Reports of the FA Cup's death are greatly exaggerated. Again.
Try telling everyone from Mansfield Town to James Trafford and Eberechi Eze the Cup doesn't matter.
Every Shove Tuesday at school we had a tradition dating back to 1753 involving a cook, a pancake, a ruck, a gold guinea and a few bruises. The event involved the school cook tossing a pancake, occasionally stiffened with horse-hair, over a suspended bar in the main hall and a gaggle of boys, most in fancy dress, fighting for a minute to get the biggest piece. The victor was presented with the coin and, of far greater value, kudos amongst his peers. One glorious year an over-tossed pancake landed on a master, who disappeared under a swarm of gleeful boys, echoing “If…”, before eventually surfacing, dishevelled but with glasses and limbs intact.
The event reminds me of the FA Cup: steeped in tradition, a baying crowd, occasionally bloody, survival of the fittest, a sporting skirmish slightly out of keeping in the modern era yet still going. Health and Safety have probably tempered some of the pancake pandemonium, as has the FA with the Cup, but on it goes.
Every year there’s a debate about the Cup losing its magic and every year there’s another raft of stories highlighting its resilience and allure. Try telling James Trafford, the promising young goalkeeper living in Gianluigi Donnarumma’s long shadow at Manchester City, that the Cup doesn’t matter. It gives him a chance (along with involvement in the League Cup) to show Pep Guardiola and Thomas Tuchel his abilities.
Try telling anyone at Mansfield Town that the Cup doesn’t matter. Emotionally and financially, winning at Burnley was massive for the League One side. Mansfield are now at home in the fifth round to Arsenal, currently the best team in Europe. That’s good for the finances, and for the feelgood factor around club and town. The media will certainly go to town on the romantic narrative of Nigel Clough seeking to win a competition that eluded his famous father.