The EFL Cup tries to provide shine after turbulent week

The EFL Cup tries to provide shine after turbulent week

Football has experienced one of the most turbulent weeks ever in quite possibly the strangest of seasons. As teams try to break out from the Champions League to create their own European Super League, the EFL Cup tries to keep our attention on the present, in a cup final where we will finally have fans present. 

The roller coaster of football continued to spin wildly out of control with Spurs sacking their manager Jose Mourinho on Monday. Six days before a major cup final seems like the strangest time to sack your manager, but that’s exactly what Tottenham Hotspur did. Mourinho will not be in the Wembley dugout, despite being the man who led Spurs to their first domestic cup final since 2008.

Manchester City are also a club experiencing a little shock. Last week they were knocked out of the FA Cup by Chelsea, ending Pep’s dream of a clean sweep. While they did progress to the Champions League semi finals, they have seen their lead at the top of the Premier League shrink to eight points but with six games remaining, they are still on course for a treble.

The 2021 League Cup final will be played under a cloud of nerves as both these sides signed up for the European Super League and their own futures in the Premier League or any other UEFA or FIFA tournaments are uncertain. Yet, despite the uncertainty, here we are, with a cup final to look forward to in the real world. Gary Neville has even called for the cancellation of the EFL Cup final between two founding members of the European Super League in protest. 

City looking for a record equalling fourth successful triumph

Tottenham’s last trophy came in the form of the League Cup as they won the 2008 edition. Manchester City have won the EFL Cup seven times and recent emphasis on silverware saw them gobble up the last three editions. Liverpool were the last team to make it four in a row, winning each edition played from 1981-1984. It would be a formidable achievement by Man City and an eight victory would equal a tournament record – also set by Liverpool, of eight League Cup triumphs. 

With Mourinho out of the frame, we’ve been robbed of another Pep v Jose special. These sides have already met twice in the Premier League this season, with Spurs winning the first round 2-0 and City responding with a 3-0 win in the Etihad. 

Ryan Mason craves instant impact

29 year old Ryan Mason now takes the reins at Tottenham, and he will not have had much time with his team during such a short turnaround. Spurs did have a midweek fixture, Mason’s first in charge… and that ended in a last ditch 2-1 win against Southampton. He’s been given the job until June, becoming the Premier League’s youngest ever manager and you feel the weight of the Super League will weigh on Daniel Levy’s mind as they look for a successor to Jose Mourinho.

With a new manager coming up against a wise tactician, the pendulum has swung City’s way. Spurs are disheveled, broken and in need of fixing, while City are the final product. We’re not going to give Spurs a sniff here with a hefty defeat predicted

Get Manchester City to beat Tottenham 3-0 with odds of 19/2 or 10.5.

 

Jose failed to protect his players

This seems an all too familiar story. Lauded at the start of his Spurs tenure, we even tipped Spurs to win the league back in October. Perhaps predictably, things began to unravel as Mourinho showed his true colours again. Throwing players under the bus, then parking the bus in big games did little to boost his image in the eyes of the fans. Then came the Paul Pogba exclusive on Sky Sports last weekend, and we could all see the parallels between Jose’s Manchester United and Jose’s Tottenham. He lacked that togetherness in both teams, he never protected his players and eventually lost the dressing room. He was too quick to bash players like Luke Shaw and Dele Alli, crushing their confidence to perhaps gain some himself and when you’ve got morale issues in a club it is always down to the manager. Clearly, cup final or not, Levy did not feel his man would take Spurs to glory… 

Mourinho’s legacy ends at Spurs with more talk than positive results. An ongoing feud with Ole Gunnar Solskjaer took a bizarre twist with rules about parenting, but his quest for trophies perhaps did mask the real issues at Tottenham and Jose’s United, as Solskjaer hinted. True a trophy is fun to win and important, but long term growth and stability is the key to success and the difference between Mourinho’s United and Spurs and present-day Manchester United really highlight the different styles. Perhaps Levy’s gamble was costly, and a League Cup trophy won’t paper over the cracks left by Mourinho.

Good luck Mason, you’ve got a lot of cleaning up to do in the next few months.

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