Yeah, get rid of it -

Do English teams need the Carling Cup? Like a hole in the head, they do.

With the average side playing anywhere around a half century of games every season – many more if European football is taken into consideration – surely English football’s third domestic competition has long taken the mantle of a pesky nuisance, and a drain on time and resources better spent geared towards higher goals.

In an era where even the lustre of the FA Cup has become somewhat tarnished, with the vast majority of Premier League using the oldest competition in the world to give their first team players a break, what relevance does the Rumbelows/Littlewoods/whatever they’re calling it now have? It has none.

It’s a money spinning venture, a cash initiative, a device to extort money from those fans intrepid enough to choose to go and see Swansea’s reserve side lose to Shrewsbury.

Anyone who argues the case that it gives fringe players the chance to play valuable first team football, before some glorious accession to the first team, need look no further than Nabil El Zhar, than Jay Simpson, than Bebe. All players who performed well in the League Cup but would fail to even make the matchday squad in a Premier League clash, no matter the opposition.

Loaning players out to the lower leagues is the far better option for bigger teams to get their younger players starting first team matches, a practice that also benefits the minnows in a much greater way than having their backsides handed to them by Tottenham’s third choice XI on a miserable September evening.

- Tony Cuddihy

No, it’s worthwhile -

The Carling Cup is derided every year as a pointless and meandering burden on an already cluttered English football season, but its critics fail to grasp the important role it plays in both developing talent and offering excitement to supporters of clubs unfortunate enough to sit outside the race for Champion’s League honours.

For the “big” clubs, for whom the League Cup ranks a distant fifth place behind both European competitions, the Premier League and the FA Cup, the tournament is traditionally viewed as a hindrance to a successful domestic season.

But for fringe players, particularly those deemed too young and fragile to cope with the rigours of the Premier League, it offers the perfect opportunity to gain competitive experience in a low-risk atmosphere.

With a trophy to gain and nothing significant to lose, those coming to terms with their place in Manchester United or Arsenal’s first team squad can, at the very least, expect the League Cup to improve, if not guarantee, their top-flight chances.

It’s the teams that sit outside the Champion’s League oligarchy that benefit the most from the Carling Cup’s existence, though. Were it not for it’s self-regulating draw and real giant-killing potential, most sides would start the season without a legitimate hope of silverware.

Not only that, but the income that comes with hosting several mid-week encounters with top of the table opposition goes a little way towards redressing the financial asymetry between the top and bottom teams.

Both of these arguments would be easy to ignore, however, were it not for the Carling Cup’s reliable habit of providing at least a handful of memorable moments every season. For fans of football in the age of bus-parking, open, attacking football is a commodity to be treasured.

- Conor Nagle

So, what do you think? Should the Carling Cup be abolished or not?

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