The draw for the League Cup was held last week to decide every league club’s starting fixture.
Ipswich haven’t ever had much luck in the competition and in recent years they have used the cup as a chance to give reserve players some game time.
A lot of other sides have chosen to do the same and as a consequence the credibility of the League Cup has been in decline since it was founded over 50 years ago.
The prize money for winning the league cup is only £100,000 which is significantly smaller than the £2 million prize given to the FA Cup winners. The other incentive for winning the League Cup is Europa League qualification but neither that nor the cash prize is enough to make it worth the time of a top 4/5 clubs.
However, for a Championship club like Ipswich, Europa League qualification would be a massive prize. The only question Ipswich would need to ask is whether it is worth risking the teams fitness levels for a shot at the cup?
It is safe to say that most Premier League clubs won’t be too bothered about the cup this year and they will probably use a lot of reserve or youth players in the earlier rounds. This could well give a Championship side a good chance to steal the trophy and cause an upset. After all, Cardiff managed to get all the way to the final last season and a few other Championship sides have got far in the competition recently.
Club’s like Ipswich will be weighing up their chances and deciding whether it is worth potentially tiring out a few first team players for a shot at the League Cup trophy. Cardiff certainly suffered last season because of their run in the competition. They invested a lot of energy into the cup by fielding their strongest team every game which could have cost them promotion.
The only consolation prize for Cardiff was the £50,000 runners up prize which is pretty insignificant even for a Championship side. In hindsight Cardiff’s cup run probably wasn’t worth it as the extra games hindered their chances of succeeding in the play-offs or even pushing for automatic promotion.
When Roy Keane was in charge of Ipswich he made it clear that he did not care for the League Cup as he played mostly youth and reserve players. Although Keane made a lot of mistakes at Portman Road this wasn’t one of them. Any team hoping to gain a play-off place should refrain from using first team players in the League Cup because the potential risk of damaging league form isn’t worth it.
Personally, the only sides I can see the newly named Capital One Cup appealing to are Premier League clubs that know they have no chance of qualifying for Europe via their league position and know they have no chance of being relegated, sop very few.
It could possibly appeal to Championship sides who have no chance of going up or down but the division is always so open that this rarely happens. There isn’t much appeal for League One and League Two teams either as they don’t have the strength in depth to stand a chance of winning the cup, even against weaker higher level clubs.
In conclusion, for Ipswich I don’t think the League Cup is good for anything apart from maybe giving some youth and reserve players some game time. Looking on a much bigger scale I don’t think the cup is good for anyone apart from a few Premier League teams. In total 92 clubs enter and it is only good for 4 or 5 of those clubs. I think we should consider scrapping the cup altogether.
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