Why Alex Ferguson has started to love the taste of Carling

By David McDonnell

Published 11:17 29/11/11

Follow David McDonnell on Twitter

The Carling Cup, once viewed by Sir Alex Ferguson as an inconvenient burden in an already congested fixture programme, has finally won over the Manchester United boss.

Successive wins in the competition, in 2009 and 2010, are testimony to Ferguson's determination to take it seriously, despite using it as a platform to test his emerging youngsters and give his fringe players some valuable playing time.

Tomorrow night at Old Trafford, United take on Championship side Crystal Palace for a place in the semi-finals, where Ferguson will offer the world another glimpse of his potential stars of the future.

The likes of Ben Amos, Ezikiel Friers, Ravel Morrison, Paul Pogba, Larnell Cole and Davide Petrucci all have the chance to prove they have the requisite ability and mental fortitude to make the step up to the first-team.

And they need only cast their minds back five years, to United's 2006 Carling Cup final win over Wigan, for proof of how success in the much-maligned tournament can act as a springboard for more success and bigger prizes.

When United beat Paul Jewell's side at Cardiff's Millennium Stadium, it was their first trophy for two years, Ferguson's team having been in a period of transition during which Arsenal, then Chelsea in successive seasons, won the Premier League.

It was the first time United had gone for more than one season without winning the Premier League, but their re-emergence as title winners owed a great deal to that Carling Cup success against Wigan.

The effect of that triumph for United was tangible, Ferguson's side winning a hat-trick of Premier league titles starting the following season, as well as the Champions League in 2008 and an appearance in the final the following season.

Winning the Carling Cup imbued Ferguson's team, inspired by Cristiano Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney, with a winning mentality and proved the platform for them to re-assert United as the country's dominant football force.

As such, tomorrow's quarter-final tie has assumed huge significance for United and their next generation of first-team stars, even if the competition is last on Ferguson's priority list in terms of winning.

"I think the League Cup has turned into quite a good tournament," said Ferguson this week. "Clubs like us are able to introduce young players and ones who have not been playing regularly in the first team, and it's been good to us over the years.

"We've won two finals at Wembley with young players, which is good going, and I think it's become an important tournament for us in terms of getting the youngsters an introduction into winning and having an understanding of the progress they're making."

United were humbled 4-0 by West Ham at Upton Park at this stage of the Carling Cup last season, defeat a fate Ferguson's current youngsters must avoid if they are to prolong their chance to impress in the first-team.

***