Carling Cup still has magic

THE CARLING CUP has suffered more than its fair share of detractors over the years but the four remaining teams in this year’s competition go into semi-final second legs this week knowing the much-maligned tournament has the power not just to make their season but potentially to change their entire future.

It’s certainly true at West Ham, who go to Birmingham with a 2-1 advantage hoping that victory at Wembley next month could save manager Avram Grant’s job, re-enthuse their owners and, with a decision looming on the Olympic Stadium, potentially herald the start of an exciting new era in east London.

It’s true, too, for Birmingham who haven’t won a major trophy since the League Cup in 1963 but now have a wealthy new owner in the shape of the Hong Kong businessman Carson Yeung, who could well be encouraged to increase his spending plans if given the not-inconsiderable fillip of silverware less than two years after taking full control.

The excitement at Ipswich, the only Championship side remaining in the competition, is not difficult to understand given how badly the team has performed in league fixtures this season; but even at Portman Road there are relatively new investors under Marcus Evans who, having sacked Roy Keane, no doubt need further encouragement that they are not flogging a dead horse at a club still living on its glories of the past.

But of all the clubs dreaming of Wembley today, nowhere is the pressure more intense or the potential rewards so great as at Arsenal.

Arsene Wenger’s side may go into tomorrow’s tie at the Emirates 1-0 down but they remain overwhelming favourites not just to make it to the final, but to lift the trophy itself.

In league terms the Gunners currently sit 23 points better off than Birmingham, 25 points above West Ham and 38 places above Ipswich, who are in danger of relegation to League One if their Championship form does not improve quickly.

That of course brings its own pressures for Arsenal but the feeling of nervous tension in north London is about more than that; it’s about an opportunity to lay a building block for years of future success.

The fact that Arsenal haven’t won a trophy in five years is becoming one of the most repeated statistics in modern football; it hangs like a millstone around the team’s neck and has become a permanent irritation to manager Wenger who is told, almost on a weekly basis, he is in charge of probably the only club in the top six that would put up with such a run.

Who could imagine Carlo Ancelotti still in place at Chelsea if the trophy cabinet at Stamford Bridge remained empty until 2016? And, as West Ham director Karen Brady pointed out on Saturday, if Alex Ferguson suffered a similar run he may not be sacked but, piqued by his own surprising fallibility, he would certainly be tempted to step down.

Well Wenger, it appears, hasn’t been tempted to step down. He has been swept away by his own belief that he is nurturing a young side capable of dominating English football for years to come — and especially when FIFA rules requiring clubs to live within their means are keenly felt at Old Trafford, Stamford Bridge and Eastlands.

Such is the pace of change in modern football that Wenger’s dream could become reality as early as this season because Arsenal are well placed in the league, still in the Champions League — where they face Barcelona with a chance to knock out the favourites — and still in the FA Cup.

But it cannot happen until his players receive the turbo-boost of confidence that comes with winning their first trophy together. And that, in a nutshell, is what the Carling Cup means to Arsenal this season.

You only have to look at football history, both ancient and modern, to see what winning the League Cup can do for a club.

It was George Graham’s first trophy at Highbury back in 1987 in the days when Liverpool won everything and it kick-started a sea-change in English football that saw the baton passed from Anfield to north London.

When Ian Rush scored the opening goal at Wembley 24 years ago there was barely a soul in England who didn’t expect Kenny Dalglish’s side to go on and lift the trophy; after all, the statistic that Liverpool never lost when Rush scored first was even more prevalent than stories of Arsenal’s trophy-less years these days.

But Charlie Nicholas somehow forced home two untypically scrappy goals and a new era dawned because Arsenal went on to win two titles, another League Cup, an FA Cup and a European Cup Winners Cup in the next seven years.

Other clubs have used the trophy to their advantage, too. It was Wayne Rooney’s first silverware at Manchester United when he inspired them to victory over Wigan in 2006 — their only trophy of the season — before Fergie’s men went on to lift the title for the next three seasons.

Martin O’Neill built his reputation on the competition, winning it twice at unfashionable Leicester, and it was Jose Mourinho’s first trophy at Chelsea — he regularly credited the confidence boost received from beating Liverpool at the Millennium Stadium in 2005 as being the cornerstone of the two Premier League successes that followed.

The dream for Wenger now is that the magic that rubbed off on Mourinho’s Chelsea, Ferguson’s United and Graham’s Arsenal can catapult his team to where he believes they belong — just as rivals West Ham, Ipswich and Birmingham hope some stardust is about to be sprinkled their way.

Make no mistake there is a lot more to the Carling Cup this season than meets the eye.