The Carling Cup has given us some of our best memories as fans over the last 12 years. Having won the trophy in 1999 and 2008 and having reached the final on two other occasions, this represented our best chance of a trophy for many years.
Last night we went out at what was for Spurs the first hurdle for the second year in a row and although this was a stronger side than the one that took on PAOK last week, it was still weaker on paper than our opponents.
There were, of course, many positives and Jake Livermore and Tom Carroll seem to be growing in stature with every game they play. It is also good in many ways that we have other things to concentrate on besides this trophy.
However, when you remember the incredible final against Chelsea in 2008 and the 5-1 semi final wins over Arsenal and Chelsea again, it seems sad that we won’t see a repeat of those for some time to come.
So we’re out of the Carling Cup, but do we really care?
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{ 34 comments… read them below or add one }
you say we dont care…… then say that it will be sad not to beat ars n chel…… does that mean we do care????
The Carling cup would have been a great way to develop Tom Carroll, Cristian Ceballos and Alex Pritchard.
Now the opportunities for the youngsters will be limited to bits of game time in the Europa league.
Too right we bloody do! Who doesn’t like a day out at Wembley?
…apart from when you lose at Wembley..? Who says we would even get there? The worst thing we could do is field strongest team, let it affect our league results, and go out in quarter finals…
A loss is always hard to stomach, and this is no different.
Also, it would have been nice to have an additional (as well as the Europa League) continued platform to blood some of our ‘promising’ youngsters and give them crucial experience and game time.
My major frustration over recent years is not giving youngsters a chance – but via some shrewd loan deals and the fact that ‘Arry has seemingly been given carte blanche to break back into the Champions League at all costs, we’re seeing a fair few of them be used.
I’m under no illusions – I know the fair majority will hit the glass ceiling and that we likely don’t have the next Modric / Bale in our ranks – but we’ll enjoy the ride into the unknown with these guys coming through nonetheless. Let’s face it Fergie’s teams have never been solely world beaters but a blend of world-beaters and good solid dependable players (Fletcher, Carrick, O’Shea, Brown, Evans, Gibson etc.) – hopefully we can begin to emulate this successful model to some extent.
Yes we do care! But was it the right decision to play some youth with experience? Yes. We could have easily of gone through so its not like we played with 11 juniors. Think Redschapps has realised his mistake last year and bringing in a lot of youth. It’s a long season!
Personally, I couldn’t care less.. besides the extra match day revenue, it offers very little financial reward for the club.. that’s why the board don’t care about it.. it’s also why I’m inclined to agree with them.. much more important things to concentrate on this year that will actually help the club progress.. no players are going to want to come to WHL based on our league cup success, are they?
not only the youngsters, being in this competion gives fringe players a chance to press their case for inclusion in the first team. it’s just a shame that some (I’m thinking a russian centre forward) don’t seem to be able to take it.
Given the injuries around, the team selection was fair enough. I just think the players should have played better and won the game.
Disappointed…
agreed
Sad No, Happy, Yes … Don’t get me wrong, I like the Carling Cup when we are not in Europe or pushing for a top 4 place (so that’s most of the past 25years then) .. but times are changing and we need to get back into the CL so league has to be the big push. The Europa and FA cup will be good enough for the young gun’s to do a job … so good luck to Stoke but i feel that u will be pushing yourself if u stay in to long.
Absolutely care – in the past twenty years some of my favourite memories have been through the League Cup, i.e. beating Chelsea 5-1, Iverson’s chip at Wimbledon, Ginola making it 3-1 against Man-U, Spurs 5-1 Arsenal etc. Only reason i’m not as annpyed by fact we played a second string side is the idiot who thought it would be OK for Spurs to play Stoke on Tuesday after both sides had played on Sunday …
i think our back up team is not good enough so judging that all the top teams will have to play more games than us it leaves us in a better place potentially.
I cannot believe Gomes did not get close to one pen save. We signed him after he knocked us out of cup with his saves which he claimed he had a system.
I don’t know of any club (ranked outside the top 4) that have no interest in the FA Cup, Carling Cup nor Europa. Winning any of the silverware is an achievement. These are more within our grasp compared to the EPL & CL. Of these, the Carling & FA cup should be priorities, as they entail less travelling abroad.
I don’t know where this notion comes from to prioritize certain cup fixtures as historically we don’t have records of doing well in neither the EPL ( let alone CL). Half a loaf is better than none!
Doesn’t matter if we care or not guys, we’re out and we have to get on with it. I do think that we tend to look at our participation in all the competitions in a negative way though. Look at Man Utd (I know, it’s not nice) but you have to respect their winning mentality. Even with their kids, they demand a win every time they go on the pitch and I think that’s something we haven’t yet developed. We seem to be too worried about players getting injure when the so called big teams just getting with amassing silverware.
I would like to have such things to worry about.
But all my worry goes on Adebayor staying fit.
Spurs season goes down the toilet if he gets crocked.
Do you think that we would have won vs Wolves & Liverpool so easily with Adebayor but no Parker? I think Parker has been the main difference. Whether Adebayor plays or not means nothing when you are forced to play with Kranjcar/Livermore in the centre.
Good to see Ceballos on the bench. Would have been great to see him on the pitch. Who knows when he will next get a chance? He is currently not registered for the Europa league. Hopefully he can be registered after the group stages. Put him in instead of Pienaar.
I’m just a bit sad for the youngsters who will miss out on game time. But it was up to them to win it!
How can it be up to them to win it, when the best young players were not even picked to play. Carroll was the only potentially great young player on show.
The other top youngsters: Ceballos, Pritchard and Coulibaly should have been given game time, instead of Dos Santos, Pavlyuchenko and Livermore.
i bloody care i was brought up on winning every game still remember beating norwich and aston villa with a full team playing 60 games and beating wolves [uefa cup]
For all those who spent there hard earned cash and half day off to see him put out a weakened side with a midfield of sandro[blue hair]and vdv both not match fit an carroll[the 12yr old] and ************** dominated game and second half looked like we would be the first to score ,then bang no vdv and no sandro on came defoe ,done sweet fa ,with them 2 off went any threat
ARRY immeadiatly killed the game for us ,after that stoke bullied us out of the game in midfield pav disappeared
,we looked like a team that didn’t/couldn’t win ,after 4poxy games and a lot of u fall for it
The geezer is an arse im pissed off because of going all the way up their and says “We did go out to win
Isay BO-llox
We just HAVE to win a trophy so all guns blazing in the FA cup and it would be lovely to win Europa and have a chance to then win the Supercup. Regarding the carling cup, it may benefit us to have a little bit fewer games nbow but in general I’m dissapointed that we reached consecutive finals and now we can’t get past the first round two years in a row.
Couldn’t care less about the Carling Cup. Need to concentrate on the Premiership.
I think other than Pavs lack of effort, the selection of players was almost spot on. youth mixed with experience. Gio should also be doing more. have to wonder why Caroll gets the nodd ahead of Bostock though, who is clearly more developed and mature. I think Harry is going all out for top 4 so he can leave with head held high. Younsters will all get chance in europe COYS
The side we put out was perfect – youth combined with first teamers needing fitness while fully resting 8 of the 11 starters we had against Liverpool Sunday. We lost away to Stoke on a rainy day in PKs….it happens. Shame though b/c Carling Cup presented the best opportunity for a trophy with the least amount of risk to injury for our first team.
NO NO NO
I don’t care. We did not win. But we did not lose either. Gio is still not helping his cause…
Pavlyuchenko out
A summer is a short time – without his goal’s in the PL last yr we would not even be in europe, he had the best time/gaol ratio of all the Spurs players which is not bad considering he was sub most of the time. Defoe out Pav in I say.
You’re an idiot
yes we fucking care. this headline is embarassing!! all competitions matter and going out in the first round of any competition is not good.
15,000 gate receipt says that Stoke don`t give a toss about it either, Boothen ROAR! More like a MIAO!
No
I wasnt gutted with the result, I am not bothered about being out. It is a shame that our reserves cannot get a run out against decent opposition in meaningful competitiions, but realistically the Europa league will take its toll as could the FA cup. Winning the Carling Cup is great, but if we win it everyone else says they didnt try……its a cup that has been spoiled by the money of the Champions League. At one time the League Cup was a good cup and 4th in the league was nothing. Thats has changed