After being dumped out of the FA Cup on Friday night, Ipswich boss Kieran McKenna gave every impression that his overriding emotion was one of relief.
‘If you look at the schedule and where we would fit in the games for an FA Cup run, to be honest it was really hard to see how that wouldn’t have been to the detriment of the group,’ he said.
‘Having said that, we’re competitive people and it’s a proud football club and there’s a fantastic support here tonight (1,100), so we tried to balance those goals. The players tried and we went to the last second with it.’
As soon as the teams dropped – revealing that McKenna had made 10 changes – you had to feel for those who made the arduous, 215-mile trip north on a Friday night.
Ipswich are fourth in the Championship table with 54 points, five points off automatic promotion with two games in hand on Millwall (3rd, 56 points) and one game in hand on Coventry City (2nd, 59 points).
That is all McKenna cares about right now.
Ipswich Town’s decision to make 10 changes against Wrexham in the FA Cup left a sour taste
Automatic promotion guarantees at least £100million in revenue. Winning the FA Cup nets around £2.1m in prize money.
McKenna was not alone either. Hull, who are fifth in the Championship and navigating their own promotion bid, made 10 changes, which never gave them any hope against Chelsea.
Fulham made 10 changes away to Stoke and just about got away with it, while Burnley (nine changes), West Brom (nine), Oxford United (eight) and Aston Villa (seven) all paid the price for their wandering eye.
It took extra-time for both Southampton and West Ham, both of whom made 10 changes, to progress, while Man City were far from their usual clinical selves after nine changes saw them labour against League Two Salford.
Across the fourth round, there were 183 changes across the 14 ties, averaging out around 13 changes per tie.
The FA Cup means a lot to a lot of people… just not seemingly to those with the power to actually influence the matches.
Replays were scrapped in an attempt to appease managers but it doesn’t seem to have made a blind bit of difference when Championship managers are sending a clear message that they have more important things to worry about.
The figures simply don’t stack up. As a result, managers continually see this magical cup competition as nothing more than an afterthought until it gets close to the final.
The question is: will managers ever go back to taking the FA Cup seriously? It sure doesn’t look promising from this vantage point.
VAR IS NOW A NECESSARY EVIL
It spoke volumes that even after benefitting immensely from its absence, Aston Villa manager Unai Emery conceded that VAR has now become a necessity, not a luxury.
That will irk plenty, undoubtedly. There was a game before VAR, they will point out. There were huge mistakes made by referees before VAR too.
But just like life, football has moved on. People are not going to go back to VHS tapes, or DVDs, or Blu-Ray, and they won’t stomach games without the safety net of VAR. It is now a necessary evil at the top level.
The Villa-Newcastle game was a complete mess from the officials point of view with a handful of glaring errors. An off-side opening goal was followed by a Lewis Hall penalty waved away before Lucas Digne somehow escaped a red card for leaving a gash on Jacob Murphy’s shin.
Then came the worst of the lot in the second half, as Digne’s handball clearly inside the area was given as a free-kick.
In the game at the Etihad Stadium, Omar Marmoush was clearly onside when he ran through to score, only to see it scrubbed for offside.
‘I think there’s an argument to say that [referees are reliant], because when VAR is there, there’s always a, ‘Well, I won’t give that, but let’s check it’,’ Newcastle boss Eddie Howe said.
‘And I think then your decision-making maybe isn’t as sharp as it may normally have to be, so maybe there’s a difference there.
‘I’m always torn on VAR. I said this many times because I still love the emotion, even tonight, when a goal is given and you don’t see a flag or a referee, it’s a goal, and no one’s going to take it away from you.
‘That joy that you get in that moment, I still really love and VAR takes it away. But then on the other side, I was wishing there was VAR on the first goal against us, and probably throughout that game.’
VAR will be back in action from round five and no doubt there will still be moments of real controversy.
But basic errors on a weekend without it show that winding back the clock to a previous time makes less and less sense with every passing season.
Decision-making in the Aston Villa vs Newcastle United match showed why we now need VAR
The basic error, which saw a free-kick given outside the area, was almost beyond explanation
SUPER SUMMERVILLE STRIKES AGAIN
Six months ago, the idea of Crysencio Summerville making the Netherlands’ World Cup squad seemed wholly remote.
The former Leeds forward managed just one goal from 22 appearances last season, while he failed to score in any of his first 16 Premier League games of this campaign. Many Hammers fans were left scratching their heads asking: who signed off £25million for this guy?
But since his match-winning goal and assist to beat QPR in the FA Cup third round, Summerville has been on a heater that no one seems to know how to turn off.
‘He’s in a good moment, he is full of confidence, everything he does seems to go well so we need to take advantage of it,’ boss Nuno Espirito Santo explained.
‘It’s confidence, all players know how it is. It’s all about confidence.’
His 95th-minute winner to dump Burton Albion out at the weekend was no surprise to anyone, least of all Burton boss Gary Bowyer, who was most annoyed at Nuno for not leaving his star winger at home alongside captain Jarrod Bowen.
Summerville looks every bit the direct, old school winger that is playing with a freedom that was never obvious under former boss Graham Potter.
‘He is in a good moment and he is working for the team,’ Nuno added. ‘You cannot play in the Premier League if you don’t have self-confidence.’
Six goals in seven games has helped to breathe life into West Ham’s relegation fight and has put him firmly in the World Cup mix.
Crysencio Summerville is now looking every bit the £25m player West Ham bought from Leeds in 2024
GRIMSBY MUDBATH IS GLORIOUS THROWBACK
People moaning at the state of Grimsby’s pitch at the weekend are the same folk that tell us players pushing and shoving are scenes ‘we don’t want to see’ when it’s the exact opposite.
Rain lashing down at a beautifully old school ground like Blundell Park with a struggling Premier League side having to get down and dirty in the mud to reach round five against League Two opposition. What’s not to love?
Wolves boss Rob Edwards didn’t seem to have too many complaints, even going as far as to praise the ground staff for making sure the game went ahead. Although it is far easier to be magnanimous in victory, I concede.
If you’ve never been up to Cleethorpes where Grimsby play, it takes a battering from the elements most days and that is why the FA stepped up to provide an inflatable cover to help protect the pitch ahead of the Wolves game.
Without them, the pitch would have resembled a swamp and that game would have been called off long before the supporter coaches left Wolverhampton.
So much of the modern game is sanitised with VAR, soulless stadiums, huge financial disparity, and manipulation through things like multi-club ownership groups. Throwbacks like the one served up at Grimsby on Sunday should be cherished.
Grimsby Town’s mudbath pitch was something to cherish, not deride as proof the FA Cup retains its soul
CLEMENT GETS TUNE OUT OF CANARIES
Norwich defeating fellow Championship side West Brom understandably flew under the radar, but the job Philippe Clement is doing over in Norfolk is worth noting.
Belgian boss Clement inherited a dumpster fire in November after predecessor Liam Manning got the boot.
The Canaries were second bottom in the Championship with just nine points from 15 games and they had lost all eight home games across the league and cup.
Since losing heavily to Birmingham in his opening game, Clement has flipped the script with just four defeats from the next 18. They have lost just once in the last eight games.
‘It doesn’t matter what the competition is, we want to win every game – we are trying to build a winning culture at this club,’ Clement said after the 3-1 FA Cup win over West Brom.
He added: ‘A few months ago the players might have got a bit nervous – and there would certainly have been anxiety in the stands – but we made some changes and kept going to get the win.’
No team in the Premier League, Championship or League One has taken more points across the last eight matches than Norwich’s 18 and now they have a spot in the fifth round for the first time in four years.
Norwich are absolutely in the ‘keen to avoid’ category ahead of tonight’s draw.
MASCOT SNUB IS GRIM VIEWING
The video of Chelsea players completely ignoring six young Hull mascots chaperoned by their parents is still annoying me three days later.
In the video shared by the club’s official account – a post which has more than 3.4million views at the time of writing – you can see Chelsea’s players arriving at the stadium and walking past the half dozen excitable mascots without so much as a second look.
Chelsea’s squad embarrassed themselves with video of them snubbing Hull City’s mascots
How are these players so young and yet so tone deaf to something they aren’t too far removed from themselves?
Every player is culpable but Jesse Derry (18), Shim Mheuka (18), Estevao (18), Josh Acheampong (19), Jorrel Hato (19) and Mamadou Sarr (19) would have been excitable mascots or ball boys in the not too distant past. How did NOT ONE player understand how they could have made these youngsters’ day?
This embarrassing 30-second clip showed just why more and more are turning their backs on the game’s elite.
