How about

Howard
Jags Duffy Distin Baines
Anichebe Neville Fellaini Oviedo
Barkley
Jelavic

Danny blanchflower.

Nothing more glorious than seeing your team win a trophy and if you've never seen it you probably don't get it.

It's de rigeur to wend on about finances but it's a means to an end and that end is winning stuff. Despite the CL riches they hardly contribute to actually making a difference, Roman and Mansoor have seen to that.

Qualifying for a competition where the chance of being embarrassed is far greater than winning it is just a way of paying footballers more.

Scenes of the victorious penalty shoot out against Utd at Wembley hint at what winning the FA cup would be for us. Sweeter and more joyously it would be celebrated than any trinket purchased by Chelsea, City or Utd.

Come on Moyesie, full strength please lets win the FA cup the league will look after itself.

If we win the FA cup it would make Moyes more attractive to the bigger clubs, he would probs move on and we would likley do a Portsmouth or Birmingham not long after winning the cup.

It's about joining the dots, When you've done this, you'll be about 55 years of age.

I always get called a "Conspirator"... okay, no probs. BUT you lot start to use the internet for your own advantage.

Oh and plurease, you guys who can't put one foot in front of an other without your wives say so, SORT IT and QUICK.

Starsoldier, was always the bad twat at the back of the classroom...

Also, David (#991) and Ian (#991), 4th place does not guarantee you the group stage, the 4th place finisher goes to the play-off round. So, rather than the FA Cup, you'd like to finish 4th, lose to a Napoli or Malaga in the play-off round, and never see any of those group stage millions?

Maybe a mention that Fellaini cost more than their whole team put together.

Play your best available team for every game as it comes one game at a time.

The FA Cup is far more achievable than the league and gives the paying fans real magic memories.

In 2008 and 2009 we had very good Cup runs even though we had a small squad(bigger than now granted) and we had massive injuries to key players.

The momentum of the cup runs helped our league form tremendously.

Winning is a habit.

And there is much more glory in winning at Wembley in a final than finishing 4th and getting to the qualifying rounds of the CL.

You'd be better off playing the entire under 21 team than a mix of first team, fringe and reserves.

It wasn't SAF who pulled MU out of the FA Cup by himself, it was at the behest of the FA themselves who wanted to stage the World Cup. From that moment on it lost a lot of its fascination and national attention.

Un-fucking-beliveable.

And you wonder why we put your posts in a queue...

Or you didn't mean Leeds, it was a typo; you meant Liverpool where we rested players and got done over.

The only time resting players has ever done us any good is when SAF rested half his team for the Semi.

That said, the club won't get much money out of it, but would get millions should it progress to the group stage of the ECL. With our squad size, it would be a tough ask to do both, though not impossible. Playing Cheltenham gives us a bit of edible cake though. I know upsets happen, and we've lost to some pretty bad teams in the cups over the years, but even our bit part players should be able to get something out of a League Two side. I'd go with the side that Selby mentioned. Enough experience to get the job done - carry a couple of first teamers on the bench in case.

Clarence, I would think that Arsenal supporters whine about not winning any trophies instead of celebrating ECL qualification because they've qualified for that competition every year for I don't know how long. They're used to getting there.

I also think we'll wind up in fifth position this season.

OK I accept that we are where we are but I will not give up the hope of a return to a proper European Cup.

But all that said, I want to win something. In the list of club honours it will list the FA Cup wins but it won't list "finished 4th, 2012-13".

So give me a cup win any day.

Chris, I'm with you, mate, the so-called "Champions League", which should be re-named "League For Those Not Good Enough To Be Champions But Who Can Still Be Lucky Enough To Win It But Never Fucking Shut Up About It Since 2005", has turned football into as disreputable organisation run by a select group scoundrels where the heirarchy can line their own pockets as they piss on the lower orders from on high. How you can win a Champions League when you're not current Champions is beyond me. And how can you hope to retain credibility when you change the format (and rules) halfway through to accomodate an already wealthy club ? A club, incidentally that caused the biggest disaster in the competitions history. But let's not get in to that...

He has to use the opportunity to rest at least 3-4 players after the busy xmas period. The likes of Duffy, Oviedo, Anichebe, Vellios and Barkley must surely be good enough to see off Cheltenham. I would certainly give Jelavic, Pienaar, Baines and one of Distin or Jags a break at least. Maybe also Osman as we're light in CM. Fellaini shouldn't need a break after his 3 match ban in Dec.

Would be great to see Barkley at least start the game, maybe in place of Osman with Fellaini dropping back into CM if Nevill plays at LB. Anichebe/Vellios can play up front.

And yes, the FA Cup does matter! Trophy cabinet has seen f'all in 17 years!! A good cup run would also be positive for the squad and fans, given this is the only chance of silverware this season.

As others have said though, I'd just play a full strength team for both the cup and the league and see what happens. It's not that many extra games and frankly professional athletes should be able to manage it.

He must be fluent in gibberish. Sometimes its best to just take a mellow look at things. No matter what we think, write or say, none of us will ever have any influence on the board of the club and how it is run. No matter how much we would like or wish.

Rest players? I suggest that the experience of last season with the fiasco of a weakened derby match side being followed by an abject performance at GP against Sunderland should put paid to such nonsense.

But forget the emotion, it is about money, and the ability to attract/keep top players, because that is what the game is these days. A lot of people go on about Holtby on here....but he won't sign for us, if we aren't in the Champions League. If we make it this season, we may be able to attract him, or that other top midfielder we need, and be in a position to pay 12million for them. Winning the FA Cup would mean so much...we could crow about it till January, revel in the trophy...but long term, it wouldn't have any significant impact on the team. Getting fourth however could change this club's future, and be the difference between five years of mid-table obscurity, or the re-establishment of Everton as a top four club.

However, doesn't mean I advocate a complete team change in the FA Cup. On Monday I'd put out the following team:

Mucha, Coleman(if back), Distin, Heitinga, Baines, Hitzelsperger, Neville, Oviedo, Fellaini, Barkley and Anichebe.

I think it is important to rest some, but not all players. Pienaar, Jags, Osman and Jelavic are due a rest... (Baines doesn't get tired seemingly...so id leave him in) and Barkley deserves a chance. But Fellaini can play...and the amount of games we play slow down now, so I don't see why we can't put half a team out, and the rest on the bench, just in case. I'd try to win the FA Cup, but realise the need to rest some players.

45 minutes should be like a training excercise.

Having said that I'm going to join in. Cup, I say, and I suspect most people of my age, 45, and over will agree. We've been there and seen it and want some more.

Regarding the team that Moyes should send out: strong. If we've learned anything over the years it is that making more than 4 changes leaves us vulnerable. I would make 3 changes: 1 in defence; 1 in mid; 1 up front. I'd bench Jelavic, Osman and Baines. I'd play Big Vic, Barkley and Duffy. Distin to left back.

Incidentally, I'd rather see Johnny at right back than Jags on current form.

This current team has a great chance of winning the FA Cup and an outside chance of getting into the Champions League... just my opinion like.

He's learned a lot since but I think a cup win would be a much greater filip for him and many of his players like Osman, Baines and Jags. A trophy could break down a mental barrier that seems to lurk in this side and was the chief reason for losing to the RS in the Semi. We were (are) the better team but we don't really believe it. The RS had just won the League Cup and believed, however shite they played, they could get a result.

It could be a case akin to another Scot here in the shape of Andy Murray. Win the first and others could follow.

Also, as has been stated already, winning is a habit and builds momentum. Of course we run the risk of losing players to injury, but that's football. At least we can say we've had a go, instead of limping out the cup, saying "What if?"

My own feeling on the matter is that we should start with our strongest team, kill the game early on and then bring on the 2nd stringers. (Easy, huh?) What we don't want is a replay — and a defeat is unthinkable. So come on, Davey, go for the win — success breeds success.

I can't believe some have forgotten about the Leeds result earlier this season. Yes a far better side than Cheltenham... but still a division below us. And the memory of Shrewsbury is still fresh in my mind.

It's essential we try and get a trophy because I'll be shocked if we finish 4th given our finances and our chronic inability to keep clean sheets. No, for me, it's a cup. Tough but more likely than 4th.

The Europa League should be scraped, then increase the size of the Champions League.

Beating Cheltenham £67,500
4th round win another £90,000
5th round win add £180,000
6th round win another £360,000
Semi final win plus £900,000
Winning the final additional £1,800,000

That's about £3.4 million if we win it just in prize money alone. Gate receipts and TV will take it to circa £10 million.

Knockout competitions are damn difficult to win. We're not the sort of team that goes on 7- or 8-game winning runs, but we're the sort of team that manages to gather points over a period of time. Focus on the league this year and give the kids some time on the pitch in cup games and hope it works out.

Somebody will tell me that the fa is skint. Fine stick a levy on transfers, reduce the top 4 placing pot, or cream it off from the premier league licence to pay for it.

Football has to be about winning trophies. It cannot be about 2 teams competiting for a title and the rest aiming to stay in the league or just making into another competition on league placings for ever more.

Before he came to this club, we had the record of 23 semi-final appearances in the FA Cup. We can theoretically only win two trophies and some Evertonians on here want us to lose or rest players!!!

Oldham, Leeds, Shrewsbury etc — do you really want Cheltenham to join that list?

A Cup run gives exposure, extra income, something for the fans to celebrate and talk about. We are Everton Football Club not some little town no-marks. There is a chance to play Cheltenham with our first team go 3 - 0 up, bring off the important players and then give three subs a game. I can't understand anyone who wants to finish 4th which will win you nothing, which will see us having to play a qualifying game at a time in the season our players have just come back from holiday.

There are three things that Everton, like all the other Premier League clubs, can win. But some Evertonians don't want us to win anything — they want to finish 4th. Tell Howard Kendall he was wrong to try and win the treble. Tell Harry Catterick it wasn't important to win the FA Cup for the first time in 33 years...
You are all Evertonians, go and get a book on Everton's history. James Corbett's School of Science, read it and think thank God there weren't such negative, scared Evertonians in the past. Maybe there are some fans that think, if we get relegated, we will win the Championship!!!

No Evertonian should ever want us to lose before a game starts.

I still think £10m for winning potentially as little as 6 matches is worth every effort.

The FA is the administrator of the game in England, from the top to grass roots level. As such every club is a member of the FA, and the FA sits on UEFA, FIFA and the International Football Association Board.

Remember when the top flight clubs resigned on mass to form the breakaway Premier League? That was with the approval of the FA. The Football League as was ran all 4 divisions, and the top flight clubs argued they needed a bigger slice of the revenue in order to compete better in Europe.

The Premier League is a collective of the 20 clubs, as you are promoted you are elected in, as you are relegated you resign your membership. The Premier League negotiates the Domestic and Overseas TV deals and disburses that money amongst it's members, along with parachute payments to relegated clubs for up to 3 years. It also makes a sizeable payment to the Football League as a "solidarity" payment.

The FA's domestic cup competition is open to all members, hence the very early preliminary rounds. They are responsible for the TV rights broadcasts, currently with ITV and ESPN, and the sponsorship, currently Budweiser. It is in a nod to the American market that the kick off of the final is now in the late afternoon (which is a bit of a fuck you to the Asian market, unless the next major sponsor comes from there, when it will probably be a 10am kick off!)

To be honest the only competition that is truly worth winning to address Ian's point is the Champions' League. Finishing 17th in the Premier League will net you around £40m, and winning it probably around £25m more (based on the current TV deal values).

But as someone who's seen Everton win the FA Cup, don't tell me it's not worth winning!

If you need proof of the reality, the prize money for winning the FA Cup is just an example. It's not insignificant but it's not £20m because the PL doesn't want to pay for it as its priorities lie with the top PL clubs who view finishing top 4 and CL qualification as a higher priority... why? Because it offers the benefit of greater global TV coverage and as a consequence much greater opportunities for commercial development. Sadly it's all about the money now.

Man City's owners didn't buy the club to win the FA Cup, they bought it to win the EPL and the CL and in the process create a global brand which in turn would promote their business interests in the UAE.

If the top Euro club owners felt their clubs' interests would be better served by breaking away from the current governing bodies, I have no doubt they would and could do it, as their motivations are self-interest, not the future of our game.

The fact is that every league is set up differently, and the distribution of TV revenue varies widely. The English League is the most equitable in Europe in my view. Two years ago, Liverpool's MD was arguing for a change in the distribution of the Overseas TV money (currently shared equally between all 20 clubs) as he claimed that no-one watches the likes of us overseas, they all want to watch them. As more and more overseas markets move to screening all 380 games live, this argument doesn't hold water anymore.

If the top European clubs did break away as you advocate, how many would there be from England? Italy? Spain? Germany?

What about Rangers and Celtic? How about Anzhi Makhachkala or Zenith St Petersburg?

It'll never happen. All of these breakaway clubs would be barred from European competition, and barred from their respective FAs, and rightly so. As soon as they realised the sponsors won't pay for it, as the supporters lose interest, so they will realise their greedy mistake and want to return to the status quo, and they'd be welcome to reapply to their FAs and start at the bottom of the pyramid.

And personally I'd love it to happen like that. Because, no matter what way you look at it, Everton will never be part of that elite.

I'm pretty sure that there were no newspaper editorials or radio phone-ins in the 1970s suggesting European competition was more important than the FA Cup!

Anyway I want us to try and win it, primarily for the joy it will bring me and secondly for the money it will generate for our club.

Moyes will use the Cup for the chance to rotate his team after four games in 11 days, and he admits that is the price the ­competition must pay for the all-embracing financial dominance of the Premier League.

“The big money-spinner is the cheque you get from Sky for being in the Premier League. Nobody is disrespecting the FA Cup,” he said.

“We have to remember Ross is a young boy and we’re bringing him on. He missed a bit of football but I will continue to edge him nearer to our first team,” he explained. The boy is going to be a very good player, and I have always thought he will play for England, but we must be wary.”

Personally, I think going gung-ho for the cup this year is a mistake; not taking Baines off at half time a mistake; not playing Barkley for any length of time just bizarre... but the question of whether we will bother or not has been answered. Only time will tell if we've prioritized correctly.

If FA Cups are the measure of success then winning them is all that will count when we reflect back on football come judgement day. To me, success is building an internationally recognizable, financially successful and sustainable football brand. This can and will only be achieved by getting Champions League on a regular basis, starting asap.

It's being able to compete in the transfer market and have some of the best players in the world dreaming of playing for the Toffees. It's being in a position to dominate not only the FA Cup but the Premier League for a generation and create a dynasty.