I think that if/when we go up to the PL this season my theories are utter tosh for this day and age and that I'm a bit of a dinosuar when it ccomes to the cups. It was just nostalgia.
This second-string rotation really started when champions-league teams (ie top 5 or 6 in PL) didn't care about the League Cup and FA Cup and more about their top four places in the PL. This filtered down to the other teams in the PL who were trying to stay in the PL. So in other words bigger...