Smoking That Blessed Pot - FA Cup 2023/24

[G-Man]

I don't think Klopp has that option. Contractual obligations and all that.

Before he was a famous Dortmund coach, Klopp was a (very good) TV pundit. You'd think that he might know better than to treat a TV journalist like shit. But it's a German thing. Even the almost always very lovely Jonas Hector once berated a TV journalist for asking a question the player thought it was stupid. It wasn't a great question, but Jonas didn't always play a great pass...

[caja-dglh]

At the end of the day - a guy who has already told everyone he is resigning because he is exhausted is obliged to do an interview after a very frustrating loss to a major rival.

It all seems very predictable and rather unfair to all parties.

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

He should just refuse to speak to reporters, like Alex Ferguson did.

Ferguson also used to give a lot of journalists the "hairdryer". The thing is that I think a lot of them kinda liked it. It was very shit for those who didn't though.

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

At the end of the day - a guy who has already told everyone he is resigning because he is exhausted is obliged to do an interview after a very frustrating loss to a major rival.

It all seems very predictable and rather unfair to all parties.

Yeah. That's pretty much where I would stand on it. There's a huge element of dance monkey dance about being a modern football manager. You've really got to be into giving interviews and answering questions. That interviewer has to ask questions about the match that just happened, all the questions are going to be the same because everyone saw the same match, and while it's the journalists first time asking that question, it could be the manager's 6th time. No wonder these lads age so rapidly.

[Gangster Octopus]

Ferguson also used to give a lot of journalists the "hairdryer". The thing is that I think a lot of them kinda liked it.

Your fantasy of being abused by Ferguson is very creepy...

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

That's definitely not in any part of what I wrote.

[Gangster Octopus]

I'm just extrapolating from everything that you've posted over the last twenty-plus years...

[G-Man]

Yeah. That's pretty much where I would stand on it. There's a huge element of dance monkey dance about being a modern football manager. You've really got to be into giving interviews and answering questions. That interviewer has to ask questions about the match that just happened, all the questions are going to be the same because everyone saw the same match, and while it's the journalists first time asking that question, it could be the manager's 6th time. No wonder these lads age so rapidly.

I'm not buying that. Would you take rude behaviour from a waiter in a restaurant who tells you to fuck off just because you're the sixth person today who asks for gluten-free bread when they've run out of it? The difference is that the waiter is exploited; Klopp earns obscene amounts of money. Grinning and bearing the questions of interviewers doesn't sound like too much of a hardship, even (especially) if that's the least enjoyable part of your well-remunerated job.

And, whatever the circumstances and whatever your mood or levels of stress, there is never any excuse for diminishing the dignity of a person who is just trying to do their job.

[Ray de Galles]

No replays from First Round onwards, FFS!

https://twitter.com/emiratesfacup/status/1780899227842805782?s=46&t=YPTuyXx_pzpV4Wjm6pdF-Q

[Sean of the Shed]

Typical of the FA to once again shit on the smaller clubs to appease the top 6 Premier League teams who don't even give three fucks about the FA Cup until they reach the quarters. Cunts.

[Nurse Duckett]

"strengthen the format" when it's yet another weakening.

Boasting about moving the 5th Round to the weekend, where it always used to be anyway.

[tee rex]

"The new schedule ensures the magic of the cup is protected and enhanced"

Orwell lives.

Fuck 'em.

[Nocturnal Submission]

"strengthen the format" when it's yet another weakening.

I've been trying to remember the name of that "law" that says something like "whenever an organisation says that it's making changes to improve it's service or product it is, in fact, planning to weaken it." I think it was coined by a financial journalist at one of the Telegraph titles.

[tee rex]

How about this? If the big boys don't want replays, then a draw after 90 minutes means the tie is awarded to the non-Premier League side (where applicable). They get to quit the competition they so despise, and the club that wants to be in it gets through to the next round. Win win.

[Fearful Symmetry]

Just fuck off and form your Super League, you mendacious, money grubbing shitbiscuits.

[Satchmo Distel]

I don't understand scrapping replays in the first two rounds. Is there a minuscule risk that a second round tie might be unfinished that would then leave an EPL club with an empty weekend, forcing them to play an extra unscheduled midweek game? When was the last time that happened - 1979?

There are no wins for smaller clubs - they've been sold out by the FA in response to implied threats by the EPL.

Additionally, if we're having extra time and penalties on a Saturday, that's a scheduling conflict with the 5.30 EPL game (if there is one).

[Ray de Galles]

How about this? If the big boys don't want replays, then a draw after 90 minutes means the tie is awarded to the non-Premier League side (where applicable). They get to quit the competition they so despise, and the club that wants to be in it gets through to the next round. Win win.

As I frequently say, I'd be marginally more accepting of abolishing replays if the lower-placed side in a tie automatically got home advantage.

Before anyone asks, no I don't care about the chances of a "bumper pay day" from being drawn away to a bigger club - or at least I care far less about that than I do the competitive nature of the competition.

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

I don't understand why 'UEFA squeezing the calendar' means no replays in the first or second rounds proper, none of the clubs involved at that point are going to be in Europe?

And on the 'small club missing out on a payday' point, yes, Exeter have twice benefitted massively from the times they got to go to Liverpool and Man United, but I've always advocated just pooling and sharing out all the money raised from the games in each round between the teams in that round anyway. So if a 3rd round tie is Colchester v Stockport, they get their share of the gate and TV money from Arsenal v Liverpool on the same day. And vice-versa. Why not? They've all got an equal right to be at that stage.

[Sean of the Shed]

The EFL don't even appear to have been consulted with regard to this announcement.

https://twitter.com/RobFreeman/status/1780960290252755181?t=Gt-IDFctUd_oDe9l0mlymg&s=19

[Uros Predic]

How about this? If the big boys don't want replays...

...they could always leather the ball into their own goal in the 90th minute. Yet they never do. Spoil sports.

[Guy Profumo]

ABOLISHING REPLAYS IN THE FA CUP IS NOT THE BREXIT I VOTED FOR!!!

[Baptiste]

Pleased my lot have spoken up, needs action not words though. Meek statement from the EFL as usual

[Capybara]

From my mate who's a Hereford supporter:

"So many of my football memories are based on FA Cup replays"

[Janik]

I don't understand why 'UEFA squeezing the calendar' means no replays in the first or second rounds proper, none of the clubs involved at that point are going to be in Europe?

It only makes sense if the plan is to bring the 3rd and possibly also the 4th Round forward to happen before Christmas. Which would also generate a lot of fall out.

This seasons dates were:
1st Round: 4th November
2nd Round: 2nd December
3rd Round: 6th January

If the plan for next season was for the equivalent of 4/11, 18/11, 2/12 for R1, R2 and R3 then there genuinely wouldn’t be time with the 10 days notice the police demand for fixtures.

... but it’s more likely that the PL don’t like the competition of Cup Replays in midweek and want those November and December mid-weeks blank of fixtures for EFL clubs so the expanded European competitions are the only game in town. [if my speculation here is right then I would regard it as grotesque, just in case that wasn’t clear]

[Uncle Ethan]

I don't understand why 'UEFA squeezing the calendar' means no replays in the first or second rounds proper, none of the clubs involved at that point are going to be in Europe?

And on the 'small club missing out on a payday' point, yes, Exeter have twice benefitted massively from the times they got to go to Liverpool and Man United, but I've always advocated just pooling and sharing out all the money raised from the games in each round between the teams in that round anyway. So if a 3rd round tie is Colchester v Stockport, they get their share of the gate and TV money from Arsenal v Liverpool on the same day. And vice-versa. Why not? They've all got an equal right to be at that stage.

Ha ha - the big clubs fucked everyone else over and started the rot when they abolished sharing the gate takings between the two playing teams, so this otherwise excellent idea hasn't a snowball's.