Outside the Box – Football on TV: A prosperous week for Liverpool in the cups but off the field is a different story

The days leading up to the weekend’s FA Cup Fourth Round ties were not particularly pleasant for many football fans, a week in which the unseemly and murky face of football was glaringly apparent. Many column inches were devoted to the tax-evasion trial of Spurs manager Harry Redknapp, as well as th...

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How can the FA and League Cups regain their magic?

I am not sure who had the worst week, Manchester City or the two English cup competitions. A comparatively modest crowd of 36,017 witnessed City’s defeat in the first leg of Carling Cup semi-final. The low turn out even drew comment from BBC pundit and former England striker Alan Shearer. After a w...

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The View Outside The Premier League: Southampton Lose Again While Bristol Rovers Stage Goal of the Season

Saturdays Championship results would have delighted the bookmakers as both Southampton and West Ham United went down to unexpected defeats. Middlesbrough and Leeds United were both beneficiaries as the top two lost, while Doncasters victory threw more gloom towards Coventry City. Nigel Adkins has e...

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Can Arsenal or Liverpool will win the Carling Cup?

It’s getting down to the business end of the Carling Cup and the quarter-final draw has produced some mouth-watering games. The pick of the bunch are rejuvenated Arsenal taking on Premier League leaders Manchester City at the Emirates and Kop kings Liverpool hosting AVB’s Chelsea. But who is the sma...

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Outside the Box – Football on TV: A bad week for JT just gets worse and worse as the news hacks attack!

It’s been a bad old week for Chelsea and England captain John Terry hasn’t it? The on-going racism row between Terry and his accuser Anton Ferdinand has been front and back page news since the incident occurred a week ago and the story shows no signs of halting. Like most I have seen the footage...

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The View Outside The Premier League: Huddersfield and Wednesday March On

Charlton Athletic have set the pace in League One but two of their closest rivals are putting together a pair of remarkable sequences. Sheffield Wednesday have now made it seven wins from seven games at Hillsborough and, in West Yorkshire, Huddersfield Town are still to be beaten. The Terriers un...

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Manchester United: 10 Handy Facts About Aldershot Town

Aldershot Towns pairing with Manchester United in the Carling Cup is a dream tie for a team that only came into the Football League in 2008, just 16 years after the original Aldershot club went bust in mid-season. With that in mind, here are 10 handy facts on The Shots. 1. Aldershot FC folded in 1...

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Outside the Box – Football on TV: Morning Glory could soon be a thing of the past for the guys at Soccer AM

Morning. The time of day when we, as human beings, fall into two distinct categories. On one hand you may be an enterprising, full-blooded marauder, charging about here there and everywhere with an unbounded vitality and zest for adventure. Alternatively, you might be a feckless layabout. Those of u...

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Arsenal: 10 Handy Facts About Shrewsbury Town

Confidence is low at Arsenal but surely Shrewsbury Town wont pose a threat at the Emirates tonight will they? Arsene Wenger may feel the need to rest some of his main stars and the Shrews have made a confident start to the season, so it might be a tricky encounter. An upset is unlikely, but if the ...

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Who will win the Carling Cup?

The Carling Cup may not be valued that highly by the big boys in European action, but try telling Birmingham City fans that winning this tournament doesn’t matter. The draw for the third round of the competition was made over the weekend and, with all the big boys now in, it threw up a number of mo...

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Would you like to write for Squarefootball?

Do you live, breathe and sleep football? Do you have a passion for writing and want your views to be read by a potential audience of millions? Then we at Squarefootball Towers would love to hear from you. Whether you follow Aberdeen or Accrington Stanley, West Ham United or Wolfsburg, we can offer ...

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Why is the League Cup less important than the FA Cup?

In an earlier article I backed a change to a British League Cup because the League Cup is less valuable than the FA Cup - heres why its less valuable. The League Cup has less history; in England and Scotland the competition was derived to generate money to help pay for and justify the floodlights t...

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British League Cup makes sense for an undervalued competition

The latest discussion of a British League Cup has been started by an ongoing desire for Scottish teams to be able to regularly able to compete with English ones. This would improve cash flow to Scottish clubs by improved attendances and possibly TV revenue. It would also provide fresh challenges to ...

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Accrington Pull Out A Plum Tie

There may be Premiership teams who think of the Carling Cup as small beer but down in League Two its a big opportunity to raise the profile and add some much-needed revenue to the coffers. Accrington Stanley received an immediate reward for their excellent away win at Doncaster Rovers this week whe...

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Get on side and sport your colours for Shelter this World Cup

In celebration of this years FIFA World Cup, housing and homelessness charity Shelter are teaming up with Nationwide Building Society, Official England Team sponsor, to launch their fantastic footy fundraiser, Strip4Shelter. Shelter is asking people across the country to replace their regular work ...

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Expect Manchester City to beat Arsenal

The stakes are different for Arsene Wenger and Mark Hughes ahead of tonight's League Cup tie; whereas Mark Hughes is fighting off the latest speculation about his tenure Wenger is progressing serenely through the season - even if some pundits are over-egging his difficulties. With a weakened strike...

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Manchester City: Could Carling Cup exit signal the end for Hughes?

Mark Hughes has only once tasted defeat as Manchester City manager this season but the former Blackburn Rovers boss could well find himself on the managerial scrapheap if he fails to beat Arsenal and book Citys place in the last four of theCarling Cup. Hull City became the seventh team in a row to ...

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Tottenham Hotspur: Carling Cup success or top four finish? You decide!

High-flying Tottenham Hotspur travel to the home of the champions and Carling Cup holders Manchester United tonight in a match that could potentially see them being just 180 minutes away from their third Wembley final in as many years. Unfortunately for those Spurs fans who have shelled out good mon...

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Carling Cup Last Eight Throws Up Intriguing Ties

The Carling Cup may take a lot of stick but these days the competition has developed an unexpected afterlife. For the elite its no longer a priority but it is useful as a test ground for their up and coming players,plus as a game for disgruntled bench warmers Equally, there are some ambitious clubs...

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Strong Chelsea team should see off Bolton

Chelsea has named a strong line-up for tonight's League Cup game with Bolton; and unusually named in well in advance. It's almost as if Carlo Ancelotti has decided that Bolton will field a weakened side and that Chelsea will get the job done regardless of the exact nature of the opposition. It is ...

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Ngog could be the matchwinner for Liverpool at Arsenal

It was evident last night when Manchester United made 11 changes and still beat Barnsley 2-0 that the major clubs have such dominant squads that the only real danger that they face is if they either don't take this competition seriously, play extremely poorly or come across another major club. Only...

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Manchester United look for a reaction at Barnsley

Barnsley lie 20th in the Championship and surely Ipswich and Reading have too much quality to remain mired in the relegation zone for much longer. Barnsley is coming off the backs of defeats to Bristol City (3-2) and Nottingham Forest (1-0) and Mark Robins will be considering the merits of the leag...

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League Cup Final 2009: Manchester United vs Tottenham Hotspur - 13 opinions on the game

The 2008/9 League Cup final is between two traditional cup teams in Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur; can United run onto towards the quintuple or will Spurs give its fans something to cheer about in a dismal season? We've asked our prediction panel for their thoughts on the first English tr...

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Tottenham; Hull, Shakhtar or Man Utd - which game is more important? You decide!

Tottenham Hotspur has a week that will define its season. A league game against Hull that could see either the north London club or the east Yorkshire side ease themselves clear of relegation concerns; a Uefa cup tie against Shakhtar Donetsk that Spurs will need to be at its best to survive and the...

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Nani offers good goal value against Derby

It is always tough to pre-guess Sir Alex Ferguson's teams ahead of big games, and with Chelsea to play on Sunday it is fairly certain that some stars will be rested against Derby tonight. Danny Welbeck may well get another start, but whether Ronaldo, Tevez, Rooney or Berbatov start is something of ...

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Will Roman Pavlyuchenko get motivated by transfer dealings?

Totenham appear close, tonight, to re-signing Jermain Defoe for around £15m. There are other reports linking the club with Defoes Portsmouth strike partner, Peter Crouch. Which leaves the two expensive senior forwards, Darren Bent and Roman Pavlyuchenko, in a bit of a sticky situation. Pavlyuchenko ...

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Will Burnley Crack Their Christmas Hoodoo?

Burnley fans must really dread the Christmas period every season. Rather than basking in the glory of a fantastic first four months of the season, a couple of poor festive showings by the clarets has put a question mark against their promotion prospects. Defeats against struggling Barnsley and Donca...

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Carling Cup Last Eight Draw

For a competition expected to fade away around the Millennium the Carling Cup is in reasonably good health and the quarter-final draw threw up some fascinating ties. The junior cup competition survives due to a variety of factors. Though the Champions League elite have had an ambiguous attitude to ...

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Didier Drogba coin toss may initiate a ban and a transfer

The oddest aspect of the Didier Drogba coin toss was that he was allowed to carry on by the referee after aiming an abusive gesture at the Burnley fans, exchanging a few choice swear words and then forcibly returning a coin that a Burnley fan may or may not have 'dropped' on the pitch. The preceden...

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Carling Cup Exits; Embarrassing? Yes. Painful? Nah.

Bolton Wanderers haven't won a trophy since they beat Manchester United 2-0 to lift the FA Cup in 1958. The chances of that drought coming to an end 50 years on were halved last night (August 26)as Gary Megson's side went down 2-1 to Northampton Town in the second round of the Carling Cup. Football...

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League Cup 2nd Round draw throws up attractive looking ties

The League Cup will be down to the last 32 by the end of August and a number of Premier League sides face tricky ties before booking their place in Round 3. Wednesday night's draw for the second round of the competition brought in all those top-flight sides who are not in Europe in addition to Manc...

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5037 League Cup – big guns taking i

by : Olly Wright It wasn’t too long ago that any Premier League club serious about challenging in the upper echelons of the division would have dismissed the League Cup as an unnecessary irritant. The country’s second cup competition was only given full attention by the lesser top flight teams and ...

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4209: Carling Cup Final- Key Match-U

by : Hugh Larkin Every football match is about who wins a series of key contests within the overall pattern. For a Final this tends to be emphasised even more and the Arsenal –Chelsea game is no different. Toure versus Drobga; Adebayor versus Essien; Gilberto versus Lampard – there are fascinating...

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4153: Carling Cup: Revival not as re

by : Sam Cullen Looking at this years Carling Cup final, it again appears to be a battle of the heavyweights as an all London affair sees Arsenal take on Chelsea. With a tie like this, we seem worlds away from the state of play we found ourselves in at the turn of the millennium, where the Carling...

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2859: League Cup: What’s the future

by : Colin Illingworth The League Cup is a bit like a fat lass in a nightclub. All the guys have high hopes of pulling a honey (i.e. the Premiership, Champions League, FA Cup, promotion and so on) and don’t even give the poor girl a second glance. However, as the night progresses it becomes crystal...

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2833: Mickey Mouse Cup No More

by : Victor Tay It was once being ridiculed as the ‘Mickey Mouse’ Cup as the bigger clubs in the English Premiership tended to take it for granted. In fact, over the years, even the lesser lights in the Premiership are beginning to take the League Cup, currently sponsored by Carling, as the launch...

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2831: Carling Cup Final: Cracking fi

by : Colin Illingworth At the start of the season the Carling Cup was way down the list of priorities for Manchester United while Wigan Athletic weren’t even meant to win five games all season let alone reach a major cup final. Yet here we are with Manchester United looking to win the trophy to sal...

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2418: Carling Cup preview: Crystal P

by : Stephen Orford Liverpool get to take their minds off the weekly slog of the Premiership when they visit Selhurst Park to take on Crystal Palace in the Carling Cup this Tuesday (October 25). Just 32 teams remain in contention for a place at the Cardiff final on February 26, but as usual the ap...

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2414: Carling Cup: Big moment for Le

by : Hugh Larkin Midfielders Probables David Beckham - Captain Fantastic, Golden Balls, whatever you want to call him, Dave will be the skipper in Germany. Despite recent calls for his omission in favour of Chelsea’s Shaun Wright-Phillips, Beckham has stayed in Sven’s plans to the point where man...

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1722: Carling Cup final preview: Liv

by : Stephen Orford The first silverware of the 2004/05 season is up for grabs tomorrow afternoon (February 26) as Liverpool face-off with Chelsea in the Carling Cup final at Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium. Both sides will be expected to field rather stronger line-ups than have been seen in previous ...

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1526: Carling Cup Preview: Chelsea v

by : Stephen Orford Chelsea continue their quest for glory on four fronts on Wednesday night (January 12) when they host Manchester United in the first leg of the Carling Cup semi finals. The bookmakers will be hoping that Chelsea can be toppled in one of the four competitions as soon as possible...

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1520: Carling Cup Preview: Liverpool

by : Stephen Orford The cup football just keeps flowing this week, as the Carling Cup semi finals get under way. The ties will be played over two legs, and first on the agenda is Watford's visit to Anfield to take on Liverpool on Tuesday (January 11). A lowly sixteenth in the Championship, Wat...

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1339: Carling Cup preview: Tottenham

by : Adam Graham This article has been removed at the writer's request....

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646: LEAGUE CUP: Middlesbrough's cu

by : Ashley Michael Martin: Why? Andy: Allardyce seems to have some sort of American Indian thing going on. Martin: What do you mean? Andy: Well he seems to take little treasures from his victims like with Reid’s monkey. We could be looking at a possible scalping here tonight. Martin: Talking abou...

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219 LEAGUE CUP: Worthington Cup Fi

Gerard Houllier is under the most pressure of his Liverpool career. His team is stuttering with just 2 league wins since November. There have also been lame exits to the FA Cup and Champions League. Despite this Liverpool have made good progress in the Worthington Cup and the UEFA Cup. If Liverp...

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