Why the EFL Cup should be binned plus the PT's team for the second round tie at Stevenage on Tuesday

It serves no obvious purpose.

Is there really any financial gain for the smaller clubs? Gates are tiny in the early rounds and unless you can draw a big gun at home and attract some TV money I bet most lower division clubs make a loss.

Posh played their first round tie at Plymouth and would have barely broken even once travelling costs were taken into account. First round prize money was only £5k last season with £7k on offer to the winners of second round ties.

Draw one of the biggest clubs and you are likely to face a reserve team rather than any star players. The Premier League squads are now so vast they can beat lower division clubs while resting all their best players. Since Swansea beat fourth tier Bradford City in the final nine years ago, the competition has been won by one of the big four every year with Manchester City accounting for six wins. It’s boring.

Even Championship clubs can’t be bothered with the competition any more. Most fielded weakened sides in the first round of this year’s competition and 16 of them managed to get knocked out, probably without a murmer of dissent from within the camp or the fanbase.

An away trip to a top ground is the best the likes of Posh and their fans could wish for. Set against the importance of promotion to the Championship, even that would be insignificant.

Posh made eight team changes for that tie in Plymouth made seven. It would be a major surprise if Posh boss Grant McCann didn’t do something similar for the second round trip to Stevenage on Tuesday. It’s Derby County away on Saturday in front of a near 30,000-strong crowd so why would a senior player, unless they are short of match practice, want to play in front of a relative handful at the Lamex Stadium? Fans know weakened sides will play so they won’t turn out unless the prices are extremely low, which they aren’t tomorrow.

And don’t tell me how useful the EFL Cup is for blooding younger players. Isn’t that what the EFL Tropy is for? We don’t need both competitions.

Anyway I’ve picked the team I would play at Stevenage in a 3-4-1-2 formation. If McCann decided to change his entire XI and play the kids he would get no dissent from me.