The FA Cup.

[olaftab]

Really?
There didn't even seem anything particularly controversial in what he said, to me it sounded like the same old shit managers say every year.

May be YOU didn't think it was controversial but it was reported as that in every paper and made the national news and that is what players heard. So let's  not  try to spin it any differently as it has been done to death over the last 3 days or so.

[olaftab]

The one game was a joke. Make each cup game discounted for ST holders. I usually go with a dozen or more ST holders...there were 2 of us yesterday. No one gives a monkeys.

Des as you can see I am still very touchy on this knockout so missing the humours words.

[dave.woodhall]

Really?
There didn't even seem anything particularly controversial in what he said, to me it sounded like the same old shit managers say every year.

May be YOU didn't think it was controversial but it was reported as that in every paper and made the national news and that is what players heard. So let's  not  try to spin it any differently as it has been done to death over the last 3 days or so.

So the players pay more attention to a twisted news story than they do to the manager? And we should believe the way it was spun rather than the evidence of our own ears in  what was actually said?

[olaftab]

Tell you what guys have it your way. Lambert said nothing. Goodnight.

[saunders_heroes]

Lambert was just guilty of being naive and fell in to Mark Regan's trap. Regan was that excited to get a big story he practically shot his load over Twitter afterwards.

[PeterWithesShin]

I remember when ST did include all home cup games. Real value for anyone with one in 81/82.

[dave.woodhall]

Tell you what guys have it your way. Lambert said nothing. Goodnight.

Rather that than having it your way and believing a bunch of proven liars to suit your own agenda.

[Grande Pablo]

Why can't cup games be included on season tickets? Or at least a nominal charge for ST holders? We pay enough as it is, surely our one extra cup game a year can be thrown in?

How do you do that? We may  have one home game or 4. I wouldn't be happy to pay say a nominal charge of £50 for what could turn out to be one game.

The one game was a joke. Make each cup game discounted for ST holders. I usually go with a dozen or more ST holders...there were 2 of us yesterday. No one gives a monkeys.

Didn't we try something in the mid 90's?  I remember going to a League Cup game vs Manure's kids (96 or 97?), & I'd got cup tickets as part of my ST.  It didn't stop the club selling my nice seat to someone else, mind.

[olaftab]

Tell you what guys have it your way. Lambert said nothing. Goodnight.

Rather that than having it your way and believing a bunch of proven liars to suit your own agenda.

That's unfair but I will leave you to it.

[PeterWithesShin]

You got the first home cup game of the season free for a few seasons in the 90s. That was when the LC 2nd round was two legs so you were guaranteed a home game in that or the UEFA Cup if we were in that.

[Dave Cooper please]

Tell you what guys have it your way. Lambert said nothing. Goodnight.

Rather that than having it your way and believing a bunch of proven liars to suit your own agenda.

That's unfair but I will leave you to it.

So you actually think that the players played poorly because they believed the manager didn't really want them to win?

Because I can't extrapolate anything else from your argument.

[Dave]

Really?
There didn't even seem anything particularly controversial in what he said, to me it sounded like the same old shit managers say every year.

May be YOU didn't think it was controversial but it was reported as that in every paper and made the national news and that is what players heard. So let's  not  try to spin it any differently as it has been done to death over the last 3 days or so.

It's got people who don't read things thoroughly and people who make their living relying on idiots phoning up radio stations frothing at the mouth. Some media outlets know what they're talking about though:

* No doubt there will be plenty of wry grins from wry grinners after Sheffield United knocked out Aston Villa, given that Paul Lambert said he could do without the cup this week. Sure, laugh it up, but Lambert didn't exactly play a team of kids and blow a rasberry at the famous old trophy. He made four changes to the side that beat Sunderland last time out - one of those was because Nathan Baker injured himself in the warm-up, another giving a chance to young keeper Jed Steer, which seems sensible, and another was the introduction of Ciaran Clark, who has made 16 appearances this season.

By way of comparison, Steve Bruce made nine changes to the Hull side that beat Middlesbrough, so who's 'disrespecting' the cup? Clearly, neither manager sees the competition as a priority, and Lambert's mistake was to say so out loud then pick a group of players that really should have been good enough to beat the side 18th in League One and who lost to Walsall on New Year's day. There are reasons to criticise Lambert, not least their style of Villa's play and where some of his summer spending went, but how seriously he takes the FA Cup is not one of them.

From F365

[dave.woodhall]

I remember when ST did include all home cup games. Real value for anyone with one in 81/82.

Except you still had to pay for the European Cup games. In fact, I think that was when all cup ties were paid for.

[bertlambshank]

I miss my season ticket book.

[adrenachrome]

As is usual on the internet, things get polarised, and you are supposed to pick one side or the other and give it the big gun. However, I believe the the following two, apparently contradictory, propositions to be true:

1. There was nothing objectionable in PLs interview, unless you are talking about his naïvety in dealing with the gutter press.
2. We treated the game as a practice match to try out some different ways of playing.