Is Manchester City a dream FA Cup tie?
What is the point of the FA Cup? As someone who is a fan of the world’s oldest club competition, I don’t mean that as a rhetorical question, but as a genuine one. Of course, the answer is different depending on whom you support (manage/own/play for).
Assorted Benefits
For the sides in the EPL, and many in the Championship, they enter the draw for the third round every year—maybe not with the expectation of winning it, but certainly with the hope that they can. Wimbledon showed how it can be done, and teams such as Portsmouth, Ipswich and Coventry have all tasted glory in the not-too-distant past. For practically every other side it is a chance to do several things. Firstly, who does not like a cup run? Well, of course, there are several managers who don’t; they claim (perhaps with a certain degree of merit) that it fills up the fixture list and distracts them from the bread and butter of the league—the thing that they will be judged on when push comes to shove. Them aside, though, a run in the cup can be a welcome distraction from mid-table mediocrity or a relegation scrap. It is a chance for fans to travel to new clubs and for the club and its players to experience a little bit of the spotlight usually reserved for more vaunted teams.
It is also an opportunity for the club to earn money. A cup run can be the difference between survival and going to the wall for some clubs. Even if it is not that dramatic for others, a run (and especially a plum tie) can mean that an unexpected foray into the transfer market is suddenly possible. That is exactly where Vale sit. So, surely the away fixture against holders Manchester City is the perfect draw?
The Perfect Draw?
The way the EPL has started (or, more specifically, the way that Liverpool have started), most people, including the bookmakers, are favouring Liverpool to win the league. City will never admit that, of course, but if that is the case they will be certain to put an even greater emphasis on the cup competitions. No matter what team Pep Guardiola puts out, it would have been hard; but if they are going into it with real ambitions to win the cup, and without taking the chance of having to endure a replay, hand on heart it is looking like mission impossible.
In the television executives’ wisdom, and in adhering to the rule that the other club in Manchester have to be featured, Vale’s game has not been selected for TV. That would have delivered another financial boost for the club, but even without that, this game represents a payday for everybody at the club. It is also a chance for the club, its players, and their fans to go head-to-head with some of the best players in the world. Opportunities like that don’t come around that often, if at all.
It is just a realisation, or an admission, that this is what the cup, the game, and football at this level have come to. The biggest game of the season is a chance to make money, sightsee, and put yourself in the shop window. Is that really what we all signed up for?
Manchester City V Port Vale Head to Head
Manchester City weren’t always among the richest clubs in the world, of course. It was not that long ago when they shared the table with the likes of Port Vale on a semi-regular basis. In total, the clubs have met 23 times. Of those, Manchester City have won 18 times and Vale 4 times, with just one draw. The most recent was in the 1999/2000 season when City won both League 1 games 2-1. The clubs have met once before in the FA Cup; it was the fourth round in the 1990/1991 season when Man City—drawn away this time—again won 2-1.