How to make Manchester United and Liverpool take the Carling Cup more seriously

Money talks, nobody walks!

The only thing clubs understand is money, they take the champions league more seriously becuase they make more money in that competition. So how about increasing the amount the winner receives to 7-10 mil rather than 1 or 2mil???? The only problem with this and the other suggestions is that the same teams apart from this season (Tottenham) win the domestic trophies and Tottenham may not have won if the top clubs take the competitions seriously! Also unfar just to label mancs and lfc as teams that dont take comp serious Arsenal have been fielding their reserves for about 5 years now, which is shown by the number of times they've won the trophy! Also the only reason Chelsea seem to be in the final every year is because with their expensive squad their reserves are better than those at the other top 4! And plenty of teams e.g Reading etc have fielded weaker teams in cup comps also in lower leagues!

U're losing it on saying Pool fielded an extremely weak side aginst Chelsea in the quarters. The truth is liverpool "BOYS" were taken to a football school by chelsea men

In the last 5 years Arsenal are only second to Chelsea in achievment in this cup...... Everyone keeps on at the big four dominating everything so this and the UEFA cup gives the smaller teams something to win and to build a future on like Spurs and now you want to take this away.

Clueless. Like most Chelsea fans.

"In the last 5 years Arsenal are only second to Chelsea in achievment in this cup" LOL Davio you havent won it in the last 5 years! How can you say you've achieved more in this competition than Liverpool, Middlesborugh, Manu and Tottenham, who have actuall WON THE TROPHY. In fact you havent won it since 1994 LOL Being the runner up is worse than getting knocked out in the 1st round, because you've just made your players play an extra 6 or so games more in the season!

Where does that come from. Liverpol won this cup in 2001 and 2003 and lost the final in 2005 to Chelsea. Arsenal have been in one final and not won it for years.......

Since when has 2001 and 2003 been in the last five years..... Arsenal 2 semi finals and one final... We haven't made our players play an extra 6 games because they play a different set of players all gaining big game experience. Perhaps a record second only to Chelsea in the last five years would have been a better way of putting it..

The whole point is that reaching 1 final and 2 semi's in the last 5 years does NOT mean you have a record second to only Chelsea. There are 4 teams besides Chelsea that have won the trophy in the last 5 years. LOL are you telling me you'd rather lose 1 final and reach the semi's twice than win the trophy once! LOL your crazy!

You are talking out of your ring piece mate! the reason why teams like United and Chelsea fork out so much money on big quality squads is so that they can compete in cups like the carling and Fa cups as well as the premiership and champions league. If these teams didnt care, then why is it likely that one of these teams are likely to feature in both of the domestic finals this year!

As for UEFA cup being small, there are teams like Bayern Munich, PSV Eindhoven, Bayer Leverkusen, Sporting Lisbon etc all featuring. And in the Champions league there are teams like Olympiakos, Schalke, Milan veterans and Roma 7-1. Is there really that much difference?, yes there are a few top teams left in CL, but also some very much average ones as well!

Here is another one. Have the carling cup played abroad to generate more money if indeed playing the game abroad is the way ahead give it the carling cup and play the later stages away if indeed the revenue would be 5 million for a game plus tv rights them a good run would generate maybe twenty five to thirty million as much as the lowest teams in the premiership earn given the fact that a asian broadcasting company would probably pick up the rights and a massive sponcer would give a nice reward the winner would probably pull fifty million now that would get man u pumping to play and also remove the need of a 39th game for the premier league. Killing two birds with one stone. And give the lower leagues away of sinking its teeth in to big money

So then, who is going to finance a clash between two smaller lower league clubs that a bunch of gloryhunting foreigners have no intension of watching?

Completely disagree with you. Look at the FA cup - the top 4 have won it for 12 years straight. As for the league cup - United, Chelsea and Liverpool have all won this competition recently. How on earth can you say Liverpool close their eyes to the cup. Liverpool and Chelsea have won it twice since 2001. Liverpool got to another final in 2005. You are talking b#%$x Even if they didn't take it seriously - you can't blame them - top teams play around 60 games a season now and players are collapsing on the pitch. Managers have a right to drop players - especially if their squad is capable of handling these fixtures. A champs league spot for the FA cup winners - no way. What's the point - the top 4 win it all the time anyway. The 4 english clubs are probably amidst the top 6/7 clubs in the competition - why spoil the party. All this sentiment about the FA cup is nonsense. People say its not as good - maybe its because the standard of footy is just crap in this era.

Arsenal have a better record of getting further in the Carling cup than teams that take the competition seriously (execept Chelsea) ..... When everybody says Arsenal only field their youngsters how come Blackburn, Liverpool, Newcastle, Spurs 1 year (not the 5-1 where we deserved to lose) cannot beat them?..... There is no money in the Carling cup if the winner got 20 million pounds everyone would take it seriously................ I don't like Man U a great deal but when they won the treble at least they one three of the cups every club wants to win, apart from the FA cup which one of the five major cups that Liverpool won in there five cup season does a top club want to win?.....Have a look at the article why Arsenal should be top and Newcastle bottom and you may understand why Arsenal play their youngsters.......... Benitez has spent £122 million pounds on players to win a Champions league and a Carling cup....FA cup?.....Can I have more money Mr Yank !.. PF everything changes Preston and Burnley were the best teams in this country the teams you mention are big names in history not this year...

Mr Knobsville - you make out as though the champs league is a poor trophy - it is regarded as europes greatest trphy - full stop. So even if Liverpool spent another 100 million - who cares? If we keep winning the Euro cup then keep spending.

thats why you agree the sponcership deals before you take it over there, the premier league winners get 30 million from barclays, if someone like toyota, mitsubishi, sony or fly emirates could cough up even half than we would be one for a winner, i am sure that the cup would not bring 2 billion like the premier league but ifsome of the big asian tv companies could come up with a third of that its 200 million per year, now there are 57 games in the later stages of the game, even if none of these " glory hunting wankers" turned up (as you put it) thats still 4 million per game a wind fall like that would make it very worth while for a team like bury, stockport, nottingham forest or blackpool to turn up dont youthink and if that team could get any sort of run together and get though to maybe the quarters and draw a team like man u, and may be get a bigger sponcership though it the team would pull maybe 20 million, noew lets face it it keeps the premier league in englnad, no team has to play another team 3 times which would make it unfair( i.e. if you were reading and battling to stay up you would notr want to play manu 3 times in a year and sunderland get derby) the smaller teams get a real wad of money similar to the premier league and it answers the question that was put to us, how do you getman u interested in the carling cup, not how do you get glory hunting wankers to support lower down teams... which is what you asked me, now come on youmay not like my idea but its a good one with a resonable arguement can youcome up with anything better

I think the Champions league is a great trophy equal to the premiership...... But can liverpool keep paying their £270 pound debt that the yanks took out to buy the club spending that sort of money on average players (not Torres) are they doing a Leeds United?

"Offer a five-point bonus for the Carling Cup Winners" This can never happen, due to the fact that the two competitions are owned and organised by two different bodies. "A Champions League spot for the UEFA Cup winners" Actually, I agree that UEFA should introduce this. However, even with this carrot at the end it's not going to do much to raise the profile of a second rate competition - indeed, it may lower it to "just a qualifier". "A Champions League spot for winning the FA Cup" Platini tried to introduce this and failed. The main problem being the status cup competitions have in most countries, and the lack of interest amongst the clubs for the idea. "Scrapping the 4th place CL place " You can argue about the number of champions league places all night long. You either think there are too many or you don't. However, if there were just 3 spots available it is likely that the big clubs would be more cautious about risking players in cup games rather than being more eager to win them. The margin of error for them would be reduced!

I was very impressed with your comment, its good to hear a good argument to my views, I do see your points.

I would like to point out that the UEFA cup winner getting an automatic berth to CL already exists.....Sevilla this year!! Plus some plain guy has compared Milan to Olympiakos....great all of a sudden Man U have become a million times better than the most successful team in CL over the past 2 decades??Go get a life Utd supporter!!Milan on their day would be too much for any EPL side...!!