SOCCER ANGLES:Ask what January means in English football and the answer used to be the FA Cup. Ask what it means now and the answer is: transfer window, writes MICHAEL WALKER

IT’S THE FA Cup you feel sorry for. The old cup must have awoken on Monday morning feeling more sure of itself than it has done for a while. There had been a good Saturday featuring Manchester United in a genuine, squeaky contest at Southampton, and there was Crawley Town.

Then there was an even better Sunday with the richest club in the world, Manchester City, struggling to draw at third division Notts County.

There were decent games at Arsenal and Fulham and then a draw that pitted United with Crawley at Old Trafford in the fifth round.

As they say, what’s not to like?

The oldest cup of them all will have picked up the papers on Monday morning fully expecting to monopolise the news.

The thing is, Fernando Torres and Andy Carroll had other ideas, or others had ideas about them.

So on Monday morning, January 31st, the news was not about the FA Cup and the tale of non-League Crawley going to United.

The news was about Torres going to Chelsea and Carroll going from Newcastle to Liverpool to replace Torres.

This involved the exchange of €100 million.

It is hard to ignore €100 million.

It is hard to ignore the Premier League.

There are weeks when it is like a singing, neon bulldozer. It magnetises attention and crushes everything else as it goes. How other sports, other leagues, are meant to compete, who knows?

The Premier League rolled all over the FA Cup this week.

Ask what January means in English football and the answer used to be the FA Cup.

Ask what it means now and the answer is: transfer window.

Perhaps it is a reflection of the times. People thinking of shopping as an activity and January is when football is allowed to go on a binge if it wishes to.

This January it wished to.

So what we had was an FA Cup fourth-round weekend partially obscured by the temptation of the January window closing. Torres had submitted a transfer request in writing to shoehorn himself out of Anfield.

Chelsea were preparing a cheque to facilitate this. In turn Liverpool would move for Carroll and make the 22 year-old the most expensive English footballer ever. It was not what we’d been expecting. This was drama. At Molineux Wolves were playing Stoke in front of less than 12,000.

Then came Monday. From early morning to near midnight we were destined to have “rolling” coverage of what happens next even if it doesn’t happen.

We had been forewarned that if Torres was able to wangle a way out of Liverpool, his replacement at Anfield would not be Ajax’s Luis Suarez alone. No, Liverpool would go for Carroll too.

So we were set for the day the way we used to be set for the FA Cup final. A quarter of midget gems may have rested on your armchair.

And as the hours flowed by and we gasped, shook our heads, said “ludicrous” quite a lot and so on, Torres got into his car and headed south to Stamford Bridge.

Meanwhile at Newcastle Carroll was embroiled in rising bids and negotiations that would see him depart Tyneside in a handily-placed nearby helicopter. What a convenience.

This was some day in the history of the game and as Carroll flew across the Pennines and the Lakes and down to Merseyside, Crawley Town seemed like ancient history.

Then what?

Tuesday arrived and Manchester United were playing again. They had played the previous Tuesday at Blackpool and surely the FA Cup cannot expect that it would have more than 24 hours in which to breathe.

Who does it think it is?

And of course, Wayne Rooney scored.

Chelsea were also playing, the FA Cup holders were at Sunderland in the serious Premier League. There was no Torres but don’t worry, there’s Arsenal as well and on Wednesday Suarez will make his debut for Liverpool and Robbie Keane will be staking a claim in West Ham’s immediate future at Blackpool.

Need more?

Newcastle begin life without Carroll in defeat to Damien Duff at Fulham.

Has that Six Nations thing started yet?

Thursday brought Carroll’s unveiling at Anfield, the giant Geordie towering over Kenny Dalglish. Carroll declined to comment further on the who-pushed-who debate at St James’ Park.

King Kenny described big Andy’s “innocence” as a future attraction to Liverpool’s hordes.

The word was still in the air 24 hours later.

Yesterday brought Fernando, down in leafy Surrey at the Chelsea training ground.

Innocent or guilty.

It’s been a bit like that since Torres departed Merseyside but here he looked reporters in the eye and crowned/skewered another Premier League week with the short sentence: “Romance in football is gone.”

The reaction in the room was silence.

No one asked about the FA Cup.

Wednesday supporters are full of woe in third division

OTHERS DESERVING of sympathy this week include the followers of Sheffield Wednesday. One year ago manager Alan Irvine succeeded Brian Laws and Wednesday, worried about relegation from the Championship, promptly won four games out of five. That meant a leap across the thick black line and out of the bottom four.

The view then was upwards and onwards but that was soon stood on its head. In front of over 37,000 at Hillsborough on the last day of the season, Wednesday were relegated. They could not beat Crystal Palace. Onwards and downwards.

This season began with optimism, as it does. Wednesday were among the favourites for promotion and on the opening day they won 2-0. The crowd was 14,000 down on Palace but then this was the third division and the opposition was Dagenham and Redbridge.

Afterwards Irvine was hopeful, but he is an experienced man, and, if it does not sound patronising, a good man. He pointed out that it took both Leeds and Nottingham Forest three seasons to get back to Championship-level.

Irvine was correct but he lost his job on Thursday in the process of being proved so. Wednesday have been taken over by Milan Mandaric – of Portsmouth and Leicester previously – but results have faltered and Wednesday are five points above relegation to the fourth division. Yes, those supporters have earned sympathy. Today a club formed in 1867 hosts MK Dons. You get a bad feeling about this one. Things could worsen before they improve.

At least Wednesday are still in the FA Cup. You could say that, but it’s probably best avoided.