Ned
New Member
I ranted on here about us resting players in the Carling Cup and going out in the first round. I'm really worried the same thing is going to happen again.
We are 11th in the league, four points behind Watford in sixth, who have two games in hand over us. We are a mid-table team. Unfortunately we're probably not going to get in the playoffs. The bookies have us at 10/1 to finish in the top six.
If we don't try our hardest in the FA Cup it'll be totally and utterly ridiculous. I don't know about you guys, but after ten years of not really getting anywhere near the playoffs I'm finding it hard to care about our league campaigns these days. The only fun times there's been since we went down have been in the cups. Manchester United 0-2 Coventry in 2007 has to be the highlight of the last decade for Coventry fans. That was the last time we tried in the League Cup, since then we've rested players against lower league opposition in the opening rounds and gone out as a result. Ridiculous.
I think it's really sad that the very top teams in the country don't try in the FA Cup anymore, but I can just about understand it, they have bigger fish to fry. Same goes for teams such as Blackpool battling relegation. I think Blackpool should be playing their strongest team in the FA Cup, but compared to Coventry it makes more sense for them to concentrate on the league. But for us... surely it's just an extremely obvious decision to try our best. We're a mid-table second division team, an OK side who is capable of a decent cup run. We might even win the FA Cup this year. But we certainly won't if we rest players. It's a decision which I think is obvious but many "pragmatic" (I think that's a euphemism) managers like Boothroyd don't agree. Some of the team selections by managers recently are just unbelievably stupid. In each of the last two seasons, Villa have battled hard to finish in the top six and get a European place, then rested their whole team in the Europa League qualifying rounds and gone out straight away. Absolutely unbelievable.
I think it comes down to the question of what the point is of being a football club. What is the purpose of Coventry City? I guess the aim is to get promoted while going out in the first rounds of the cups every year, then finish seventeenth in the Premiership every year, going out of the cups early because we don't try in them and probably resting players in tough fixtures away at Man Utd and Arsenal because we think they're too hard. If that's the best-case scenario for the future then sod that, can't be bothered, see you in fifty years. Sports clubs should try to win every competition they enter, it's as simple as that. Have some sporting integrity.
It is not a choice of either getting in the playoffs or going on a cup run. They are not mutually exclusive. The season Burnley got promoted via the playoffs, they played their strongest team in all rounds of the cups and got to a League Cup semi-final (lost narrowly to Spurs) and an FA Cup quarter-final, and they didn't have a particularly big squad. It simply isn't necessary to just write off the cup competitions every year, and certainly not if you're not actually that near to getting in the playoffs. Resting players in the cups will, in reality, have a minusucule effect on our chances of promotion, but an enormous effect on our chances of actually doing something in the cup and giving the fans something to cheer for.
Maybe this pre-emptive rant is unnecessary and Boothroyd will put out our strongest team against Palace. But I'm not hopeful.
We are 11th in the league, four points behind Watford in sixth, who have two games in hand over us. We are a mid-table team. Unfortunately we're probably not going to get in the playoffs. The bookies have us at 10/1 to finish in the top six.
If we don't try our hardest in the FA Cup it'll be totally and utterly ridiculous. I don't know about you guys, but after ten years of not really getting anywhere near the playoffs I'm finding it hard to care about our league campaigns these days. The only fun times there's been since we went down have been in the cups. Manchester United 0-2 Coventry in 2007 has to be the highlight of the last decade for Coventry fans. That was the last time we tried in the League Cup, since then we've rested players against lower league opposition in the opening rounds and gone out as a result. Ridiculous.
I think it's really sad that the very top teams in the country don't try in the FA Cup anymore, but I can just about understand it, they have bigger fish to fry. Same goes for teams such as Blackpool battling relegation. I think Blackpool should be playing their strongest team in the FA Cup, but compared to Coventry it makes more sense for them to concentrate on the league. But for us... surely it's just an extremely obvious decision to try our best. We're a mid-table second division team, an OK side who is capable of a decent cup run. We might even win the FA Cup this year. But we certainly won't if we rest players. It's a decision which I think is obvious but many "pragmatic" (I think that's a euphemism) managers like Boothroyd don't agree. Some of the team selections by managers recently are just unbelievably stupid. In each of the last two seasons, Villa have battled hard to finish in the top six and get a European place, then rested their whole team in the Europa League qualifying rounds and gone out straight away. Absolutely unbelievable.
I think it comes down to the question of what the point is of being a football club. What is the purpose of Coventry City? I guess the aim is to get promoted while going out in the first rounds of the cups every year, then finish seventeenth in the Premiership every year, going out of the cups early because we don't try in them and probably resting players in tough fixtures away at Man Utd and Arsenal because we think they're too hard. If that's the best-case scenario for the future then sod that, can't be bothered, see you in fifty years. Sports clubs should try to win every competition they enter, it's as simple as that. Have some sporting integrity.
It is not a choice of either getting in the playoffs or going on a cup run. They are not mutually exclusive. The season Burnley got promoted via the playoffs, they played their strongest team in all rounds of the cups and got to a League Cup semi-final (lost narrowly to Spurs) and an FA Cup quarter-final, and they didn't have a particularly big squad. It simply isn't necessary to just write off the cup competitions every year, and certainly not if you're not actually that near to getting in the playoffs. Resting players in the cups will, in reality, have a minusucule effect on our chances of promotion, but an enormous effect on our chances of actually doing something in the cup and giving the fans something to cheer for.
Maybe this pre-emptive rant is unnecessary and Boothroyd will put out our strongest team against Palace. But I'm not hopeful.
