The Sports
Psychology Blog
This Sports Psychology blog comes on the eve of the Third Round of the FA Cup. Once, recognised as the most magical day in the English football calendar.
Football: Dave Kitson - Couldn't Care Less
Reading striker Dave Kitson is exhausted. After four games in ten days, he faces a Third Round FA Cup tie against Tottenham Hotspur. And he doesn't care. ''We are not going to win the FA Cup and I do not care less about it, to be honest".
It's a frank admission. But is it an accurate one? Why can't Reading win the FA Cup? Lesser teams than them have progressed to the semi-finals in recent years. Maybe the point is, do Reading want to win the FA Cup? And if not, why not?
Sure Premiership survival is the clubs top priority. But is that it? Has survival become the sole purpose of Reading Football Club? Will the fans never again taste the glory of a finals day at Wembley? Reading have the quality to survive in the Premier League. And last year, Steve Coppell showed little or no interest in UEFA Cup qualification. So what does that leave?
That Reading FC will exist to offer their fans top flight football - yes. But no silverware. No parades through the streets of Reading with cups. No filling an end at Wembley with 30,000 fans. No romance.
In some ways it is not the football clubs fault that it has come to this. The FA gave away the essence of their cup competition some time ago. Dispersion of the time of the draw. Dispersion of matches and replays. A sacred competition that could be sponsored.
It used to be so simple. FA Cup draw from Lancaster Gate - 1pm Monday. Drawn by FA dignitaries. In suits. In reverential quiet. Balls drawn out of a velvet bag. No ex-players making asides when their former teams are drawn out of the shaker.
Games played on the Saturday and replayed the following week. The FA Cup had a magical essence and it has now been gradually dispersed in search of commercial gain.
No wonder Dave Kitson couldn't care less about the FA Cup. It's not the FA Cup as it was meant to be.
