Alan Shearer: Newcastle, Liverpool and Leeds cheated their fans and showed a lack of respect for the FA Cup and their opposition
FOOTBALLERS apparently can’t play three games in a week anymore.
How do I know, because managers keep telling me.
Despite having the best facilities for training and recuperation in the history of the sport and the best pitches it is apparently beyond these top class athletes.
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Strange that because I never seemed to find it a problem, nor did my teammates.
It certainly wasn’t a problem in the runs I had to two FA Cup Finals with Newcastle.
Six games was all it was in both of those. Ultimately both times it ended in disappointment but what a thrill it was to get to those Wembley showpieces.
What an atmosphere it generated throughout Newcastle too as we looked to end that long barren spell without a trophy.
The fans loved it.
Yes, you know those people who are what a football club is all about and those same people who have been so poorly disrespected by managers this weekend.
I include Rafa Benitez.
He has the biggest and best squad in the Championship. He has six points and a game in hand on the third placed team and is not playing again until Wednesday.
Yet the FA Cup was sacrificed by him on Saturday with the nine changes he made to face an Oxford side that made him pay.
He will have applauded the followers who made the trip to Oxford, what he really needs to do is apologise to them for not giving this FA Cup tie his all.
By fielding a weakened side Newcastle were cheating their supporters.
Likewise Jurgen Klopp with Liverpool, Walter Mazzarri for Watford, and Gary Monk and Chris Hughton whose Leeds and Brighton teams both lost to non-league sides.
Tottenham got away with it - just.
And what sort of a spectacle was that Southampton v Arsenal game really, between two sides who had made 20 changes to their line-ups between them?
TV thought it would be a cracker between two top flight teams, they should be asking for their money back and likewise the sponsors.
There should be a rule whereby managers have to name their team for an FA Cup tie a week in advance.
Then fans can decide whether they are going to buy a ticket or not.
Because I am sure over 52,000 would not have turned up at Anfield to witness that had they known the team that was going to be put out.
You would think on the back of two home defeats, Klopp would have been doing everything to win the game.
It showed a total and utter lack of respect for the fans, the competition and the opposition.
Lose on Tuesday now against Chelsea and Liverpool’s season is all but over at the start of February.
Had they beaten Wolves, however, there would still be plenty to look forward to.
I don’t get and never have done the resting of players.
Liverpool are not even in Europe and have got 16 league games left this season in four months.
It’s crazy, I don’t understand it.
It really saddens me now how three league points is a greater priority than an FA Cup run.
Clubs care about money and fans care about trophies.
You have to drop right down the divisions now to find any magic in this competition.
To places like Sincil Bank, where coincidentally I played my first ever game for Newcastle.
Just over a week after knocking out Ipswich, Lincoln took another Championship scalp, all be it a weakened one.
But what an atmosphere and what memories for all those fans were created on Saturday.
Why should fans of teams higher up the league ladder and in the Premier League in particular be denied their own bit of magic in this competition.
If you make changes and win you have got away with it, but lose and you have to answer for it.
Because you have conned your fans, with your words and actions.
Don’t try and convince everyone you are taking this competition seriously and really want to win it if you are putting yourself at a disadvantage from the start.
Just admit that it simply isn’t important to you as three points in the league.
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Admit that you are protecting yourself and bowing to the financial pressures from above that means going up, staying up or being in the top four is so much more important.
Now I am not against playing one or two kids alongside established first team players.
But don’t throw them all in and risk a dispiriting experience.
How must poor Connor Randall be feeling after being thrown in to the side by Klopp and hauled off at half-time because it is all going wrong?
It was Klopp’s fault because of the team he put around him, not Randall’s.
I got hammered by some Manchester City fans for laying into them last season when Manuel Pellegrini played a weak side at Stamford Bridge in the Cup and got battered 5-1.
It was because they had a Champions League away game against Dynamo Kiev on the Wednesday and were angry their match had been moved to the Sunday.
They effectively threw a very public hissy fit at not getting their own way and five kids got a debut to forget.
I still believe they were wrong even if they did win the game in Kiev. No team should be short-changing their club, and their fans.