Last 32 will be 19 L1 teams, 12 L2 and Villa U21's. So that experiment is working well then - killed the competition for nothing pretty much. I think 10 wins out of the 48 games the prem kids played in the comp this season. Mansfield, Crawley, Shrewsbury & Bristol Rovers the other L1 teams following us out the door at this stage. Not a bad thing overall I reckon.....
I didn’t think it could get any more uninteresting until we ended up with a ‘dead rubber’ v Donny, only a third of the way into the season, thanks to the mini league format. Heck of a lot of football played between weakened teams in empty stadiums just so 2 teams can have their day at Wembley.
And if it was us in the upcoming first knock out round, we'd probably play our under '15s!. But seriously after all the nonsense of the Group stages, it's so annoying that we throw all that effort away then. We play mostly kids and second choice players yet again, which shows no interest in trying to progress and do well in the Competition!. Like in recent seasons when we've lost in this round, home to Man City's kids, and away at Port Vale and Blackpool.
It's a nonsense competition, it deserves the response the club gives it. I support them on this. In fact if they didn't have their nonsense (and clearly challengeable) rules about playing a certain proportion of the senior team, I'd fully support them playing a u18 team throughout.
It's a piss take competition now though mate in my opinion. It's just to sooth the 'big' teams, more accomodation for them. Bending over backwards for them yet again. I loved winning it when we did, I'm so so happy it was before the addition of joke youth teams. I'd play as many u21s/u18s as we are allowed everytime now - ofcourse as long as fans know it will be that way
Yeah I agree it's a sh*ite and pointless Competition, but it angers me that we go along with playing the juniors like we do. But it goes without saying though doesn't it, and it's not rocket science either. That we won this competition by taking it seriously, and playing our full strongest first team, in season '15.
I believe so, mate. The competition used to 'invite' a few non-league clubs before it got changed & then changed again. I'd personally much rather do that than have the elites player their kids.
Yeah we won it in its last proper cup knockout format, when it was the Johnstone's Paint thing. That season '15 goes down in memory for us, with TWO wins at Wembley.
Yep, such a brilliant season with great memories bud. My best mate died before that season started, at only 26 - it broke my heart. The joy that team that season gave me, I'll always cherish and be thankful for. Really brightened up a dark time for me.
Football is a weird thing isn't it Frog, it brings people together as 'friends', and it creates 'enemies' as well!. And no matter who we all support, it gives us special life long memories.
So to summarise: Wycombe, in 1st place in league 1, didn't think they were too good for the competition and played a team good enough to qualify through the group stage. Birmingham City, in 2nd place in league 1, didn't think they were too good for the competition and played a team good enough to qualify through the group stage. Wrexham, in 3rd place in league 1, didn't think they were too good for the competition and played a team good enough to qualify through the group stage. Barnsley, in 4th place in league 1, the 2016 winners, think they're too good for this competition and got knocked out in the group stage playing 3 games and beng thrashed 3 times. Lincoln, in 5th place in league 1, didn't think they were too good for the competition and played a team good enough to qualify through the group stage. Stockport, in 6th place in league 1, didn't think they were too good for the competition and played a team good enough to qualify through the group stage. Have I got that right?
It would appear that you have. However, I actually think that (for once) it's us who've got it right. For me it ceased to be a proper competition the day they allowed U21 teams to play, and the attendances bear that out. It's just a load of glorified friendlies now. Personally, I think we gave the competition exactly the level of respect it deserves.
No, I don’t think anyone at the club thinks we’re ‘too good’ for it, although we do seem to have set our stall out to hold it very low in our priorities list. I don’t mind if we’re going to field weakened teams, but maybe we should include this ‘competition’ in the season ticket price, just as we used to do with the reserves.
This. The fact 1 out of 16 U21 teams gone through speaks loads about it. Plus they get away with players like Tom Heaton playing in it so hardly development opportunity. Problem is with 48 teams in L1/2 you will always have to have "byes" if its straight knockout which is always a bad look. Invite top 16 in National League to get to 64 and a straight knock out from there. Sorted.
I think what it highlights is how poor the U21s are at the top level and they have sucked the life out of teams such as us ourselves - whereby young players historically have always had their chance to cut their teeth for 3/4 seasons at a decent level before going on to bigger things if they were good enough - because the big teams like to hoover up all of the talent in the event of them not capturing the next 'big thing' and the fear of missing out, these U21s have had very little competitive football by the age of 21 - whereas in years gone by they'd have 100-150 games under their belts and would've had the likes of Billy Whitehurst educating them on the finer arts of football at the age of 18/19. Thats why what we have in our academy in the main is crap - it's because its all the ones that have been thumbed through by the PL academies - of course the odd one will slip through the net and go on to have a decent career , but in the main they'll get their decision right and wont lose sleep over letting 99% of them go. If we do get something decent then the vultures are circling from the PL and the buying system (unless they're under a proper contract) is all weighted towards the PL teams getting them for a pittance - they then go and rot for 6 years on stupid amounts of money. This is the problem with footballers and loyalty - they're told from the age of 6 onwards that they're not good enough, that undoubtedly will stick with alot of them throughout their careers and they take the money when they can. We need to get rid of the academy and have an U17 development squad type system (I think Brentford do similar), and rather than spend daft amounts of money trying to unearth a gem , go back to old school transfers of picking the pockets of your local clubs who you're bigger than infrastructure wise (Like we did with DKD)
If you go all the way in the competion it's estimated worth is £200k plus. For those clubs strapped for income on low attendances it's a bit of a boost. The prize money is less than when under John stones paint though.
