| The League Cup and Ipswich Town 14:34 - Sep 26 with 4947 views | ChampionsofInnsbruck |
I thought I would open up a debate on why so many of our fans deride the League Cup (and other cup competitions as a whole) when it is the third most important club competition in the country and one, we’ve never won?
The last non-super club to win it was Swansea way back in 2013, and then before that Birmingham in 2011. It’s a competition that Ipswich as a club is historically big enough to win, Leicester have won it three times, Norwich have won it twice, as have Birmingham, Middlesborough have won it once as have Luton and Oxford. Why couldn’t Ipswich win the competition? Of course, the big clubs have monopolised it in recent years, which shows you it does actually have some worth in their eyes, but not ours? Every time we play in the League Cup, we see comments about it being mickey mouse, a waste of time, focus on the league and so on. It’s not true, is it? There is a trophy, prize money and importantly European football for the winner.
I may be unpopular in saying this, but we have no room to be arrogant about Cups these days, we’ve not won one for 45 years (domestic) and we’ve only won one other (the Texaco Cup, which evolved into the much-mocked EFL Trophy which most call the “Pizza Cup”). I just wonder where this dismissal of cups has come from. I don’t understand it, I am happy to see us finally start progressing in the FA and League Cups again. I hated losing year on year or being dumped out by clubs with players earning a 5ver a week. A particular low point was sending a second string to Old Trafford to lose to protect a non-existent league challenge.
I am glad we are no longer just participants, of course I am realistic, we wouldn’t likely beat Manchester City if we played them, but I would like to see us try.
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| The League Cup and Ipswich Town on 17:34 - Sep 26 with 796 views | Illinoisblue |
| The League Cup and Ipswich Town on 17:19 - Sep 26 by PhilTWTD |
Well, they seem to have an awful lot of events to celebrate Bayern, their 50s cup run etc as if they're major achievements. |
All sounds very participatory |  |
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| The League Cup and Ipswich Town on 17:55 - Sep 26 with 775 views | Vegtablue |
| The League Cup and Ipswich Town on 17:12 - Sep 26 by BigCommon |
I'd love us to win The League Cup, or any cup competition... Heck, I even wanted us to get to The Pizza Cup final.. I'm old enough to remember '78 and '81, but not old enough to have been around during 61-62.....
Im lucky enough to have seen our club win silverware, as a kid, might I add..
Theres a generation or two of younger supporters and kids out there that would have something special to remember, in their lifetime, if we ever lifted silverware again...
Dont belittle the league cup. It may not be as bling as winning the Prem'.. But its still a major historic achievement in any clubs history, should they win it.... |
Aha that's a different point IMO. I'm not old enough to honestly remember us in the Prem, as much as I say differently in person, let alone us winning anything. I didn't want the pizza cup on our record but would love us to win the league cup.The SFs against Arsenal 10 years ago were great. It would be an awesome personal achievement for us, given we're 21st-30th in the country right now.
However, it doesn't alter the prestige of the tournament. I've grown up knowing it as the Mickey Mouse cup, with top managers claiming that winning the thing would not even end their trophy drought, and it shows in team selections by even Championship clubs. Our starting XI tonight will likely have 11 changes from the weekend and that's the right decision. I also wouldn't choose winning the league cup over promotion in a month of Sundays. |  | | |
| The League Cup and Ipswich Town on 18:49 - Sep 26 with 732 views | MK1 |
Not something we should be paying much attention to. Would love a proper FA Cup run, not bothered by the Micky Mouse Cup. |  |
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| The League Cup and Ipswich Town on 19:09 - Sep 26 with 726 views | charlie1 |
Are you saying it’s so important we should celebrate the anniversary of when we lost in the semi-finals for the next 70 years?
Or would that be an incredibly small-minded and embarrassing thing to do? | | | |
| The League Cup and Ipswich Town on 09:17 - Nov 2 with 476 views | WonTheCupin78 |
It's only really taken seriously by sides in the semi-final. There is no comparison at all between the league cup and the FA cup. If we had been fighting for a quarter-final place in the FA cup...very different story.
In the past many teams have reached the semi-finals by beating the reserve squads of other teams; shows how seriously it is taken as a competition. No team has ever put a star on their shirt based on winning this competition. | | | |
| The League Cup and Ipswich Town on 10:00 - Nov 2 with 464 views | brazil1982 |
There are fewer opportunities to win silverware in top flight football now, such is the dominance of the bigger clubs. It's a chance to get into European football, and to add to history. However I understand it "gets in the way", and respect putting out a second string. Had we got further, I would like to think a stronger side because....you never know.
If we were in the PL, and perhaps established there a few seasons I would like to take the cup seriously. |  | | |
| The League Cup and Ipswich Town on 10:05 - Nov 2 with 459 views | GeoffSentence |
Mickey Mouse Cup. Glad we are out of it  |  |
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| The League Cup and Ipswich Town on 10:43 - Nov 2 with 452 views | Sharkey |
| The League Cup and Ipswich Town on 09:17 - Nov 2 by WonTheCupin78 |
It's only really taken seriously by sides in the semi-final. There is no comparison at all between the league cup and the FA cup. If we had been fighting for a quarter-final place in the FA cup...very different story.
In the past many teams have reached the semi-finals by beating the reserve squads of other teams; shows how seriously it is taken as a competition. No team has ever put a star on their shirt based on winning this competition. |
In one sense I think the League Cup is better than the FA cup, and that is if you get to the final clubs get a bigger ticket allocation, with fewer tickets for neutrals. Getting to the final against Liverpool would hugely enhance the 'Ipswich brand' and been a big day out for the people of Suffolk. (I'm guessing the biggest Town support at a game for many years?).
Even before you get to the final, if you go to Arsenal or West Ham or whatever for a semi-final in one of the cups you get more tickets than you would for a league game, and so it's a better occasion
I think another comparison is that many fans won't advocate putting out a full-strength or very strong cream in ANY cup until the main goal of the season (promotion in some cases, avoiding relegation in others) has been made mathematically certain. I mean if Town were fifteen points clear of third place and got a fourth round FA cup tie at Tottenham, there would still be fans saying 'we need to rest players'. |  | | |
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