprioritising our domestic cups?
In 2020, the French Football Federation scrapped its equivalent domestic competition, the Coupe de la Ligue, to reduce the volume of domestic fixtures.
Scrapping the League Cup and the EFL Trophy could also breathe new life into the FA Cup, which should be sacrosanct. Reducing the number of fixtures in the calendar addresses bigger clubs’ ‘concerns’ about fixture congestion (violins out), with FA Cup replays being reinstated as one of the quid pro quos.
I am not naïve enough to ignore the greed of modern-day football as a major impediment to my argument. But if we put that aside as a fight for another day, in my mind the only viable counterargument to scrapping two domestic competitions is the opportunity they present for younger players to experience more men’s football.
On the extremely remote chance they are reading this blog, I could absolutely forgive a Joe Astles or a Corey Edwards for dragging it straight to Junk. But was Tuesday night’s game any different to a standard U21s Premier League fixture for them? As for those Wolves lads, the cynic in me can’t help wondering if some of them will be viewed as nothing more than a figure on one side of an accounting ledger in a few years’ time, as opposed to a serious contender for a place in their 1st team squad.
We are fortunate to have one of the most mobile player loan systems and one of the strongest pyramid formats in world football. League football represent much better opportunities for formative experiences for younger players at all levels.
Ben Hinchliffe has seen just about everything English lower league football has to offer. Every County fan would love to see him shaking hands with a Donnarumma or an Alisson in a last-8 knockout game before he hangs his gloves up. Unless we significantly rethink our domestic cup structure, the chances of that happening are slim.
