BLACKBURN Rovers exited the FA Cup after making 11 changes at Coventry last night, yet it is a sign of the times that another Premier League club will make an even more half-hearted stab at cup progress this week.

Rovers’ meek defeat at the Ricoh Arena was a great shame, but an entirely predictable one.

Given the club’s position in the Premier League and the importance of Sunday’s trip to Hull, few really expected Sam Allardyce to make anything other than wholesale changes – even if star names were at least named on the bench.

Rovers’ best chance of progression vanished once they failed to defeat the Sky Blues at Ewood Park, when a two-week break from league action gave Allardyce a chance to field at least some of his regulars.

It is a sad fact, but such an approach to cup competitions has now become the rule rather than the exception for clubs in relegation trouble.

Even more frightening is the stance adopted by Aston Villa this week.

Villa, you might have noted, are currently fourth in the table and do not seem to be staring into the face of impending doom (that’s relegation, not Doug Ellis).

Having admirably finished sixth last season, Villa entered the Intertoto Cup.

By doing so, they seemed to at least show some willingness to go for it in Europe – unlike Reading, who politely stood aside for Rovers to take the Intertoto spot a year earlier because they thought the UEFA Cup might harm their Premier League form.

Given that Reading were promptly relegated and now look light years away from qualifying for Europe again, still think that was a good idea, lads?

But, having spent seven months progressing from the Intertoto Cup to the last 32 of the UEFA Cup, Villa have now decided they’ve had enough.

So, when they face CSKA Moscow in the Russian capital tomorrow night, ex-Rovers goalkeeper Brad Friedel, Gareth Barry, Emile Heskey, James Milner, Ashley Young, Gabriel Agbonlahor, Carlos Cuellar and Stiliyan Petrov will all be putting their feet up at home. Quite a list.

One might suggest such a policy was an insult to Rovers, who were next in line for Intertoto qualification last season, if it were not highly possible that they would do exactly the same.

Martin O’Neill explained that qualification for the Champions League had become the priority for Villa and ‘had we been seventh, eighth or ninth, it would have been a different outlook’.

So it seems only clubs with no chance of relegation, who are not in the Champions League and have no chance of reaching the Champions League are ever likely to take cup competitions seriously.

Given the tight nature of the Premier League this season, only Everton could have considered themselves to be in such a position when the FA Cup started in January.

Portsmouth were also in that luxurious situation when they won the FA Cup last year but was that the pinnacle of Harry Redknapp’s managerial career?

Apparently not. It was finishing 17th with Pompey in 2006.

The cup competitions are only truly being kept alive now by the ambition of clubs from the lower leagues. An FA Cup without such teams would be a truly pointless prospect.

What a shame then, that when those clubs realise the greatest dream of all - promotion to the Premier League - the economic realities of the top flight mean they have to leave their ambition behind.

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