no jed no !  this isn't even just how you should treat your club, it's how you should treat your life!  You do what you believe to be right, without fear or favour (as it's called).  Even if your your outnumbered a million to one, the right way to be is to do what you know to be right.

Coach, I understand about getting rid of the FLT but that would lose us the chance of a Wembley Final and anyway my main point was that the end result of your idea would be to make it much harder for teams outside the prem to draw one of the big teams. If we're going to tamper with the FA Cup format why not do it the other way around, why not make the prem and championship enter in the first round? Why does everything always have to be about helping out the big teams, don't they get enough help already? All this Respect campaign stuff, what about a "Respect the 92" campaign?

It's a trophy though mike, and Arsenal don't win trophies any more.

right -i'm gonna end this debate


why all the wailing and crying from lower league teams about top clubs not playing a full side


That is to your ADVANTAGE !

If top sides arent taking it seriously then pray tell, why was the last team from the CHAMPIONSHIP to win the cup was West Ham in 1980

and that side was a Premier league team in all but status -had around 5 internationals ffs


So where are all thse teams from the lower leagues >? they should be getting to the final ,no ?

a few short seasons ago i believe the last 8 were ALL from the top league


Man City put out a makeshift side on Saturday and effectively gave Watford a 0-2 lead -  Man city then brought on the big guns


That is all Man city need do - they are playing to their strenghths

why use a sledgehammer to crack a walnut ?

no more whining

Coach...Who from the lower leagues is wailing and crying about top clubs not playing a full side ? I'm certainly not and I never have done.

Premier clubs don't owe us a living? That's obvious, I've never said they do. Sometimes we help each other, Scezney learning all about playing first team football at Brentford is a good example, it was clearly beneficial for both us and Arsenal.

Premier league clubs always win the FA Cup? Well there's a surprise, teams that cost hundreds of millions against teams that cost a tiny fraction of that, with the former winning the cup each year, what a shock that is.

Last season my team, which cost about £100,000 in transfer fees, led twice against a Chelsea team stuffed full of multi million pound international players including most of their first choice players, and came within 6 minutes of knocking them out. Not only that, even the most ardent Chelsea fan would have to admit we deserved the draw. It was good day,a cracking game, we all enjoyed it, and the two ties earned us a few quid. It wasn't our "cup final" as fans of big teams so often patronisingly call it, we played many more important matches than the two against Chelsea last season, but it was a good occasion. But we earned the right to be there, by winning in the 1st and 2nd round, no-one was doing us a favour by letting us play them. Respect the tradition, respect the 92 and stop looking at every debate from the perspective of "how can we benefit the big teams", that's my view.

"Man City put out a makeshift side on Saturday and effectively gave Watford a 0-2 lead -  Man city then brought on the big guns"



Aguero, Toure, Dzeko, Navas..........not exactly what i'd call makeshift. Had pretty much their full strength side out considering Negredo, Silva and Navas were injured.

i.e. don't go to the league game immediately before and after the cup match - cast your vote with the cash from your wallet for the cup game.

DM...that might not be a bad idea in principle but I doubt it would have much impact unless it was well organised by supporters groups to get enough fans on board. Also, it's probably only appropriate if it's targeted at a club that you think has "downgraded the cup".

then you get these reporters who announce a shock ,or Sheff Utd almost creating a mighty shock against Fulham-

but Sheff Utd were favourites you ,you morons 

Personally think it's the Premier League that's pointless. 380 games a season to find out which one of 4 teams wins it.  16 teams (17 if you include Arsenal) start the season without a hope of winning anything.

Seriously, what is the point? Let the big money teams bugger off to a European league and what's left would be far more competitive.

If I were a supporter of say, Aston Villa, where success if finishing out of the bottom 3, I would give up.

load of nonsense. the fa cup is one of the biggest tournaments going. its simply not true that the "big" clubs dont take it seriously. out of the last 18 winners, only 2 have not been man utd, chelsea, arsenal, liverpool or man city. thats a pretty clear indication the big clubs do take it seriously. its a case of almost every club has to rest players. they also have to give game time to fringe or reserve players. the cups are the logical time to do this. "big" clubs dont take it too seriously in the early rounds, but neither do any other clubs because you dont think about winning a tournament when theres still 64 clubs or more left in it. the nearer the final, the more seriously you take it no matter how big a club you are. even league one and league two clubs rest players in the cup. its not that they want to, they just have to cos theres too many matches.

the real problem is the other competitions taking up too much time in the schedule. the league cup is pretty irrelevant to everybody, the paint pot thing is the biggest waste of time imagineable and the european competitions have far too many matches purely to squeeze as much money as possible out the tv rights.

Typical of big clubs supporters - why don't we scrap the league and just have 20 team national league with no relegation no Fa Cup (our national football trophy) . Buy in all our talent from other countries and blow lots of money at buying average prima donnas. Yeah why not do that, theres progress for you.