The EFL won’t change its rules ahead of the League Cup final, despite Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola calling on them to help his team out.
As covered on the site earlier this week, Marc Guehi will be ineligible for the League Cup final between Arsenal and Manchester City because he joined his new club too late in the competition.
Though the cup-tied rules were relaxed this season, allowing players to play for multiple teams, they had to join their new team before the semi-finals got underway.
Guehi joined City on January 19th, with City’s semi-final first leg against Newcastle United took place on January 13th, so he was almost a week too late to be eligible for City in the competition.
Pep Guardiola was upset with the rule, calling on the EFL to change it for him and allow his shiny new toy to feature in the final.
“Hopefully we can convince the Carabao Cup that Marc can play in this competition (in) the final,” Guardiola said. “Because it’s difficult to understand that the club makes a big investment to take one player, (he) belongs to us and I don’t understand why he cannot play in the final.
“Hopefully we make a letter and hopefully the Carabao Cup can understand. Once you buy a player for a lot of money and he’s not able to play (because of) a rule that I don’t understand why. Hopefully they can change it and he can play.”
But Pep’s pleas are set to fall on deaf ears, with Martyn Ziegler of The Times reporting that the EFL won’t change its rules to allow Guehi to play.
As Ziegler points out, the fact the rules were relaxed this season is the only reason Antoine Semenyo was able to play and score in the semi-final, with the winger also eligible to face Arsenal in the final.
City have already gained an advantage from this season’s changes, and it’s unreasonable to expect another one when they knew the rules before signing Guehi.
It also just seems fair that Guehi misses out. The centre-back already had his chance in the League Cup, starting in wins over Millwall and Liverpool, before starting and scoring in Crystal Palace’s quarter-final defeat to Arsenal.
Arsenal shouldn’t have to eliminate Guehi for the second time in the same season.