Football League shake up proposals

[chunky monkey]

They're phasing the B teams out in Germany apparently

[Paolo69]

Whhhhhhhhhhheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeey good one footballladsbanter

Thanks! (I think)

[Reg Smeeton]

 This idea as, most can see is absolute bollocks of the highest order.....yes in Spain, they have B teams, but it's really only the massive clubs that do. Historically it came about, because there isn't really a proper professional pyramid like in England.

 Our pyramid is a thing which should be treasured....not fucked about with by clueless goons like Dyke.

 Spain's strength is down in no small way, to the notion of clubs supporting a region as a counterweight to the monolithic dominance of the central government backed Real Madrid, through the Franco years. Madrid are the model that the Prem like here...as they tend to hoover up talent, play them in the Castilla and then flog them on to the other clubs. Occasionally one might get through, pretty much like in England, but the majority of these will be flogged on for 2/3 million Euro...a tidy little earner..to other smaller clubs.

The counter aspect is provided by Barca and Espanyol who look to use Catalan players, and more so by the Basque clubs Bilbao and Sociedad, who in the case of Bilbao, only use Basques and Sociedad will mostly use Basques.

When the Sweaties get independence in Sept...the Catalans and Basques won't be far behind....and Spain will be fucked internationally.

The Lega Nord....might fancy splitting Italy and forming Padania...they like Catalonia already have an unofficial team, thus fucking the Azzurri.

Best thing Dyke can do is fuck off north of the border and campaign for Better Together.

[pauld]

If improving the England setup is the goal - which it should be - then why not replicate what the better nations are doing, with less dollar behind them.

a) Because it's no more got anything to do with improving the national side than establishing the Premier League in the first place did.
b) If they want to replicate what better nations are doing, then do that. Establish the 100+ regional FA development centres for young players as bridge between grassroots and academy sides, like the Germans did; invest in the 1000s of quality training facilities like the Dutch did; create public sports areas like the Spanish did. Oh, no, we just pissed a load of money up the wall on Wembley instead.

There's no real desire within the FA or government to do the hard work to replicate what the better nations are doing to actually develop young players, and this definitely doesn't do it.

[wiggy]

a) Because it's no more got anything to do with improving the national side than establishing the Premier League in the first place did.
b) If they want to replicate what better nations are doing, then do that. Establish the 100+ regional FA development centres for young players as bridge between grassroots and academy sides, like the Germans did; invest in the 1000s of quality training facilities like the Dutch did; create public sports areas like the Spanish did. Oh, no, we just pissed a load of money up the wall on Wembley instead.

There's no real desire within the FA or government to do the hard work to replicate what the better nations are doing to actually develop young players, and this definitely doesn't do it.

How the FA waste money is a regular soapbox of mine as I travel round taking my son to play football matches. The FA expect the grassroots (i.e. parents) to fund everything. So good changes become an unwanted expense for clubs (e.g. recent changes to require different size goals and pitches, so there are a couple of years on 9 a side between 7 and 11 a side). He went on tour to Holland last year and the facilities at youth level for every town are insanely good - even electronic scoreboards on the 3G astroturfs.

[ghanimah]

a) Because it's no more got anything to do with improving the national side than establishing the Premier League in the first place did.
b) If they want to replicate what better nations are doing, then do that. Establish the 100+ regional FA development centres for young players as bridge between grassroots and academy sides, like the Germans did; invest in the 1000s of quality training facilities like the Dutch did; create public sports areas like the Spanish did. Oh, no, we just pissed a load of money up the wall on Wembley instead.

There's no real desire within the FA or government to do the hard work to replicate what the better nations are doing to actually develop young players, and this definitely doesn't do it.

If there was a 'like' button on this forum this post would get it...

[A Gent Orange]

If there was a 'like' button on this forum this post would get it...

Since there isn't, I will go all retro and venture an 'I agree. A good point, well made".

[theakston2k]

The logical first step would be to put a quota on foreign players. But of course that might impact viewing figures.... Oops I mean is against European freedom of trade rules!

[iffy]

The logical first step would be to put a quota on foreign players. But of course that might impact viewing figures.... Oops I mean is against European freedom of trade rules!

The Premier League would say (and on probably only this issue I agree with them) that you won't make the England team better by making the standard of the league worse. Quotas will also drive up the wages of the top English players, because there aren't enough of them.

It definitely seems like a good idea to find a way to ban Ricky van Wolfswinkel, but I'm not sure what problem it solves for the England team.

pauld's post hits the nail on the head.

[theakston2k]

The Premier League would say (and on probably only this issue I agree with them) that you won't make the England team better by making the standard of the league worse. Quotas will also drive up the wages of the top English players, because there aren't enough of them.

It definitely seems like a good idea to find a way to ban Ricky van Wolfswinkel, but I'm not sure what problem it solves for the England team.

pauld's post hits the nail on the head.

Would it make the Premier League worst though? Even teams like Man City have the likes of Garcia, Dimechelis etc playing for them and they are average in the extreme. With a bit of experience you could easily replace them without having a detrimental impact. Another big reason they don't get the games is English players always have a premium price tag on them so clubs go for the cheaper foreign imports instead. Limiting the matchday squad to contain 4 or 5 English players would be a good starting point.

I think the FA is missing the blatantly obvious however. No decent English players play outside this country, this lack of experience in foreign leagues is a big factor in where we are. Spain have have players plying their trade in the German league and Prem, Brazil have players all over the place, as do Argentina in fact as do all the top teams. The insular nature of English players is the biggest issue in my opinion.

[kerry red]

Its not insular - they ain't good enough and none of the top foreign teams dont want them

[theakston2k]

Its not insular - they ain't good enough and none of the top foreign teams dont want them

Why does it have to be a top foreign club? They could go to some mid-table La Liga team for example rather than warm the bench in the PL. It comes back to the fact they have a stupidly premium price tag and that PL teams pay stupid wages even for reserves.

[iffy]

Why does it have to be a top foreign club? They could go to some mid-table La Liga team for example rather than warm the bench in the PL. It comes back to the fact they have a stupidly premium price tag and that PL teams pay stupid wages even for reserves.

Those prices and those wages would go up if there were quotas.

[theakston2k]

Those prices and those wages would go up if there were quotas.

Would it make that much difference though as there would suddenly be more English players available. I doubt that if you added all the English regulars together and divided it by the number of teams you'd probably only have enough for 3 or 4 per club tops.

[Ardiles]

Maybe, I don't know myself, but does the rest of Europe have the same kind of depth of professional / semi-professional football structure as England?

I think we may be blessed here with having four, arguably five 'divisions' that are the bedrock of professional football. Scores of towns and cities throughout the country are represented nationally through their (mainly) long-standing football clubs, and supported by thousands of members of their communities. Does this happen anywhere else?

I didn't go on to read subsequent postings before posting, so sorry if answered elsewhere - but it's the English and German leagues that stand out in terms of the depth of support down the leagues.  One article I read a while back cited the example of our yellow friends down the road who, a few years back, were attracting crowds of 6,000+ in what was effectively Division 5.

It isn't broken, so don't try to fix it.  You'll just end up screwing the whole thing up.  And most will only appreciate what we have now when it's gone.  Swindon vs Man Utd B is a pre-season friendly, nothing more.