| The League Cup and Ipswich Town 14:34 - Sep 26 with 4138 views | ChampionsofInnsbruck |
I thought I would open up a debate on why so many of our fans deride the League Cup (and other cup competitions as a whole) when it is the third most important club competition in the country and one, we’ve never won?
The last non-super club to win it was Swansea way back in 2013, and then before that Birmingham in 2011. It’s a competition that Ipswich as a club is historically big enough to win, Leicester have won it three times, Norwich have won it twice, as have Birmingham, Middlesborough have won it once as have Luton and Oxford. Why couldn’t Ipswich win the competition? Of course, the big clubs have monopolised it in recent years, which shows you it does actually have some worth in their eyes, but not ours? Every time we play in the League Cup, we see comments about it being mickey mouse, a waste of time, focus on the league and so on. It’s not true, is it? There is a trophy, prize money and importantly European football for the winner.
I may be unpopular in saying this, but we have no room to be arrogant about Cups these days, we’ve not won one for 45 years (domestic) and we’ve only won one other (the Texaco Cup, which evolved into the much-mocked EFL Trophy which most call the “Pizza Cup”). I just wonder where this dismissal of cups has come from. I don’t understand it, I am happy to see us finally start progressing in the FA and League Cups again. I hated losing year on year or being dumped out by clubs with players earning a 5ver a week. A particular low point was sending a second string to Old Trafford to lose to protect a non-existent league challenge.
I am glad we are no longer just participants, of course I am realistic, we wouldn’t likely beat Manchester City if we played them, but I would like to see us try.
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| The League Cup and Ipswich Town on 14:46 - Sep 26 with 3376 views | Vegtablue |
It's the rubbish cup Talking Blues, always has been. It's the one where someone needs to tap you on the shoulder at the semi-final stage and let you know you're still in it. Managers of top PL clubs are under significant pressure every year to win silverware, hence why this remains an attractive opportunity for them in the latter stages. It's the first chance to breathe a bit easier. Also, because so many sides treat it like a reserve match, the gap between the second XI of the big guns and other clubs is typically even more pronounced than with the first teams. Hence why we've seen such a stranglehold. |  | | |
| The League Cup and Ipswich Town on 14:46 - Sep 26 with 3370 views | Steve_M |
Do you think that winning it is a greater or lesser thing than winning one second round UEFA cup tie? |  |
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| The League Cup and Ipswich Town on 14:48 - Sep 26 with 3359 views | Asa |
Easy. Legitimise it and Norwich have won a major honour twice.
Ergo it's a two-bit, tin pot, pointless trophy that anyone without a shred of history can win and a competition where third and fourth division teams can reach the final.
It's no UEFA Cup is it. | | | |
| The League Cup and Ipswich Town on 14:53 - Sep 26 with 3322 views | ChampionsofInnsbruck |
| The League Cup and Ipswich Town on 14:48 - Sep 26 by Asa |
Easy. Legitimise it and Norwich have won a major honour twice.
Ergo it's a two-bit, tin pot, pointless trophy that anyone without a shred of history can win and a competition where third and fourth division teams can reach the final.
It's no UEFA Cup is it. |
So we're saying because Norwich won it' its worthless? Do Spurs fans say that about the FA Cup then? Because Arsenal have won that tons more than they have. Seems a bitter logic. If we were in the final suddenly tons of people would be screaming for tickets. Ipswich is a club that should be big enough to win the League Cup, and no I am not saying it means more than the Europa League, but I am talking strictly domestic.
I do not understand our arrogance over it, especially given we have won very little since Robson departed, it would be nice to get some decent silverware again and start to kick start our club as a contender again. | | | |
| The League Cup and Ipswich Town on 14:54 - Sep 26 with 3307 views | rgp1 |
| The League Cup and Ipswich Town on 14:48 - Sep 26 by Asa |
Easy. Legitimise it and Norwich have won a major honour twice.
Ergo it's a two-bit, tin pot, pointless trophy that anyone without a shred of history can win and a competition where third and fourth division teams can reach the final.
It's no UEFA Cup is it. |
I'd like to win it to complete the domestic set of trophys. Remember it was a milk pot when the budgies won it. | | | |
| The League Cup and Ipswich Town on 14:58 - Sep 26 with 3284 views | ChampionsofInnsbruck |
| The League Cup and Ipswich Town on 14:54 - Sep 26 by rgp1 |
I'd like to win it to complete the domestic set of trophys. Remember it was a milk pot when the budgies won it. |
There no reason why Ipswich couldn't win it on a good run, and good draws, Wolves are beatable at home, a few of the bigger clubs will be knocked out, and you never know. It has happened for others.
I do think that over the Evans years the club got away with treating cups like kids games, all of them, which should have caused more upset than it did, because we really did embarrass ourselves a few times. | | | |
| The League Cup and Ipswich Town on 15:02 - Sep 26 with 3221 views | Vegtablue |
| The League Cup and Ipswich Town on 14:48 - Sep 26 by Asa |
Easy. Legitimise it and Norwich have won a major honour twice.
Ergo it's a two-bit, tin pot, pointless trophy that anyone without a shred of history can win and a competition where third and fourth division teams can reach the final.
It's no UEFA Cup is it. |
It is genuinely rubbish in fairness though, Asa. This isn't an Ipswich opinion clouded by Norwich's storied past. To be fair to Norwich, I'm not aware of it being something they celebrate much if at all themselves. They know it isn't just us who would laugh if they drew attention to the milk cup being their crowning glory. | | | |
| The League Cup and Ipswich Town on 15:08 - Sep 26 with 3212 views | Illinoisblue |
As you’ll know, Norwich won it twice might be factually accurate but let’s not forget: beating Rochdale over two legs in the early 60s and when half of the league didn’t bother to enter is today’s equivalent of a pizza cup win. And beating Sunderland with an own goal and then getting relegated isn’t the height of glory either. |  |
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| The League Cup and Ipswich Town on 15:10 - Sep 26 with 3180 views | Ftnfwest |
I'm pretty sure i'm right in saying that for a while in the 70's and 80's it carried a UEFA Cup spot for the winners. That might make teams take it a bit more seriously. |  | | |
| The League Cup and Ipswich Town on 15:13 - Sep 26 with 3149 views | WalkyWonderland |
I'd be delighted for town to have a good league cup run and I'm sure all fans would be made up if we made the final and won it. However, it is rightly our 3rd priority of 3 this season. Imagine playing a full strength team and getting serious injuries to a couple of key players for a low level knock out competition? |  | | |
| The League Cup and Ipswich Town on 15:15 - Sep 26 with 3135 views | Vegtablue |
| The League Cup and Ipswich Town on 15:08 - Sep 26 by Illinoisblue |
As you’ll know, Norwich won it twice might be factually accurate but let’s not forget: beating Rochdale over two legs in the early 60s and when half of the league didn’t bother to enter is today’s equivalent of a pizza cup win. And beating Sunderland with an own goal and then getting relegated isn’t the height of glory either. |
Yeah probably doesn't help that it began its life not being compulsory and half the league said ta we'll leave it. 😅 Rough start that. Wenger used to refer to it as the "non-trophy" didn't he? | | | |
| The League Cup and Ipswich Town on 15:30 - Sep 26 with 3053 views | hatch |
Personally I’d rank it lower than the Innsbruck Cup in terms of importance as a competition. |  | | |
| The League Cup and Ipswich Town on 15:43 - Sep 26 with 2990 views | GeoffSentence |
What's this nonsense about the Texaco Cup being the same as the Pizza Cup?
It was for top tier teams who hadn't qualified for Europe, it also involved teams from Scotland and Ireland. A much higher level of competition. Closer to the Euro Conference than Pizza Cup. |  |
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| The League Cup and Ipswich Town on 15:44 - Sep 26 with 2983 views | Churchman |
It was always tinpot. Always will be. It was the rubber bone trophy in the 70s and beyond. A useful distraction or a drain on a small squad as it was for us.
Now it’s useful to give squad players a runout. Only a few teams can win it and we aren’t one of them. I hope we (ITFC) win tonight obviously. Helps momentum and another game for fringe players. If we don’t, not to worry. We can always arrange another game with West Ham as we did during the break the other week.
Cups in general? They just don’t have the meaning they once did with the exception of the Champions League - and that is only because the £ on offer. Do I find this sad? Of course. Do I wish it was how it was in the past? Of course. But it isn’t. It’s how it is. So I’ll just enjoy the best period in the club’s history for decades and a poor result tonight won’t change that. |  | | |
| The League Cup and Ipswich Town on 15:53 - Sep 26 with 2933 views | Steve_M |
| The League Cup and Ipswich Town on 15:43 - Sep 26 by GeoffSentence |
What's this nonsense about the Texaco Cup being the same as the Pizza Cup?
It was for top tier teams who hadn't qualified for Europe, it also involved teams from Scotland and Ireland. A much higher level of competition. Closer to the Euro Conference than Pizza Cup. |
Almost as if teams who lost in the final would want to downplay it. | |
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| The League Cup and Ipswich Town on 15:53 - Sep 26 with 2933 views | J2BLUE |
It's not just us. Every club in the 92 treats it as a B competition. Prem clubs take it seriously once they get to the final.
The latest ideas for the league cup are having teams in Europe enter even later or letting them enter their U21s. That will take a competition on life support and kill it off. |  |
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| The League Cup and Ipswich Town on 16:00 - Sep 26 with 2895 views | Radlett_blue |
I think the League Cup, not helped by the rapid turnover of increasingly obscure sponsors, has become the preserve of the big clubs since the PL has become so important that the middling PL clubs also play reserve teams in the early rounds. This means that the likes of Manchester City, whose reserve side would be top half PL, have won it 6 times in the last 10 years, while the other winners are Man Utd (twice), Liverpool & Chelsea. All the more reason for Town to give it a go. In the last 20 dismal years of supporting Town, the run to the semi finals under Keane was a rare highlight. |  |
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| The League Cup and Ipswich Town on 16:22 - Sep 26 with 2830 views | Kropotkin123 |
"It’s a competition that Ipswich as a club is historically big enough to win, Leicester have won it three times, Norwich have won it twice, as have Birmingham, Middlesborough have won it once as have Luton and Oxford."
And in so saying, you demonstrate that it has less worth. We were historically big enough to go up against all teams, winning the FA Cup, League, and UEFA Cup. We don't need hand outs from the big clubs lack of interest in order to have some sort of diluted domestic relevance. |  |
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| The League Cup and Ipswich Town on 16:47 - Sep 26 with 2750 views | Illinoisblue |
| The League Cup and Ipswich Town on 14:53 - Sep 26 by ChampionsofInnsbruck |
So we're saying because Norwich won it' its worthless? Do Spurs fans say that about the FA Cup then? Because Arsenal have won that tons more than they have. Seems a bitter logic. If we were in the final suddenly tons of people would be screaming for tickets. Ipswich is a club that should be big enough to win the League Cup, and no I am not saying it means more than the Europa League, but I am talking strictly domestic.
I do not understand our arrogance over it, especially given we have won very little since Robson departed, it would be nice to get some decent silverware again and start to kick start our club as a contender again. |
To turn it around, what is Norwich’s “arrogance” about not winning actual major trophies? | |
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| The League Cup and Ipswich Town on 16:54 - Sep 26 with 2705 views | Mullet |
| The League Cup and Ipswich Town on 15:08 - Sep 26 by Illinoisblue |
As you’ll know, Norwich won it twice might be factually accurate but let’s not forget: beating Rochdale over two legs in the early 60s and when half of the league didn’t bother to enter is today’s equivalent of a pizza cup win. And beating Sunderland with an own goal and then getting relegated isn’t the height of glory either. |
Think that's pretty disrespectful to the Pizza cup to be honest |  |
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| The League Cup and Ipswich Town on 17:10 - Sep 26 with 2657 views | NthQldITFC |
Strewth, you do try don't you.
It's a second-rate competition now, worth, I would say, a quarter of an FA Cup, albeit I think it does get you a Cup Winners' Cup (equiv.) entry these days does it not? The main attraction these days though, is that with such big squads now bigger clubs need some semi-competitive games to keep fringe players up to speed.
Back when your lot won it it was worth fk all, as evidenced by the fact that you beat a 4th Division team, Scunthorpe I believe, in the final, and 1st Division teams mostly put out reserve or youth squads for a bit of a run out.
It actually has more worth to Ipswich this season in our progress back up the league ladder, as we no longer have the even lower value Pizza Cup to give our squad players a game in. You might have that to look forward to. But gone are the days when minnows like Norwich can win a bit of pewter and pretend it's silverware. |  |
| # WE ARE STEALING THE FUTURE FROM OUR CHILDREN --- WE MUST CHANGE COURSE # | | Poll: | It's driving me nuts |
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| The League Cup and Ipswich Town on 17:12 - Sep 26 with 2627 views | BigCommon |
I'd love us to win The League Cup, or any cup competition... Heck, I even wanted us to get to The Pizza Cup final.. I'm old enough to remember '78 and '81, but not old enough to have been around during 61-62.....
Im lucky enough to have seen our club win silverware, as a kid, might I add..
Theres a generation or two of younger supporters and kids out there that would have something special to remember, in their lifetime, if we ever lifted silverware again...
Dont belittle the league cup. It may not be as bling as winning the Prem'.. But its still a major historic achievement in any clubs history, should they win it.... |  | | |
| The League Cup and Ipswich Town on 17:19 - Sep 26 with 2603 views | PhilTWTD |
| The League Cup and Ipswich Town on 16:47 - Sep 26 by Illinoisblue |
To turn it around, what is Norwich’s “arrogance” about not winning actual major trophies? |
Well, they seem to have an awful lot of events to celebrate Bayern, their 50s cup run etc as if they're major achievements. |  | | |
| The League Cup and Ipswich Town on 17:20 - Sep 26 with 2577 views | Mullet |
| The League Cup and Ipswich Town on 17:19 - Sep 26 by PhilTWTD |
Well, they seem to have an awful lot of events to celebrate Bayern, their 50s cup run etc as if they're major achievements. |
In fairness getting out of Norfolk and having any sort of success if probably a major achievement to them. | |
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| The League Cup and Ipswich Town on 17:21 - Sep 26 with 2567 views | PhilTWTD |
| The League Cup and Ipswich Town on 15:43 - Sep 26 by GeoffSentence |
What's this nonsense about the Texaco Cup being the same as the Pizza Cup?
It was for top tier teams who hadn't qualified for Europe, it also involved teams from Scotland and Ireland. A much higher level of competition. Closer to the Euro Conference than Pizza Cup. |
Papa Johns was initially introduced as the Associate Members Cup for teams in the bottom two divisions alongside the Full Members Cup for sides in the top two after English clubs were kicked out of Europe. | | | |
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