Which makes it all the more baffling that Poch has put so little effort into cups in the past.
His remit was to build a CL worthy team for when we arrived in to the new stadium (the club coined this as "phase 1")... Yet he delivered 4 years of CL football in a row in the interim (i.e. ahead of schedule).
...and all the same, he made a few domestic semi's, 1 domestic final and a CL final along the way (and a couple of deep runs in the EL).
All with a nominal net investment in the squad.
The idea that he simply lacked effort is more than a bit harsh
We're now in what was coined as "phase 2" of the much vaunted project. Poch has already declared his desire to win a cup this year. A question: Do you think we lost against Colchester cos he merely didn't want to win the league cup?