Magic or tragic? I'm not sure what to make of The FA Cup these days.
When I saw the pictures of Forest Green's packed ground as they tussled heroically with once mighty Derby it brought back all the old images, Ronnie Radford et al. Then you realise Hartlepool's moment of glory came via them beating Stoke City Reserves.
Hartlepool: beat Stoke reserves
So I turned to someone who knows a bit about these things. Joe Royle is the last Englishman before Harry Redknapp to have won the oldest cup competition in the world as manager of his beloved Everton in 1995, beating Manchester United in the final, and fellow top-level teams Spurs, Newcastle and Ipswich on the way.
"For me its still the most-watched competition around the world so therefore it should be the most prestigious," started the big fella.
Fans aren't daft. Like a certain club chairman who I tried to negotiate a winning bonus with should we claim the old tin pot, they will tell you it's only five wins.
Joe Royle
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"Whoah!" I countered, "So how do you explain the weakened teams and the general antipathy?"
"It's all about priorities nowadays. Basically there are six teams who won't go down (for the record the normal big four plus Villa and Everton), so they can have a go, but league/Champions League commitments dictate selection. The rest should all be up for it.
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"At Everton I put out my strongest team possible despite being in a relegation scrap because I believed that a winning habit was to be maintained."
But surely that presupposes the remaining 14 clubs should make winning the FA Cup a priority because it's their only chance of silverware?
"Fans aren't daft. Like a certain club chairman who I tried to negotiate a winning bonus with should we claim the old tin pot, they will tell you it's only five wins," continued Joe.
"So on that basis I don't think any Premier League club outside of the super six should be doing anything other than their level best to win it. Why not? It could be the club's greatest day out in over 40 years and possibly their only day out in 80 years, so why not have a go?"
Difficult to argue with such seasoned logic, but can you imagine the conversation in a fairly tense panelled boardroom when a beleaguered manager tells his governor that his team could have a tilt at prestige, glory and sporting history but they will have to gamble a place in the Premier League and its guaranteed income to have a go at it.
Who'd be a manager? Who'd be a chairman?
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