What are we talking about, you may well ask? Why, the Carabao Cup, of course.
Fresh from progressing into the next round, José Mourinho has decided, once again, that this is a competition to be taken seriously.
His shoulders are occasionally adorned by a white angel or a red devil, depending upon his mood. This time the angel, (responsible for the “serial winner” side of his personality), got there before the devil, (responsible for the “serial moaner” side of his personality).
So instead of hearing what a grind this competition is and how the world would be a much better place without it, we were treated to a monologue of how United would treat it with the respect it deserves and would try and win it.
As this is exactly what they did last season nobody really expected anything different, but hey, this is José, and the mood could very well have swung in the past few months!
His upbeat disposition was probably also a refection of him being quite close to welcoming back the likes of Paul Pogba, Marouane Fellaini, Marcos Rojo and even Zlatan Ibrahimovic to the squad, if not to the team just yet.
Pep Guardiola has decided that the Carabao Cup will be a very difficult trophy to win this season. Why, we don’t hear you ask? Because the ball is rubbish!
Yep, Pep has decided that the ball used in this year’s competition is too light and this explains why the majority of City’s attempts on goal went over the bar. Here’s what he said,
“It is not acceptable, the ball was unacceptable for a high-level competition.
It is too light, there is no weight, nothing. It is not a good ball. It is impossible to score with a ball like that and I can say that because we won, I’m not making excuses. All of my players said, ‘What is that?’ I’m sorry, Carabao Cup, but that is not a serious ball for a serious competition.”
He has an ally in his argument because Yaya Touré is in full agreement with his boss and thinks that the ball is even worse than the infamous Jabulani ball used in the World Cup.
The only difficulty we see with this argument is that nobody else seems to have noticed the ball problem except for these two. None of the other 21 players on the pitch, or indeed, at any of the other games taking place with the same ball!
Antonio Conte has decided that he thinks he agrees with José Mourinho and Pep Guardiola and has come out and said that the Carabao Cup is a waste of time.
He also said that it is good because it gives him a chance to see some of his younger players in action.
He then walked away scratching his head in an attempt to work out what he really does believe!
Having seen his relatively young side knock Everton out of the competition, he probably likes it at this moment in time. It will only be if they lose that his emotion will return to hatred of this particular trophy.
So the three managers are in agreement. They think they like the Carabao Cup as it gives them an opportunity to see more of their squad in action.
They think they don’t like the competition because it is meaningless and wastes valuable time by asking a football team to play football when they would much rather be doing something else.
Then again, they like it because it is another way into Europe and is, at the end of the day, another trophy.
But they don’t like it because there is the risk of injury to players who will be needed for much more important games.
Then there is the issue with the ball. Let’s see how long it is before either Mourinho or Conte decides that Guardiola is right and agree with his dramatic overstatement that, “It is impossible to score with a ball like that.” even after watching his team put that ball in the net four times! (admittedly from the penalty spot, but they still scored).
We look forward to the quarter-finals.
WHY SAY ANYTHING? 