UEFA Cup Worthless?

Aston Villa's Martin O’Neil has “no regrets,” Tottenham Hotspurs' Harry Redknapp has “other priorities,” and David Bentley was just “glad to not be selected for the UEFA Cup squad.”

Since when has playing in the UEFA Cup and flying the flag for your country become so worthless?

Both Villa and Spurs fielded heavily weakened and inexperienced teams for their games against CSKA Moscow and Shakhtar Donetsk in their respective second-leg matches. 

Comparing the lineups to those on show during their last Premier League games, Villa made eight changes to the starting lineup with Martin O’Neil maintaining three of his regular back four in L.Young, Knight and Davies.

Redknapp was even more ruthless, changing 10 of his previous starting 11 with only Palacious retaining his place.

So why is the UEFA Cup now become a dirty word? A waste of time? An inconvenience? A worthless piece of silverware?

O’Neil points to the Premier League as his reasoning. His small squad have done wonders, not only breaking into the territory of the EPL's elite, but currently maintaining its surge, sitting six points clear of Arsenal in fifth place, and only one point behind Chelsea in third.

A loss at the weekend to Chelsea may prove to be little more than a blip, instead of the beginning of a crisis. If Villa can maintain this position for the remainder of the season, they will be guaranteed entry into the prestigious UEFA Champions League competition where the money is not only significantly greater, but more miles apart.

Last season's UEFA Cup winners earned approx €8 million, whereas the overall winner of the UEFA Champions League earned in the region of €50 million. Simple qualification into the competition guarantees €3m, so O’Neil could be forgiven for choosing to forfeit the cup this season for the chance of an even greater stage to perform on next season.

One factor O’Neil might have overlooked in his decision is that giving his young and inexperienced (in terms of European competition) players the chance to play and progress in the "easier" of the European Cups might greatly have helped in his preparations for next season, assuming that Villa qualify for the Champions League.

Redknapp, however has other priorities and other problems. His goal is the “relegation dogfight,” as his team currently occupies the 14th position, five points above the drop zone. 

A brave and moral stance one might say, however the chances are that Spurs will play with their strongest possible lineup during this weekend's Carling Cup final against Manchester United.

Quite where this fits into the Spurs' blueprint for EPL survival its not that apparent and with prize money for the winning team of a mere €200,000, surely this should be classed as the more worthless of the two cups.

However, it it would appear that domestic success is deemed to be more desirable than European glory, or at least attempting to attain progress in Europe.

I hope that the decisions of both teams prove to be the correct ones, but I can’t help but feel that fans deserve better than travelling to European games to watch a reserve team play, or to listen to the comments of a pampered Mr. Bentley.

An honourable mention must be given to Manchester City, who fielded the same starting 11 as per their previous EPL game with the exception of the already cup-tied De Jong replaced by Wright-Philips.

They managed a 2-1 win on the night (4-3 agg) giving them passage into the final 16 and set up a tie against Danish champions Aalborg in the next round.