The Trophy debate again...

Saw an interesting debate popping up yesterday and thought I'd offer it up here for discussion.

Put yourself for this one in Birmingham's shoes, since they're an ideal example. You won the Carling cup, but since then you've found your team again getting demoted from the Premier League, and even worse now being hit with a crisis in the championship as well. If some sort of magical entity came to you and offered a place back in the Premier League, but in exchange your name would have to be erased from the trophy permenantly, would you do it?

This could also apply to Portsmouth, but I felt their problems are much deeper than Birminghams currently are. Personally, I wouldn't. I love to see them back in the premiership but what that is doing is reopening a constant battle for survival. It's installs pride to be in the premier league, but no one is going to remember who finished in the bottom five of the premiership every year. People will however remember who won the cup, because its right there on the trophy forever.

On those terms, I wouldn't - the PL is not that important. In fact,the championship is just as exciting and competitive as the PL (obviously to not as high a standard) imo.


This debate could get a bit more tricky however if you could offer Birmingham (or Pompey) financial security in exchange for a their name being removed from a trophy, I think they would take it, no problem.

I would quite happily have Birmingham's name removed from the Cup if Cardiff were guaranteed promotion....

I'd take the Carling Cup.

I'd take the cup with no hesitation.

Football is all about winning things, or at least trying to win things, whether it's the FA Cup, the Play Off final or the Johnstone's Paint Trophy.