The last 16 of the FA Cup is here, and the glint of the trophy is now in sight for the teams that remain.
This felt like a good time to test the water of what people think about the grand old competition, how big a role it plays in an increasingly crowded football landscape, and where it ranks in the priorities of those still left in.
We asked a series of questions related to the FA Cup — and a couple more general ones — to the 14 teams remaining that you can follow on The Athletic. Apologies to Port Vale and Mansfield Town fans — if you have some thoughts, leave them in the comments.
The good news for the traditionalists is that everyone seems to agree that the FA Cup is still an important endeavour. Only two clubs’ fans recorded results of under 90 per cent on that question, with Liverpool and, slightly curiously, Southampton supporters not quite so keen, but even then, 89.9 and 89.6 per cent of those two groups approved.
Perhaps it’s because both have bigger fish to fry — Southampton muscling their way into the Championship play-off places, Liverpool finding new and absurd ways to concede added-time goals — but it’s not as if everyone else has nothing to play for.
That said, the most enthusiastic supporters are Wolves at a 98.2 per cent approval rating. Perhaps this is because their current run of form is almost certainly too late for Premier League survival, but in the cup, it could still turn into something tangible.
That also seems to be reflected in the people who are actually watching the FA Cup more this season, with 10 of the 14 sets of fans surveyed reporting that they are paying more attention. The three who sit below the 50 per cent barrier (Southampton is an even split) are predictable — Liverpool, Manchester City and Chelsea, who have plenty of other football to watch — but the most keen are Wrexham, Sunderland and Brentford fans, 82, 76.3 and 72.1 per cent respectively of whom seem to be cancelling plans and settling in for some red-hot Football Association Challenge Cup action.
‘Would winning the FA Cup be a big achievement?’ mostly brings the sort of answers you might expect.
Only 34 per cent of Liverpool and 39.2 per cent of Arsenal followers would be very happy with lifting the trophy, while among the other teams, basically everyone who has either never won the thing or hasn’t for a long time most definitely would.
All very understandable, although it would be interesting to chat to the 0.4 per cent of Sunderland fans, the 0.3 per cent of West Ham fans and the 0.2 per cent of Wrexham fans who answered a flat ‘no’ to the question. Tough crowds.
The question of ‘would you rather win the FA Cup or qualify for the Champions League?’ brings about some interesting results.
For the most part, it’s predictable: teams for whom not making Europe’s big one would represent failure — Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City — are all heavily in favour of the Champions League, while everyone else seems to prefer winning a trophy.
Everyone, except Wrexham fans — 50.2 per cent of whom eschew winning their first piece of silverware since the 2013 FA Trophy in favour of Champions League qualification.
This is pretty funny, considering Wrexham are yet to play in the Premier League and thus literally haven’t been able to qualify for the Champions League, making this a bit like a school child confidently declaring they want to be president. Admirable ambition? Delusions of grandeur? Giddiness about the speed of their ascent so far? Their audience on The Athletic potentially skews towards the U.S. — thus, could there be more familiarity with the Champions League than the FA Cup? It could be a combination of them all.
What about the thorny question of whether the semi-finals should be held at Wembley? Broadly speaking, most people are not in favour, apart from Chelsea, Brentford and Fulham fans, which is perhaps explained by the ‘it is quite near to my house’ factor, and similar logic can be applied to 74.4 per cent of Newcastle fans and 79.7 per cent of Sunderland being against the idea. A little less easy to explain is why Leeds and Wrexham followers are emphatically in favour, but the human brain sometimes remains a mystery.
This was also a good opportunity to get a more general sense of satisfaction about the state of things at these clubs, so we asked how happy these fans were with their managers and club ownership.
The happiest bunch seem to be Brentford fans, with 95 per cent very satisfied and absolutely nobody truly unhappy with life in west London. Shortly behind them are followers of Wrexham, with a 94 per cent satisfaction rate, but I would like to hear what else the thin sliver of fans who are ‘very dissatisfied’ with Ryan Reynolds and Rob Mac expect. Maybe they just don’t like Deadpool, or something.
The only other sets of fans with over half being absolutely happy with life are Manchester City’s and Sunderland’s, although 87 per cent of Liverpool fans and 89 per cent of Arsenal’s are pretty content, while leaving room for some improvement.
At the other end of the scale, don’t visit the London Stadium expecting big smiles, because 64 per cent of West Ham fans rate themselves as very dissatisfied with the state of their nation, as would you be if you had to walk through the Westfield shopping centre to get to every game. Not far behind them in the irked stakes are Wolves and Chelsea, but it is interesting that 10 of these 14 sets of fans, on balance, broadly have a positive view of their ownership, which is higher than I would have expected.
Finally, the managers. The things that stand out here are that very few people have declared themselves ‘very dissatisfied’ with the man in the dugout, which makes sense given the sample: if you’re at this stage of the FA Cup, by definition your coach must be doing a reasonable job.
But more interesting than the 87 per cent of Manchester City fans who strongly approve of Pep Guardiola, or the 85.7 per cent of Wrexham supporters enjoying Phil Parkinson’s work, or even the 77.4 from Norwich who are delighted with November appointee Philippe Clement, is that just 42.1 per cent of Arsenal’s following declare themselves ‘very satisfied’ with Mikel Arteta.
What? They’re seven points clear at the top of the Premier League, in the Carabao Cup final, have a pretty good path in the Champions League and are at this stage of the FA Cup: what more are you looking for here, guys? Are you not counting goals scored from set pieces? Are you upset he’s not playing Gabriel Jesus more? Has Fabian Hurzeler filled out this survey 500 times?
Sometimes, there really is no satisfying some people.
