The FA Cup is perfect stage for golden oldies like Steven Gerrard, John Terry, Frank Lampard and Ashley Cole
A strange dynamic increasingly grips the national game, setting the cogs of the football machine spinning at different speeds, often grinding together and sending sparks flying.
Those millions of onlookers obsessed with footballing fortunes have never been quicker to pass judgment, using ubiquitous social-media tools as weapons to shoot down careers at the slightest hint of loss of form.
Yet those having their reputations rushed through cyberspace to the sporting graveyard are alive and kicking.
Four English thirtysomethings, Steven Gerrard, John Terry, Frank Lampard and Ashley Cole have all had obituaries written about their usefulness this season.
Pension them off. Too infirm, too lame. New faces please.
Yet on Sunday, managerial selection whims permitting, four individuals with 15 FA Cup-winners’ medals between them will be marching hard along the road to Wembley…