AVB On The Carling Cup & Playing The Youngsters

The Carling Cup is not everyone’s cup of tea and over the years many of the top sides in England have played their squad members rather than a full strength team. Blues owner Roman Abramovich has apparently ordered manager Andre Villas-Boas to play the clubs younger players tonight and it seems as though he is happy to do so.

Speaking yesterday AVB said, “It’s a club philosophy. A decision the owner wants, to promote talent. But there is a responsibility to try and win trophy as well. I think there is prestige in the competition.”

Yes there is prestige in this competition. Jose Mourinho won it two times and surely a trophy is a trophy at the end of the day. AVB then used Arsenal as an example of playing youngsters in this competition. He said, “Arsenal have been doing it for years. We can discuss if it has been useful or not for the talent. But I think it has been. They reached the final last year and a couple of semis. It is important for young players to get the feeling for this competition, so they can exploit their talents.”

I quite agree so it looks as though we will see the likes of Romelu Lukaku, Oriol Romeu and Josh McEachran all starting tonight.

Villas-Boas would not say who would actually start the game, but he did say, “The decision has been made, but I prefer to leave a doubt in Martin Jol’s head.”

He finished off by saying, “The Carling Cup is an opportunity for us to put our best young talents across and give them experience for us. It’s not a completely new approach as we did it last year. We want them to have these opportunities. It’s a good challenge, as Fulham are a Premier League team, and it gives us an idea of where we stand.”

It will interesting to see who starts tonight, but it appears as though Mr Abramovich will get his way and see some of the younger squad members get a game.