Cup or league?

By Colin Tattum on February 20, 2008 8:01 AM | Permalink

Choose which you prefer: your team winning the FA Cup or avoiding relegation from the Premier League.

I once had this 'discussion' in pre-season with the Blues coaching staff and chairman David Gold in a German hostelry.

I said I would prefer to see Blues win the FA Cup than survive in the Premier League.

Steve Bruce could see my reasoning but didn't entirely agree, for David Gold it was top-flight status.

My point was that winning the FA Cup is a once in a lifetime opportunity for a team like Blues.

You are not going to go all misty eyed when, 10 years down the line, you thumb through the book formerly known as Rothmans, scour the league tables and go 'ahh . . . what a season - we finished 17th'.

Ask a Coventry City fans what 1987 means to them. Ditto Southampton 1976.

My argument was also based on the assumption that even if Blues did get relegated, they would always be among the stronger clubs in the Championship and promotion would come round sooner rather than later.

Winning the FA Cup is tangible. It goes down in the history books. It creates heroes, never-to-be-forgotten memories.

Scrabbling about at the bottom of the Premier League hoping to secure another £30 million minimum is not glory for me.

I bring this up because Albion fans are asking themselves a similar sort of question at the moment.

The path to the FA Cup final is open before them, but would they prefer promotion instead?