COMMENT: The League Cup isn’t 'tuppenny ha'penny’ and it’s not ‘Mickey Mouse’ – a depressing early-season trawl through football fans’ social media

Perhaps it’s the hot weather whipping so many up into an emotional maelstrom. Hot under the collar? It’s hot everywhere at the moment.

But no. The weather has nothing to do with it. Mix some surprise League Cup results in with supporters’ easy access to social media, and hey presto - instant toxicity.

There are no doubt fans who still possess that rarest of attributes in the modern world - patience - but they are less keen to transfer their thoughts onto Facebook and Twitter. I don’t blame them, for some are instantly dismissed as ‘happy clappers’.

I read some negative comments from Pompey fans on The News’ Facebook page after last weekend’s 0-0 draw with Lincoln. But if I thought some were over the top in their criticisms - ‘I know it's only 2 games in but too much looks the same as last season’ was one, ‘we can’t even beat Lincoln’ another - they were positively beaming compared to others …

Unsurprisingly, as some supporters came close to spontaneously combusting in midweek, the League Cup took a battering.

‘A mickey mouse cup that we are better off out of’ raged one Hull fan on Facebook after his side’s 2-1 loss at two tiers lower Bradford City.

‘Absolute shambles,’ added another Tigers follower. ‘We really need a new manager in before we get too involved in this season.’ Three games - four points from two league matches! - and let’s sack the boss.

Stoke City were another one of 12 Championship clubs who suffered a first round exit to lower division opponents, losing to Morecambe on penalties.

City fan Ian A Scott posted: ‘Ok I’m disappointed, but this has become a tuppeny hapeny cup. Ok you get prize money for progression, but we are wanting promotion and the more games you play the bigger the chances of injuries.’

By the way, this ‘tuppeny hapeny cup’ gave Stoke their greatest day at Wembley in 1972 when they lifted the trophy. But hey, that was before Sky Sports created football. I guess it doesn’t matter to anyone who remembers Rory Delap’s huge throw-ins. And – I’m a journalist, grammar matters to me! – the correct spelling is ‘tuppenny ha'penny’.

Stoke follower Jay Roberts tapped out his opining: ‘I hate to say this but mon (boss Michael O’Neill) needs to go, absolutely embarrassing.’

Patience in the Potteries? Just three games into a new season?

The story was dismally familiar elsewhere. Want more examples? ‘Get out of the club, your clueless,’ one Blackpool fan told manager Michael Appleton on social media after his club’s home loss on penalties to two divisions lower Barrow. Grammatically wrong again, but to the point for sure.

Cardiff followers didn’t take their loss to Pompey too well. So, only one thing to blame - ‘The Carabao Cup is a waste of time,’ fumed Malcolm Stafford on Facebook. Wonder if he said that back in 2011/12 when Cardiff reached the final, taking Liverpool to a penalty shoot-out?

Another Championship manager, Reading’s Paul Ince, fielded a young-ish side at home to two divisions lower Stevenage. Their subsequent 2-1 loss was ‘embarrassing, humiliating, an insult to fans who pay good money’ stormed one fed-up fan. He added: ‘It was men against boys, we had 5 first team players on the bench and what did we do, bring on more boys.’

Meanwhile, Swindon Town have failed to score in their first three games of 2022/23. ‘Lindsey OUT’ raged one Robins fan on Twitter, using capitals to emphasise his annoyance. The same Scott Lindsey who has only had three games in charge. Patience in the Potteries? Patience in Wiltshire? Patience anywhere?

(Message to the irate Swindon fan. Last season my club, Exeter City, failed to score in our first four games. We ended up winning promotion. Thankfully the people running our club had more patience than some supporters).

And anyway, the League Cup isn’t a ‘complete waste of time’. It’s not Mickey Mouse. That’s an easy cop out to use. Ok, it’s not the tournament it once was, thanks to a bloated European club fixture list and the obscene wealth swilling around in the Premier League.

Last season, Manchester United boss Ralf Rangnick suggested Premier League clubs should scrap their involvement in the competition. A disgusting statement, but one which again underlined the arrogance of many involved in the top flight.

Hands up anyone who still loves cup football? Ok, I see mine (and not just because Exeter won 7-0 at Cheltenham in midweek). Anyone else?

I laugh at the fact some Stoke fans might now be thinking ‘we’re out of the League Cup, let’s concentrate on the league’ as if by some magic the club that finished 14th in the Championship last season is going to challenge for a Premier League return.

Do they feel the same about the FA Cup? Would they feel the same if they were back in the third tier playing in the Papa John’s Trophy, another tournament that attracts little love (though, in fairness, I can see why).

I get the impression that some supporters would be happy if their club didn’t play any cup ties. ‘Just concentrate on the league’ forever more. And another mid-table finish? A relegation battle? Wow, what a campaign that would be.

Football has changed at the top level, I understand that. Back in 1981 Exeter played Liverpool, then the reigning champions of Europe, in a two-legged (remember them?) League Cup tie. Despite winning the first leg 5-0 at Anfield, Bob Paisley fielded all his star names for the return - Dalglish, Hansen, McDermott, Neal, Ray Kennedy. The phrase ‘squad rotation’ had not entered the lexicon of football management. Those days have gone – Premier League megastars given an early round run-out at Exeter or Barrow - and they won’t return.

Here’s a radical question: Why can’t the League Cup - like the EFL Trophy, like the FA Cup if you really want to - be used to field experimental XIs? Give the youngsters a chance. If they fail to take it, a la Reading v Stevenage, that’s not the League Cup’s fault. If Stoke aren’t better at taking penalties than a League 1 club, that’s not the League Cup’s fault either. And it shouldn’t really be the cue to call for a manager’s head after 270 minutes of a new season.

But, these days, it is. Depressingly, that is the society we have somehow morphed into.

These days, only the Premier League and European football seem to matter. That, and trying to reach the Premier League if you’re a Stoke fan.

At the top levels, the magic has long gone in terms of cup football. Money, and the chance to milk Murdoch’s cash cow, has seen to that. Social media only serves to pour more fuel on fires, creating raging infernos where hardly a wisp of smoke would have been seen a generation or so earlier.

Only in the lower divisions, and non-league, does the FA Cup really seem to matter any more, and it is better for it. The League Cup doesn’t seem to matter to anyone.

To me, that is a sad situation. And I feel sorry for Mickey Mouse, he doesn’t need his good name dragged into the debate …