The FA Cup fourth round kicks off tonight with Derby at home to Leicester but how many football fans are really excited by it. Over the next three days some of the top Premier League teams will feature without some of their best players.
I always loved watching the FA Cup as a kid although there wasn't as much football on the box back then. I also got my football fix from Match of the Day on BBC and The Big Match and Saint and Greavsie on UTV.
FA Cup final day was always a big occasion in my house and I can even remember one of my brothers had his Communion on the same day Manchester United beat Liverpool in the 1996 final so the dinner had to be organised around the match.
Why has the FA Cup lost its magic?
Money has changed the game with more matches available on TV and managers have also shifted their priorities. For example this weekend, Crystal Palace face Manchester City at Selhurst Park and Palace manager Sam Allardyce has admitted that the cup is not a priority for the club. Palace lost to Manchester United in the final last season and the FA Cup is a competition that will always be remembered fondly by Palace fans. However Allardyce is more concerned with the Premier League game away to Bournemouth on Tuesday night because he needs to make sure Palace stay up. The Premier League is where the money is so a lot of top flight managers will field weakened teams in the early rounds of the FA Cup but if clubs get a favourable draw they could advance to the quarter finals of the competition without playing some of their best players.
Jurgen Klopp selected the youngest ever Liverpool team in the third round against Plymouth and the Reds needed a replay to beat the League Two side. If Plymouth had won the tie it would have been a shock but it wouldn’t have been a big as some we’ve seen before.
Remember when Wrexham beat Arsenal 2-1 in the third round in 1992? Arsenal were league champions and Wrexham were in the fourth tier of English football.
More clubs are involved in European football in the modern game as well so the FA Cup may only get top billing from top flight managers if they have no European football or a favourable schedule when cup games come around.
If you want shocks you only have to look at Lincoln City and Sutton United in the third round but the oldest existing football competition in the world became a distraction for Premier League managers a long time ago.
