Heroes & Villains, the Aston Villa fanzine
Heroes & Villains => Heroes Discussion => Topic started by: Andy_Lochhead_in_the_air on December 04, 2010, 06:17:46 PM
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Im not usually one for change or tinkering but how about combining the English and Scottish league cups ?
One cup competiton for 134 teams, 92 from England and 42 from Scotland ?
You can argue about who gets byes to round 2 and 3, but otherwise its an open draw.
The final would alternate each season between Wembley and Hampden irrrespective of the finalists.
It would give rise to plenty of debate for fans about the relative strengths of English and Scottish teams, and not just the Rangers/Celtic thing.
You would get new grounds to visit on occasion, I would love a draw where we might get something like Stenhousemuir away.
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After the scenes at the sty the other night? Somehow I can't see the police warming to the idea of Millwall v Rangers. Plus, can you imagine the attendances at Villa Park against Stranraer on a cold Tuesday night in November?
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Stupid idea.
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I thinks it's a good idea, I would have 1st 2 rounds in each country (i.e. English teams play each other as do the Jocks), then an open knock-out format bringing the 2 leagues together.
It could lead as an introduction for the old firm coming down here, but that's another well discussed arguement....
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I think its a brilliant idea. I love the sound of going to some more grounds. Ibrox is a smashing stadium by the way. And if were gunna talk about trouble. We wouldnt get much from any of these
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Not under any circumstances. No.
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One reason why not ....09.10.1976
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The attendances suck as it is at the moment in the earlier rounds.
Does anyone really want to face Falkirk away on a Wednesday night?
Then you'd have the big(oted) 2 coming down with their own unique approach to fan diplomacy. Anyone who was around in the 70's will probably tell you Rangers coming to Villa Park again is a bad idea. More recently than that the citizens of Manchester probably have their own take on the idea, following the shenanigans before and after the UEFA Cup Final in 2007 in that city.
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2008 wern'it?
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The attendances suck as it is at the moment in the earlier rounds.
Does anyone really want to face Falkirk away on a Wednesday night?
Then you'd have the big(oted) 2 coming down with their own unique approach to fan diplomacy. Anyone who was around in the 70's will probably tell you Rangers coming to Villa Park again is a bad idea. More recently than that the citizens of Manchester probably have their own take on the idea, following the shenanigans before and after the UEFA Cup Final in 2007 in that city.
So much is made of the uefa cup final, out of 150k fans in the city, there was only a 100 or so arrests. Can you imagine 100k Liverpool fans in Manchester or anything like that? Carnage! It was piss poor organization that night and the police were heavy handed.
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Does anyone really want to face Falkirk away on a Wednesday night?
Yes, these are the sort of things I want. Never been to Falkirks ground.
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Does anyone really want to face Falkirk away on a Wednesday night?
In all fairness, Falkik looks pretty good. Tyncastle, Easter Road, Ibrox, Parkhead. Sounds good to me!
Hasn anyone been to Ibrox?
Yes, these are the sort of things I want. Never been to Falkirks ground.
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The attendances suck as it is at the moment in the earlier rounds.
Does anyone really want to face Falkirk away on a Wednesday night?
Then you'd have the big(oted) 2 coming down with their own unique approach to fan diplomacy. Anyone who was around in the 70's will probably tell you Rangers coming to Villa Park again is a bad idea. More recently than that the citizens of Manchester probably have their own take on the idea, following the shenanigans before and after the UEFA Cup Final in 2007 in that city.
So much is made of the uefa cup final, out of 150k fans in the city, there was only a 100 or so arrests. Can you imagine 100k Liverpool fans in Manchester or anything like that? Carnage! It was piss poor organization that night and the police were heavy handed.
100 arrests doesn't mean there were only 100 fans playing up.
It just means they were the only ones the cops could isolate long enough to get hold of.
Very difficult to make arrests if you have a few thousand all playing up at the same time in the same place. There was TV footage of the carry on before and after and it didn't look like a tea party, put it that way. Don't forget that that was against soft opposition, as Zenit didn't take many and Manchester was a neutral venue too. If they were to do that in Manchester, Birmingham, Cardiff or East London with the home sides fans in town it's not a huge stretch of the imagination to think it could be a fair bit worse.
No doubt a few will point to the times Rangers have come down when they face Man U in the CL. But numbers are strictly limited ion those games due to the allocation and Manchester United's support. Against teams who don't sell out (like ours) they're more likely to chance their arm and travel down on the offchance.
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Why not an English/Spanish Cup. In the Summer.
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The attendances suck as it is at the moment in the earlier rounds.
Does anyone really want to face Falkirk away on a Wednesday night?
Then you'd have the big(oted) 2 coming down with their own unique approach to fan diplomacy. Anyone who was around in the 70's will probably tell you Rangers coming to Villa Park again is a bad idea. More recently than that the citizens of Manchester probably have their own take on the idea, following the shenanigans before and after the UEFA Cup Final in 2007 in that city.
So much is made of the uefa cup final, out of 150k fans in the city, there was only a 100 or so arrests. Can you imagine 100k Liverpool fans in Manchester or anything like that? Carnage! It was piss poor organization that night and the police were heavy handed.
No way should there have been that many Rangers fans in the city. They were probably only allocated around 20,000 tickets.
Also there are probably a lot more than a hundred Rangers fans who deserved arrest for their actions that night.
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No.
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The only thing I can hold against the idea is the potential for Rangers and Celtic fans to cause trouble.
However, if they had the experience annually then there would be much less trouble there. There was trouble in Manchester because it was a rare opportunity to see them in a European final that was near Glasgow. If you look at it week in week out there isn't really that much trouble at SPL games involving Rangers. Certainly no more trouble than fans of most premier league clubs cause aside from the chants from both sides.
It will be great for SPL and SFL clubs many of whom are facing hard times to boost their coffers if they get a visit from a Premier League club. It would also probably generate more money for both sides.
And the fact that we might draw Hearts or Hibs allowing me to get to the game without travelling for five hours each way is just a useful bonus.
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I like the idea. I would introduce one-leg semi-finals (played at neutral venues, NOT including Wembley) like the old FA Cup Semis as well, played at the week-end, one after the other. Would boost the competition's profile, I reckon.
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Why not an English/Spanish Cup. In the Summer.
To aid the development of the game over there why not a Anglo/Quatari cup. It would give the locals invaluable experience in dealing with European fans!
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It might have the added bonus of teaching Brits how to spell 'Qatari'.
** winky fellow **
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Indeed!
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Not a chance! After seeing the way those Celtic fans behaved the other week with their anti-poppy banners and further destain of the English then quite simply NO. Fuck em, i hope that their dirty club falls apart.
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It might have the added bonus of teaching Brits how to spell 'Qatari'.
** winky fellow **
Qatari is the name given to the people and all things from Qatar no? They do have a cracking airline I have to admit.
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Does anyone really want to face Falkirk away on a Wednesday night?
Yes, these are the sort of things I want. Never been to Falkirks ground.
So go to Falkirk's ground, it's quite good, as are many other Scottish grounds, they play there every other week or so!
What we don't need is another Anglo-Scottish Cup which was poorly attended and totally poiuntless the first time round.
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In fairness, the Anglo-Italian Cup was only open to non-top flight clubs wasn't it?
Talking of Scottish football... Clyde are now unbeaten in three weeks!
Because we haven't played for three weeks.
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The Welsh clubs might object to this (ie not the 3 english league teams)
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Im not suggesting an extra cup competition but combining the existing English and Scottish league cups with all clubs including the welsh competing. Thats different from the old Anglo-Scottish cup, or Texaco cup as it was initially called.
Indeed that old invitational tournament never did involve any Welsh clubs, although Irish clubs took part in the first two years.
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I think the idea has definite possibilities but I would prefer to go the whole hog and have the "Letsallhaveadisco Cup" in which all the teams beginning with the same letter play each other so that we would hope to draw Arbroath and avoid Arsenal right down to Zurich going hammer and tongs against Zenit. If we allowed Small Heath in they would have to play under their assumed name so they would have to get past Barca.
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Can you imagine a Celtic - Rangers final at Wembley?
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Too much potential for trouble. There was only a small number of arrests the other night but loads more who could have been.
100 arrests when Rangers were in Manchester is probably a high number and a sign the largescale disorder took place.
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Isn't the fixture list congested enough already? I cant imagine many turning up to see us play Kilmarnock on a Wednesday night in February
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Can you imagine a Celtic - Rangers final at Wembley?
Considering how shit they both are, no.
Wouldn't a West Ham - Millwall friendly have even more trouble?
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Yeah and why don't we hold the final in Cardiff as well to help those fuckers out!
The League Cup may not be perfect but it gives lower league English clubs a chance of a pay day against the greedy twats at the top of the game. Lets not limit that opportunity for them pleeeeeeeeeeeeese.
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I think it's a brilliant idea tbh. The League Cup itself is slowly dying, why not add to it with this? It would certainly add another level of interest and prestige to the competition.
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Yeah and why don't we hold the final in Cardiff as well to help those fuckers out!
The League Cup may not be perfect but it gives lower league English clubs a chance of a pay day against the greedy twats at the top of the game. Lets not limit that opportunity for them pleeeeeeeeeeeeese.
Totally agree. There are loads clubs in need of a hand already playing in the league cup, look after them first!
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So at whose expense do the Scottish clubs enter? League 2 teams? League 1 teams? Totally unfair on our clubs.
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Problem is. the guarantee of 50/60 000 Celtic/Rangers fans descending on some unfortunate city should they reach QF/SF stages. And probably twice that should they reach the final.
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The idea would be loved by the TV execs salivating at the prospect of Celtic-Chelsea, but how many paying spectators would be at Clyde-Chesterfield on the same night?
No thanks.
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Travel rules it out to be honest. It is not so long ago there were North/South divisions in English lower leagues for this reason. Even now with air travel I can see Plymouth vs Inverness Caledonian Thistle as being a really popular draw especially given the revenue it would drum up. It would help broaden the mind as far as seeing other parts of country but not a lot more.
They do have a potential for great scores along lines of East Fife 4 Forfar 5 though.