• Dear Guest, Please note that adult content is not permitted on this forum. We have had our Google ads disabled at times due to some posts that were found from some time ago. Please do not post adult content and if you see any already on the forum, please report the post so that we can deal with it. Adult content is allowed in the glory hole - you will have to request permission to access it. Thanks, scara

FA Cup 2016

Didn't even realise these FA Semis were on this weekend, has the FA Cup lost it's value or am I just transfixed on our fight for the top?
 
Didn't even realise these FA Semis were on this weekend, has the FA Cup lost it's value or am I just transfixed on our fight for the top?

A bit I would guess. Fans of all clubs still value it as much as ever, till they get knocked out of it after which they don't really give a toss. Not the game every neutral wants to watch so much anymore.
 
An ominous defeat drove Roberto Martínez to try to show that he can, in fact, build a strong defence. Pointing to the positives amid amid this 2-1 loss against Manchester United and the strides he believes Everton have made during his three‑year tenure, the Spaniard trumpeted his defiance of the fans who want him sacked and declared that he deserves to be allowed to “drive the club forward” by making “big moves” this summer, thanks to the club’s new financial backing.
This semi-final elimination, following an exit at the same stage of the Capital One Cup, leaves Everton with little to play for this season other than avoiding a second successive finish in the bottom half of the Premier League. That is a situation many of their fans deem unacceptable for a squad that the manager has described as the club’s best in a generation. Farhad Moshiri, the Iranian billionaire who bought a 49.9% stake in Everton last month, also has higher targets than that but Martínez, who talks to Moshiri regularly, claims he has shown he can meet the club’s ambitions.

“I just want to believe, with the work I have done for the last three years, there are signs there that we are getting close to challenging for silverware and where Everton should be,” he said. “We developed young players, gave them big roles and they reacted, and showed character, flair and drive in the biggest football arena.

“In the first season we had a [club] record number of points in the Premier League and in the second the experience of Europe. We gave young players big roles and have not invested money but managed assets. We were very unfairly stopped from being in the League Cup final and that never stopped us wanting to come to Wembley. There are signs in the three years I could have earned the opportunity to drive the club forward and I am sure we can fulfil our expectations. I am very much attached to it.”

Martínez said that with the backing of Moshiri he will be able to take the club to heights not reached for years. “The introduction of the new shareholder brings a different approach to the new squad. We have the finances to compete with anyone within the fair play rules. That can only be a help. I see it no other way.

“The difficulty is building a squad without the money other teams have while they are fighting for the same aims you have. The arrival of the new shareholder is terrific, positive news for the future and helps you build squads.

“Clearly, at the end of the season we will need to make big moves and make sure we start the season with a strong team that is ready to fight and play the way we have to play. [Moshiri’s] vision is to become a winning team and bring Everton to where we all want it. That goes into the footballing style. It is a shared vision.” Asked how certain he was that he would still be Everton’s manager come the summer, Martínez replied: “You’re asking the wrong man.”

The Spaniard said he took heart from the experiences of Everton’s two-time title-winning manager, the late Howard Kendall, and also from the team’s second-half improvement at Wembley, which might not have been fruitless if Romelu Lukaku had not had a penalty saved by David de Gea before Chris Smalling equalised with an own goal and Anthony Martial inflicted a killer blow in stoppage time.

“I draw inspiration from big, big figures from our football club – and no one more than Howard Kendall, who always said as a football club we react in the best possible way,” Martínez said, determined to remain positive. “Facing adversity [against United] our second‑half performance is exactly that. It was as dominant as you could see in a semi-final against a team like Manchester United.

“Without being at our best we could not get into the rhythm in the first half and we showed incredible maturity and mental strength to dig in. The second half is us – confidence, belief and fast football with attacking threat. We missed a penalty and it never affected us. Conceding in injury time is a major blow that we did not deserve. I was pleased the players represented our football club in a way we know they can in the second half. They enjoyed their football.”

http://www.theguardian.com/football...z-everton-manchester-united-fa-cup-semi-final

Man is utterly bonkers.
 
Why don't they just ban fans altogether? Then all tickets can go to VIPs.

Was just about to share this. It's an absolute travesty. I guess they'd make prawn sandwiches compulsory as well if they didn't know that thousands of c*ckny reds are bringing them along anyway.

I can't believe how many of these corporate seats are needed for each of the sponsors. Do these sponsors bring in every single person employed by their company or something?
 
Was just about to share this. It's an absolute travesty. I guess they'd make prawn sandwiches compulsory as well if they didn't know that thousands of c*ckny reds are bringing them along anyway.

I can't believe how many of these corporate seats are needed for each of the sponsors. Do these sponsors bring in every single person employed by their company or something?

Mostly they sell the tickets on to fans at an inflated price I would think.

There's no reason for the FA to give them these tickets in the first place. It's all part of the look after your mate culture.
 
it's the same "outrage" every year

there isn't a stadium big enough to accommodate everyone who wants to go, there are always going to be those who miss out

football is popular entertainment generally, this game is of interest to more than fans of the two clubs, we invited all this money into the game, surely we expected them to take the payoff somewhere, the glamour of affiliation with these events is what they are buying
 
it's the same "outrage" every year

there isn't a stadium big enough to accommodate everyone who wants to go, there are always going to be those who miss out

football is popular entertainment generally, this game is of interest to more than fans of the two clubs, we invited all this money into the game, surely we expected them to take the payoff somewhere, the glamour of affiliation with these events is what they are buying

I agree, it's the same outrage every year. English fans just lack the balls to promise to take action against it and then follow through. I also agree that you can't expect all the money etc. without these corporate types taking their slice of the pie in return. But the slice they're taking is taking the tinkle.

In the Bundesliga they do a very good job of balancing the needs of the supporters with that of the corporate/ sponsor types. In recent years there have been a couple of occasions when they've tried to take the tinkle, probably to see how much they can get away with, but German fans don't let brick like that slide easily.
 
A quarter of a century since we last won the cup that once arguably defined us more than any other.

Sigh.
Between 1961 and 1991 Tottenham won:

1 First Division title
2 UEFA Cups (inaugural winners)
1 Cup Winners Cup (first British team to win a European trophy)
6 FA Cups
2 League Cups

Since 1992 we've won 2 League Cups, so hopefully we're due a deluge of silverware over the next 5 years to even things up a bit!
 
Between 1961 and 1991 Tottenham won:

1 First Division title
2 UEFA Cups (inaugural winners)
1 Cup Winners Cup (first British team to win a European trophy)
6 FA Cups
2 League Cups

Since 1992 we've won 2 League Cups, so hopefully we're due a deluge of silverware over the next 5 years to even things up a bit!

Personally, I'd like us to win something, *anything* in the next three years, if only to keep that 'Spurs have won a trophy every decade since the 1950's' stat going. It doesn't mean much, but it's important to have little markers like that to show that we can still be *exceptional* when we wish; like, once-in-a-decade or so. It also reassures some of our newer fans that they only have to wait ten years for a trophy, on average. :)

In all seriousness, we belong in the cups, and we are a cup side. We always have been, ever since we became the first non-league team to win the FA Cup at the turn of the last century. It fits with our colourful history, I think - league titles require a *lot* of consistency and mental strength, which we've only rarely managed under exceptional managers and with unbelievably good players. But cup runs are where individual excellence and attacking football can gain rewards on the spur of the moment that just aren't present in a league campaign, where grinding defensive football is more useful. Since we've chosen to adopt attacking football as our ethos, and we've never had a shortage of brilliant individual players (even if our teams have varied widely in quality over the years), we're better suited to cup tournaments than we are to league football.

It's why I do feel genuinely sad that so many fellow Spurs fans devalue and ignore our participation in cup competitions. It's what we were born to do, we shouldn't be discarding that as easily as we seem to be doing.
 
Between 1961 and 1991 Tottenham won:

1 First Division title
2 UEFA Cups (inaugural winners)
1 Cup Winners Cup (first British team to win a European trophy)
6 FA Cups
2 League Cups

Since 1992 we've won 2 League Cups, so hopefully we're due a deluge of silverware over the next 5 years to even things up a bit!

I would not hold your breath, its seems that finishing among the runners up is what most fans seem to want. I would be so happy to see us win something again instead of being among the runners up.
 
Back