Southampton manager Ralph Hasenhuttl has voiced his displeasure about FA Cup replays ahead of his side’s clash with Tottenham on Wednesday.
The Saints travel to face Tottenham in the FA Cup after drawing 1-1 at St. Mary’s last month. Heung-Min Son scored for Spurs, with Sofiane Boufal notching for Southampton.
Hasenhuttl says that he thinks replays diminish the chances of a smaller club progressing through to the next round and that maybe the FA could change the rules next season.
Speaking to The Independent, Hasenhuttl said:
My personal opinion is I’m not a friend of these replays, first because it minimises the chances of the smaller teams to maybe make these big miracles and go through to the next round. We were all accepting that we would have this replay in the winter break. Maybe next year, we should think about if it is really necessary to make it exactly in this week.
This is something we must think about maybe that doesn’t make sense, because we speak about a winter break and there is no winter break.
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This is a tough debate to have, because it involves every club in the football pyramid. The FA Cup is for everyone and the views of Hasenhuttl may not be shared by the majority of, for example, League One and League Two managers. They may enjoy replays and the potential of playing a Premier League side both home and away in the competition.
There is the issue of scheduling though. The Premier League has a winter break over the next two weeks, but Southampton and Spurs have had their break cut short by this replay. The FA could possibly find another slot in the fixture list for next season for these replays to take place, or scrap replays between two Premier League clubs so that they can avoid having to mess about during the break.
At the end of the day, though, this is a matter that has to be discussed amongst all of the clubs and not just those in the Premier League. If there are going to be changes to the FA Cup, they need to make sure that it is fair for everyone involved, and not just those at the top level.
