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For 21 years from 1960, the Football League Cup was, well, just the Football League Cup until, at the start of the 1981/82 season, it became the first English football competition to take the name of a brand after agreeing a £250,000 deal with the Milk Marketing Board.

Ahead of the 1982 final between Liverpool and Spurs, Bruce Grobbelaar posed with a giant milk bottle in a Wembley goal.



Now, try demeaning the competition in front of Newcastle United and Liverpool fans.

Yes, there are times when clubs - and not just Premier League clubs, by the way - do not field full-strength teams in the Carabao Cup.

The fact that, since that date, Liverpool have won countless trophies and, in this season’s Premier League, have another already getting engraved, might mean this Carabao Cup final carries slightly less significance.

But try telling that to Liverpool fans when John Brooks blows the first whistle.

Moments like that are what you follow your football club for, not for a quest to finish fourth in a league table, or to top the Deloittes List.

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Mark Lawrenson, Ronnie Whelan, and Bruce Grobbelaar celebrate with the Milk Cup in 1982 - the first time an English football competition was known by a sponsor's name.

No, Jim, that is one of YOUR ambitions.

The commercial churn of elite football - rip-off replica shirts, expensive TV subscriptions, rising ticket prices - is becoming increasingly wearisome, as is the idea that a Premier League club should prioritise finishing fourth or even 17th over trying to win a trophy
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