With the Third Round of the Carling Cup (formerly Worthington, Littlewoods, Rumbelows, Milk, League Cup etc) upon us, what odds on the likes of Chelsea, Manchester United and Arsenal fielding under-strength sides?
I must confess to being a little confused because I can see the differing points of view when it comes to Premiership clubs lining up with a less than familiar line ups.
On the one hand you have Sir Alex Ferguson and Arsene Wenger blatantly snubbing one of the domestic cup competitions and fielding teams that will be unrecognisable from those that took the field in the last Premiership fixture. And, I would bet, line-ups that will be just as different come next weekend's top flight matches.
It is patently obvious that the two clubs regard the League Cup so lightly that the sponsors themselves, Carling, have reluctantly accepted that their cup competition is now a second-rate event.
The newspapers even quote a Football League spokesman as saying: "There is an understanding that the top Premiership clubs have huge squads and those squads are there to see the clubs through all the competitions during a busy season.
"We didn't hear any criticism from the Premier League or their sponsors when United rested some of their top stars for their league game at the weekend and there are no complaints from us if that happens at Leeds."
But there will be, and rightly so, complaints from fans who have to fork out to watch players, good though they may be, not considered good enough to be first choice for the priority that is the Premiership or Champions League. I think that the important word in that Football League spokesman quote is 'understanding'. For that politically correct word substitute 'grudging acceptance of the fact that this competition has lost its glamour and appeal'.
On the other hand there will be fringe players who will be chomping at the bit to get some match action and, who knows, maybe even convince their respective managers that they are worth a shout when it comes to important games. I could handle that, and maybe a lot of supporters could do likewise, if more of the peripheral players getting a rare outing were home produced instead of the fruits of foreign seed.
There would certainly be more credibility afforded to Arsene Wenger and Sir Alex Ferguson if they were using The Carling Cup to blood players they had developed from home football instead of justifying yet more barriers to British youngsters by fielding Kanu, Edu, Cygan, Forlan, Djemba-Djemba etc etc.
I remember what David Platt said recently in the wake of the England Under 21s' failure in the Euro 2004 qualifying competition. The under-fire coach of the young England side said he was constantly frustrated when he went along to Premiership games only to play 'spot the Englishman' in the teams he was watching.
Until the top clubs abandon the expensive 'quick fix', and sometimes not so quick, search for immediate success and put some of the vast sums of money they spend in ready made players into developing domestic talent the current dearth at Under 21 level will manifest itself at senior level. And we all know what that would mean, don't we?
