I seriously think that the FA Cup is losing it's appeal as Premiership clubs are fielding more and more reserve players against lower opposition. Nothing wrong really since the mancs managed to trounce Derby even without a host of first team players. It just comes to show that there is a growing dispairity between Premiership sides and other English teams from the Championship and below. The money is much bigger in Europe and the Premiership which is why it's no surprise the FA Cup no longer has priority over success in Europe. You have also to consider that these days Premiership clubs are "whoring" themselves to the world, hence the growing importance of achieving success in Europe. The first sign of this was when Ferguson opted to skip the FA Cup to compete in the World Club Championships.

Before everyone goes on the defensive (which I see is already the case), I used Ferguson's example because it was the most high profile one. The point is that the FA Cup is fast losing it's prestige and this could be down to the influx of foreign players and managers.As for chosing which competitions to play in, Liverpool played in the World Club Championship and all the other tournaments back in 2006 for the record. I'm not sure if we were given an option but I the schedule was just as hectic.