Daniel Brigham 0 Posted January 10, 2014 Hi all, latest blog on the FA Cup, romance, Fox and Wes ...Wes Hoolahan and David Fox could bring a bit of much-needed romance back to the FA Cup on Tuesday. By Daniel Brigham Who was feeling romantic last Saturday? It was the third round of the FA Cup, when the little''uns can upset the big''uns and romance drifts across the English footballing landscape, from Brighton Pier to the Angel of the North. We should''ve been swooning, cuddling and using sickening pet names for each other like love-sick teenagers on Valentine''s Day.Yet we weren''t. Instead, the country took a break from football between 3pm and 4.45pm. We went shopping, remembered we have friends, watched Columbo. Who really cares anymore? The FA Cup is now about as romantic as a trip to a brothel, where all the best girls have been given the night off and replaced by reserves.There is a disconnect between the fans, the players, the managers and the FA Cup. It is well documented. Every January millions of words are written suggesting how to reinvigorate a stale competition, marginalised and squashed of any romance by the twin beasts of the all-powerful, empire-building Premier League and Champions League (pretty fitting, therefore, that in the dictionary ''romance'' is squeezed slap-bang in the middle of ''Roman Catholic Church'' and ''Roman Empire''). There once really was a romance associated with the Cup, even in my still relatively youthful lifetime. The great Spurs team of Gazza and Lineker beating Arsenal in 1991 in the semi-final is one of my most vivid early football memories. So is angrily throwing a tennis ball at my parents'' TV screen after Sunderland beat Norwich in 1992. That defeat remains the lowest football day in my life; lower than any relegation, lower than any World Cup exit, lower than being dragged around hundreds of empty lower-league grounds as a child because my weirdo brother wanted to photograph them all on non-match days.At university in 2001 we put a TV in the tiny garden to watch Michael Owen score two late goals to beat Arsenal in the final and in 2006 a big group of us crowded around to watch Steven Gerrard''s outrageous leveller against West Ham. Without recourse to rose-tinted glasses I know that the FA Cup mattered more back then, that the final was viewed as one of the year''s prestige sporting occasions alongside the Wimbledon final, the Lord''s Test and the Grand National. It''s fizzled out since, coincidentally or not around the same time that semi-finals started being played permanently at Wembley – a decision as romantic as a night in with a Jeremy Clarkson DVD. These days I''d be as likely to tell you who won the FA Cup two, three, four years ago as know the winner of the National Marrow Grower of the Year award (a competition Steve Bruce almost certainly enters, and probably wins).So it was a bit of a surprise when I sniffed a whiff of that old FA Cup romance in the air last Saturday. It was emanating from Carrow Road, with the returning, maligned cult hero David Fox and a first start for our young thruster Josh Murphy. As with any good romance there was also the threat of a breakup, provided by Wes Hoolahan, whose name wasn''t on the team sheet nor, reportedly, was he even in the stadium. Both Fox and Hoolahan are romantic heroes to many Norwich fans. They are the Norfolk Messi and Pirlo (if you squint your eyes, cover your ears and shout lalalalalalala for long enough anyway), an emotional link to Norwich''s propulsion to the Premier League. They also spark something innate inside most football lovers: that joy of watching natural footballers. Now, no one''s saying Fox is the answer (no one seems to be saying what the question is either) but he would be a fine addition to an injury-hit midfield, particularly at home where Chris Hughton demands a possession game. Whatever your views on Fox and Wes – and both are certainly as infuriating as they are bewitching – Carrow Road is a whole lot more fun, even more romantic, when they''re playing and playing well. And a bit of romance is an essential part of sport. We’re not talking about nostalgia, tradition, sentiment, which all bubble in the same pot and should be treated with suspicions. We’re talking only about romance: the underdogs rising to the top, the element of surprise, overcoming adversity, making the difficult look natural, the ability to catch the mood of a nation or region, lifting a sport beyond merely kicking or hitting a ball. So it’s not Chelsea winning another title, it’s not Sebastian Vettel''s Formula One domination, it’s not Gazza’s tears at Italia ’90. It is Goran Ivanisevic winning Wimbledon in 2001, Nelson Mandela wearing a South African rugby shirt, Ian Botham''s boys'' own bashing in 1981, Andy Murray finally conquering Wimbledon, Ellen MacCarthur reaching land, a British medical student running a mile in less than four minutes for the first time, Norwich beating Bayern Munich, Wigan lifting the FA Cup. And that''s why the FA Cup would be the perfect stage for Wes and Fox to partner up for the first time since that romantic day when, erm, we lost to Luton in the Cup. It is why I’ll be going to Craven Cottage on Tuesday. Not because of a perverse, mad love for matches against Fulham but for the chance to see two natural footballers playing in a competition desperate for some TLC. Even if the game is turgid, even if we lose, it will barely matter for a glimpse of Wes and Fox creating a bit of romance. Daniel Brigham is features editor of The Cricketer magazine.You can follow him on twitter: @cricketer_dan Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Marchant 5 Posted January 10, 2014 The amount of romance left in the FA Cup was emphasised when the holders, Wigan, started their defence of the trophy at home in front of less than 7000 people. How many did they take to Wembley last May? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites