Maguiresbridge Gooner
The Capital One Cup - or whatever it's called these days – is great for Arsène to blood young guns with potential. With tickets easy to come it gives fans the chance to see the team who otherwise might not. But, as we have seen over the years it has never been and never will be Arsène's priority (we all know his holy grail) and, to be fair, when we were one of the top teams in the Premiership and winning titles, doing doubles, and breaking records, it wasn't ours (the fans’) either. But that was a long time ago.
One point that has been debated recently, because of where we are in the competition now, is whether we should really go for it. Should the manager put out his strongest team just to get the current players off the mark on the trophy front? Maybe instil a winning mentality and fill one of those spaces round the stadium that have remained empty for far too long now? That seems to be the consensus among fans. But I think we all know that won't happen. You'd think he'd like to make up for the final-against-Birmingham fiasco, but, like I said, it's not his priority. But let’s say he does. He puts out the strongest team possible and we go all the way and win it barring another Birmingham comedy of errors.
Would that suddenly make everything alright? Would it make up for everything? The last seven years of failure? The embarrassments on the pitch in that time? The selling of our best players every season for profit and replacing them on top contracts with dross that are never going to be good enough? Treating the defence which has always been the backbone of the team like it doesn't matter, and not addressing the goalkeeping situation since Lehmann, and, many would argue, Seaman? Would Arsène's first words in the post-match interview be “I told you I could win something on the cheap. It took seven or eight years, but I told you so”. Would it suddenly make everything alright?
