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The Carling Cup is usually regarded as the least prestigious of the domestic trophies but the fact that recent winners include Manchester United, Chelsea and Tottenham would suggest that the men of influence in the Premier League's corridors of power now consider this a prize well worth winning.
What would Manchester City give to make it their first trophy in 34 years after the millions their new owners have spent on players, most of whom played in their second-round victory over Crystal Palace.
But this hasn't always been the case. This is the 50th season of a competition that, when launched by the Football League in 1960-61, was condemned by the leading clubs as an unnecessary burden on players.
Spurs, Arsenal, Wolves, West Brom and Sheffield Wednesday, four of the top five in the old First Division the previous winter, refused to take part in the inaugral season.
The great Spurs boss, Bill Nicholson, who guided his club to the League and FA Cup 'double' in 1961, was particularly critical. He called for a smaller First Division and slammed the League for demanding too much from players.
Like all managers at the time, Nicholson recognised the irony in the League's determination to push ahead with this challenge to the long-established FA Cup. Only five years earlier the League had opposed champions, Chelsea, taking part in the first European Cup because of possible fixture congestion.
The absence of the big guns meant that early League Cup finalists included small-town clubs like Rotherham, who lost to Aston Villa in 1961, and Norwich, who beat Rochdale a year later.
Only the introduction of European qualification for the old Inter-Cities Fairs Cup and the decision to abandon the two-legged final and move the big day to Wembley persuaded the First Division heavyweights to take part.
Tommy Docherty's outstanding young Chelsea team were London's first winners in 1965 with gate receipts for the two-leg victory over Leicester totalling £11,581 - not even a day's pay for the modern Chelsea stars.
With four wins apiece, Chelsea and Spurs have been the most successful London sides in the competition. Only Liverpool (seven) and Aston Villa (five) have won on more occasions. Tottenham should have five wins to their credit. In 1982, they led a memorable final until the last minute when Liverpool equalised and went on to win 3-1 in extra time.
London has also provided the competition's most unlikely winners, Queen's Park Rangers, and the most unlikely losers, Arsenal.
In 1967, the final was staged at Wembley for the first time and Rangers, the surprise package from the old Third Division, faced the holders, WBA, one of the First Division's top clubs.
I was at Wembley that day and saw Albion cruise to a two-goal lead in 35 minutes. But the crowd of 97,952 then watched in disbelief as Rangers stormed back in the second half, scoring through Roger Morgan, Rodney Marsh and Mark Lazarus to secure an epic 3-2 victory.
Two years later, on a mud heap of a Wembley pitch, Swindon's Don Rogers was the two-goal hero as the Third Division side beat Arsenal 3-1, also after extra time.
London also provided the League Cup's top scorer - West Ham's Sir Geoff Hurst. His total of 49 goals was later equalled by Liverpool's Ian Rush. "I used to love playing in the League Cup," said England's World Cup hero of 1966. "Even in my day the big clubs complained about it - but they all wanted to win it. Today, the elite clubs have such big squads they can afford to rest players in the early rounds but, when it matters, they always put the big guns back in the front line."
When League secretary Alan Hardaker and president Joe Richards devised and founded the League Cup they could not have foreseen that their competition would become so successful and attract a series of high-profile sponsors. Over the years the League Cup has been called the Milk Cup, the Littlewoods Cup, the Rumbelows Cup; the Coca-Cola Cup, the Worthington Cup and, now, the Carling Cup.
Richards, who bought the initial trophy with his own money, predicted to Hardaker: "One day the final will be played on the Wembley turf - but not in my lifetime."
He was wrong. Wembley staged the final in 1967 - a year before Richards died - and the League Cup has since gone from strength to strength.
