Why this weekend’s FA Cup quarter-finals are a once-in-a-generation event | OneFootball

At Brighton this week, it had been suggested the club supply fans with special flags to give Saturday a proper sense of occasion, but this was rejected by manager Fabian Hurzeler and the wider staff. They want the players to treat this FA Cup quarter-final at home to Nottingham Forest as if it’s just another home game. That tends to be an attitude more conducive to actually winning, especially when you can sense the excitement building around the training ground.

Brighton are far from the only club wrestling with such competing emotions this weekend, because the majority of those left in the FA Cup are keenly aware this isn’t just another game. It’s a historic, and maybe unique, opportunity.

There will be no debates about the competition’s meaning. Most of the clubs who most frequently win it – including its five most successful clubs over the last 34 years and nine of its past 10 winners – are out. It really couldn’t mean more to those left.

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The FA Cup is seeing its most open season since 2008, when Portsmouth defeated Cardiff in the final (Getty Images)

Of that eight, half have never won a major trophy at all. They are Bournemouth, Brighton, Crystal Palace and Fulham.

One who have done a traditional league and cup double, in Preston North End, have not won a trophy since their last FA Cup in 1938. There will be no concerns about bringing flags to Deepdale, where the atmosphere is already incredible around the stadium.

Preston host Aston Villa, who haven’t won anything for 29 years, narrowly beating Nottingham Forest’s wait of 35. Even Manchester City, who were in the final a year ago and won it in 2023, are in the unusual situation of needing the FA Cup to save their season.

It isn’t exactly a giveaway or a sign of bias to say the other seven clubs would love to see Bournemouth beat City, to clear the way.

The presence of this millennium’s most successful English club does stand out amid a more “democratic” FA Cup, although it would be entirely in keeping with how this campaign has gone for Andoni Iraola to claim that big win against City. One of the themes of the Premier League season has been whether Pep Guardiola’s positional game is now being overtaken by approaches that allow more individualism, such as the Bournemouth manager’s.

However, that isn’t one of the major reasons why we’re seeing an FA Cup sixth round like this. Instead, it feels like an extension of the wider Premier League season, and particularly a more congested and competitive race for the Champions League.

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Guardiola and City’s difficult season could still be saved by the FA Cup (Getty Images)

It is illustrative that most of the “surprise” clubs battling for a top-five spot – Forest, Bournemouth, Brighton, Fulham and Villa – are still here. The only unexpected Champions League chasers missing from the FA Cup last eight are Newcastle United, and even they already ended their own long trophy drought last week by winning the Carabao Cup.

A theme is emerging. Even Crystal Palace have been looking upwardly mobile for some time, with the tactics of recent Europa League winner Oliver Glasner seeming especially suited to knockout football. Many would say similar about Fulham’s Marco Silva.

Of course, these are all good sides, bolstered by a few years of immense Premier League wealth, with PSR allowing them to keep their best players for once. Another theme of the season has been how many of the outstanding individual performers are at clubs outside the elite, and many are still in the FA Cup: Chris Wood, Morgan Gibbs-White, Antoine Semenyo, Justin Kluivert, Carlos Baleba, Joao Pedro, Jean-Philippe Mateta, Antonee Robinson, Morgan Rogers, Youri Tielemans.

It is also a reflection of the intelligence of some of these clubs and how they’ve out-thought wealthier rivals in terms of recruitment. That particularly applies to the coaches, since many of them are now seen as candidates for the best-paying jobs. The credentials of Iraola and Silva – especially with Tottenham Hotspur sniffing around – will be bolstered by an FA Cup. It might be indicative of the modern game that this is what discussion centres around in such circumstances but that’s also why these victories would be such valuable ripostes.

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Andoni Iraola’s Bournemouth have impressed this season and they already have a victory over Man City under their belts (Getty Images)

There would obviously be quite an irony, too, if Forest’s Nuno Espirito Santo managed to win major silverware before his former club Spurs.

Meanwhile, Tottenham point to another main reason for this sudden democracy. They’ve struggled to adapt to an expanded European season.

The FA Cup has been completely dominated by the other five of the old “big six” for the last 30 years because increased prize money from the Champions League allowed them to build superclub squads. They could compete on all fronts. It is not a coincidence that doubles and trebles began to proliferate in European football after 2008, as that greater revenue from the first 1999-2000 expansion gradually built up.

This next expansion – to 36 teams and a single-table group stage – has possibly brought that too far, for now. Even the biggest squads have struggled to cope with a non-stop calendar, while PSR has prevented them from signing some of the players they want. Liverpool and Manchester United, for example, would have loved to pilfer Fulham’s marauding left-back Robinson. City felt the effects of all this first, with a spate of injuries scuppering their title defence. There is even an argument that they have stayed in the FA Cup longer because they came through the other side of their injury crisis earlier than rivals.

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Antonee Robinson impressed during Fulham’s win over Man Utd in the fifth round (Getty Images)

Whatever the truth, City are now the only superclub blocking the path for a potential winner who would prize the FA Cup more than anything else in their modern history. It’s why most of the clubs left sense a special opportunity. Physical toll is one thing, though. Mentality is something else.

One senior figure at another quarter-finalist marvelled at City always block-booking one of the main Wembley hotels at the start of the season. That isn’t seen as arrogance. It’s seen as setting a standard, an expectation they will win.

That can make a huge difference even in seasons like this, and it’s partly why sides like Hull City, Watford and Southampton – as well as Palace and Brighton – have lost to wealthier clubs in the latter stages over the last few years.

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Man Utd, Man City, Liverpool, Arsenal and Chelsea have combined to win all but five of the FA Cups since 1990 (Getty Images)

You only have to look at Manchester United and Arsenal winning it in otherwise dismal campaigns. There’s a cultural history that fosters a belief. It’s why Brighton have taken that attitude to the flags and why staff have spent the week sending their squad clips of their late winners. Belief is all the more important given they lost 7-0 to Forest just a few weeks ago.

It’s also why Bournemouth vs Man City may define the cup season. The Cherries have been one of the standout upwardly mobile clubs. City are the champions, who were one of the first to underperform.

If Guardiola’s side triumph, there will be a foreboding sense that even a supposedly democratic season ends with the same old winners. However, if Bournemouth can come out on top, we might well be witnessing something special, and maybe unique.