FOR OUR NEXT TRICK …
It’s more than 22 years since the FA emotionally blackmailed defending champions Manchester United into withdrawing from the FA Cup so they could play in the inaugural Fifa World Club Championship in Brazil. The thinking behind this wheeze was that United’s expedition into the unknown would boost England’s chances of hosting the 2006 World Cup, a tournament that ultimately ended up being staged in Germany, possibly because the only team United managed to beat in Brazil were the Antipodean semi-professionals of South Melbourne.
In the intervening decades, debate has raged over whether or not that was the point at which the FA Cup started to lose its magic and exactly how much magic it has lost. So much so, that we have now reached a point where even once magical sports radio shows regarding the FA Cup losing its magic have long since lost their magic, which meant the tremendous number of upsets – many of them played out in heartwarmingly torrential, sideways rain – thrown up this weekend provided welcome grist for the phone-in mill. Fans of Aston Villa, Newcastle, Nottingham Forest and Bournemouth, among other humbled clubs lit up the switchboards to vent their fury about the embarrassing third-round exits inflicted upon their underperforming second-string sides.
While League Two Stevenage pulled off what was arguably the giant-killing of the round, coming from behind to beat a Villa team that has somehow failed to make the last 32 for seven consecutive seasons, nouveau riche Welsh side Hollywood FC’s win over potless Coventry was a bona fide classic, while fellow non-league sides Chesterfield and Boreham Wood also punched above their weight in earning replays against more exalted opposition. Indeed, given the number of shocks, it was somewhat ironic that the angriest fans of all were those from out-of-sorts, knack-ravaged Chelsea, whose monstering at Manchester City was one of most predictable, least surprising results in football history. Or at least since Thursday, when the sides met in the league and City only won by a solitary goal. “We have to keep improving and stick together because clearly we are suffering as a football club,” sighed Graham Potter, who had perhaps been hoping for the kind of FA Cup-inspired magical inspiration or intervention more readily associated with his namesake Harry.
With 30 games played and just the one postponed, the final match of the third-round schedule takes place on Monday night and it has Football Daily’s Potential Banana Skin klaxon honking like a rogue Arctic walrus on its winter break in Scarborough. While Oxford is more readily associated with scholarship, spires and leafy splendour, its local football team plays in a ground whose only conspicuous landmarks are a car wash and the adjacent Holiday Inn Express. And it is there, at the Kassam Stadium against their League One hosts, that Premier League leaders Arsenal will hope not to close out an already magic FA Cup weekend by becoming the most high-profile team to disappear from this season’s competition.
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Join Will Unwin from 8pm GMT for hot FA Cup third round MBM coverage of Oxford United 1-3 Arsenal.
GOLF. IN THAT ORDER
Gareth Bale, Wales’s all-time leading goalscorer, has officially retired from club and international football. He was a talisman for his country, winning 111 caps and leading them to the semi-finals of Euro 2016, their first major tournament since 1958 and captaining them at the Human Rights World Cup last month. At club level, Bale retires as arguably the most successful British player to play abroad, having won Big Cup five times with Real Madrid, along with three La Liga titles.
In a statement, the 33-year-old said: “I feel incredibly fortunate to have achieved my dream of playing the sport I love. It has truly given me some of the best moments of my life. The highest of highs over 17 seasons that will be impossible to replicate, no matter what the next chapter has in store for me.” Not bad for a Cardiff lad who started at left-back for Southampton and took two years, three managers, 25 Premier League games and 1,533 minutes to win his first match with Tottenham.
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“There’s no way of dressing up the situation. In honesty, Oldham have won 5-1 because we are $hit at defending” – Dorking Wanderers manager and chairman Marc White delivers an honest appraisal after their National League defeat.
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FOOTBALL DAILY LETTERS
Just returned from Bloomfield Road. A five-goal thriller that could just as easily have been Blackpool 1-4 Forest. Thrills, spills and half-time Bovril. The magic of the cup, right? Eleven changes to the Forest team. Yes, I was entertained, but left also with a feeling of being slightly soiled and used. Like the experience of reading this email in the olden days” – Lynda Caines.
Look, I do actually agree Graham Potter is good and needs time. But in nine short days, Big Website has given us he’s not to blame for this, quickly followed by he’s not to blame for that, topped off with he’s not to be blamed for any if at all … at least for a bit anyhow. Given Chelsea have just had it handed to them in the FA Cup, I’m worried we’ll use up ‘Potter’s cat’s been ill’, ‘Potter’s still adjusting to getting back in the office after the pandemic’ and ‘Potter can’t find an EV point for his Hyundai’ by mid-March” – Jon Millard.
Send your letters to the.boss@theguardian.com. Today’s winner of our prizeless letter o’ the day is … Lynda Caines.
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