The Mail Bag
Can we win the FA Cup and would we want to?
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This has to be the moest negative I've seen Evertonians for while, understandably; this season is far from a positive one and our accounts are not encouraging. I'm pretty good at understatement I think you'll agree.
Having not submitted more than a few comments in the past, I wanted to offer a distraction from accounts, selling players, and who should get the sack, even though these are all important things!
Simply...
1) Are we good enough to win the FA Cup this year?
2) Would we want to, given our current league position and the distraction that would offer?
3) Would it offer some consolation to the dismal overall Premier League performance and probable sale of good players in the summer?
Hmmm, not much of a distraction hey!?
IMHO:
1) Without an in-form and fit Saha and some heroics from Fellaini, I doubt Baines can win the competition by himself! So probably not.
2) Yes, although no team is 'too good to go down' I think even the worst David Moyes team has spirit. Aside from maybe the one that played at the Reebok on Sunday. (No, Victor, banging the ground when you fall over doesn't count as spirit, it's immaturity!)
3) Obviously it might, but it would be bitter sweet and last for days I expect before all the papers start crowing about how the team that won the FA Cup is disintegrating.
So go ahead, tell me how stupid I am for even considering such a stupid thing...
If you know your history.
Lewis Barclay, Posted 15/02/2011 at 14:04:17
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2 Yes
Lets look at the bigger picture and get to around 45 points to preserve our PL status.
I couldn't bear Bill being able to hang on for another few years on the back of it... and as for Moyes. Words can't describe how I feel about him right now.
1. Dunno, so far this season we're really not good enough, but who knows?
2. YES YES YES are you crazy?? Why do you even ask this question? The day that I don't want my team to win a competition is the day I'll stop caring about football.
3. Of course it would. It's silverware. It's the FA Cup. It's winning a competition. That's what football about.
I could never say that I would want Everton to lose. Ever. Chelsea away is probably the hardest game you could play but they have a CL game the following Tuesday (away) which IMO will affect the team picked to play us.
It's all we've got left this season hence I'm not travelling to Stamford Bridge hoping to lose. Hopefully we will have a good sing song and I'm sure some verbal words will be aimed at BK.
However, Erik is right, we are here to win things. I would love us to win the Cup.
We're not going to, though: Chelsea will probably beat us on Saturday.
To quote Meg Ryan in " When Harry met Sally"
Yes, Yes Yes !!!!
There are a few ideas being kicked around about revitalising the FA Cup.
1. Have FA Cup "weeks" with matches played Tuesday-Thursday leaving the week end free for Premier League games.
2. No replays. There is a guaranteed winner on the day.
3.Semi finals to be played as in the past, at neutral grounds and not at Wembley ( i know Wembley needs the money).
4. Seeding of teams so the "big" clubs dont meet each other too soon.
5.Whoever wins the FA Cup gets a place in the Champions League. Doubt if that could happen because other European clubs would understandably kick up a fuss!
6. Get the League Cup out of the way by December so the FA Cup can then have more exposure.
I dont agree with all of the above, but at least it shows that the powers that be are aware of the fading glamour of the Cup, poor attendances and clubs not playing full strength sides until the later rounds.
Mammon has a lot to answer for!!!
2. No we are not too good to go down either. Did you not watch the Bolton game? Teams have played a lot better than that and gone down!
We need another 10 points and at the moment that looks a hell of a task.
Win the cup and stay up
6000 thousand toffs cant be wrong fingers crossed
2. The fans deserve something to celebrate as they've had fuck all to enjoy this season besides false dawns
3. same response as 2
Sorry but with the deep serious trouble we are in this season, the FA cup can take a back seat.
Then there is going to the Bridge where under Moyse we have never won. Then being beaten by a poor Bolton side..with due respect this cup tie could be over by half time if we play like we did against Bolton.
The league will always be more important than a cup run.
We get past a poorly performing Chelsea we still have to worry about Arsenal and ManU. The distraction could easily make things worse in the league.
The only thing I want this season (sadly) is our premiership survival..as things stand we will be lucky to stay up I mean 3 points of the bottom, with no sign of improvement from us, and it only takes the teams in the bottom 3 to put a run of 2 or 3 wins together and we'll be right into the bottom 3.
25/1 to win the FA Cup, while at 22/1 Birmingham and Fulham. Not surprisingly ManU are clear favourites.
There's bigger things at stake.
All those who have said no obviously never went to Wembley, because there's no way you could say no and mean it if you did.
I don't buy into the cup being a distraction from the league anyway. A good result saturday, and a home game against Reading means all of a sudden players are putting a shift in in the hope of geting to Wembley and playing.
That can only be beneficial to us in the run-in.
Obviously, we need ownership with pockets deep enough to make a move or two.
For all their supposed genius, SAF and Wenger win at the rate they do because they have elite predators, not because they are some kind of tactical wizards. Wenger stuck to his finance plan and sold Henry for a fortune to La Liga. By the economic wisdom (which I agree with in general), Henry was 28-29 years old and at the peak of his value. Except Arsenal's EPL Trophy Guns grew suddenly silent without Thierry (and have remained so).
EFC hasn't had the luxury of a Henry-level attacking talent since when? That's what we're missing. With that, let me repeat what you all might get sick of hearing, "Please Steinbrenners, buy this team".
We're on the verge, however disappointing this season has become. We don't need deep pockets. We need pockets just deep enough.
With the initial 3,000 tickets sold in days and another 3,000 snapped up I am glad to see not all Evertonians are as negative as some of the stuff posted on here.
Those who say the FA Cup has lost its importance, let's see what kind of 2nd string Chelsea put out in what is realistically their last chance of silverware this season ? and given they've won it last 2 seasons.
If for one moment you think that you would shout "bollocks" and throw your cat at the tele or whatever, then surely you are mad.
I agree whole heartedly that the knock-on effect of seeing Billy Bullshit climbing out of the woodwork with a big beaming grin on his face will be hard to take, but I can dream about punching him in the face another day... I would be concentrating on the fact that we actually fucking won something ? which, at the end of the day, is the ultimate goal of any football club.
Past experience tells me to expect him to aim for a low-scoring game with one striker. Pray god it is not Anichebe.
The reality is we're not even close though, even if Chelsea are vulnerable.
No, we need to concentrate on the leauge, no point in winning the FA Cup and being relegated!
If you're not prepared to put all your effort in winning competitions then what is the fuckin' point in existing purely for the sake of it.
I can't fuckin' believe for one second that people wouldn't take a FA Cup win, even if it meant us going down.... I'd snap their hand off.
After all we've won fuck all now since '95 - that's 16 years; half my fuckin' life.
Do I think we can? Yes. We've competed well against the better sides and our performances at Stamford Bridge have been good in the last few years.
I think we're an ideal Cup side. Capable of knocking off the top sides. Whether we can beat someone like Bolton is up for debate.
Anyway... why worry, we will not get past Chelsea unless we get lucky like the Redshite and hope Chelski don't turn up.
Christ what's the point in following any sport at all if you don't want to see your club win stuff?
This team isn't as bad as they showed at Bolton but they aren't near as good as people thought they were at the beginning of the season. They're certainly capable of winning the FA Cup but they'll need to avoid injuries and have some luck on their side. Saha is key. We may be able to win one match without him but there's little chance of long-term success with Anichebe and Beckford as our strikers.
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1 Posted 15/02/2011 at 14:56:31
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I'm going to have to align myself with those that say 'YES, YES, YES'!