Paying the price for faded glory of the FA Cup

Our man inside the game goes in search of the FA Cup’s lost magic...

I’m acutely aware that last week’s column started with the tried and tired cliche, “it’s that time of year again”. But we say it about everything at this time of year. Christmas obviously, New Year’s Eve and in the football world we apply it to the FA Cup third round. But we have to dress it up obviously, so we throw straplines at it like “the magic of the FA cup”. Not even I could bring myself to start this column with that old chestnut.

The BBC struggle, too.