Premier League 'B' Teams to join Pyramid?

[floyd__streete]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/27289819

The latest football-ruining idea ^

A horrible concept, entirely beyond contempt.

Got to admire the persistence of those who run the national (and not to mention european and world) game to find ways of trying to ruin a beautifully simplistic formula which has endured for well over 100 years.

Shame that the likes of Dyke feel the need to reinvent the Pyramid to suit the interests of the bigger clubs in order to ensure they might remain within what they would no doubt themselves term 'The FA Family'.

[stealthpapes]

OK, I can understand the opposition to this - but if you're against it, what other options would you look at for reforming the reserves league?

It got folded in 2012, apparently.

There is a new reserve league, that's basically being rejigged and reformatted.

[Hoop Blah]

We have the likes of Maidenhead and Basingstoke we can use to bed our younger players into first team football.....if we were allowed to send more "on loan" their, it could essentially be our B team and will also benefit the clubs receiving the players

I think Reading do it quite well already with the 'work experience' spells with the likes of Basingstoke. I don't think you can do that with first team games in the league though so it's limited. Keeping players local so their training with both their parent club and their loan club sounds a good mix to me.

United loan their youngsters out pretty well, including their arangements with the Belgium side (Antwerp is it?) so that , I assume, players have to grow up as much as experience first team football.

[melonhead]

Would.prefer teams to just continue using the loan system
Good for prem teams, good for young players, good for lower league teams

Stockpiling doesn't matter if they're being loaned elsewhere

[Hoop Blah]

OK, I can understand the opposition to this - but if you're against it, what other options would you look at for reforming the reserves league?

It got folded in 2012, apparently.

There is a new reserve league, that's basically being rejigged and reformatted.

And I think the difference here is that the recent reformatting was done by the Premier League teams but this idea being mooted is being discussed as part of the FA's review into how to bring through a more consistent flow of young English talent to support the national team.

I'm not sure if the two have quite the same motivational forces, but you'd hope they all just want to find the best of a nurturing the talent we have.

[melonhead]

There seems a decent flow of young British players coming through without this
Imo

[Major Inconvenience]

Agree re the stockpiling. It seems that the only reason to suppor this change is that the "big" clubs have too many players on the books, and need competitive games. As mentioned, loans would acheive this, or noth buying too many players in the first place.

I can't see how this would be good for any lower league clubs, I can't see how it benefits young players, and I'd be worried that the big clubs would just buy even more young players on the off-chance they turn out to be any good. Then in a few years, Man City D will be battling Chelsea C for the League 2 title, and I'll give up watching football.

[Brum Royal]

What happens when the B side overtakes the A side in the league pyramid?

In the Spanish league, the B side can never be in the same league as, or above, the A side as I understand it.

[Extended-Phenotype]

OK, I can understand the opposition to this - but if you're against it, what other options would you look at for reforming the reserves league?

Use more feeder teams

So someone like Newcastle work closely with Gateshead - giving them "B" players and allowing them use of their facilities etc

I'd probably accept this more readily.

This was my thinking. Rather than Man City reserves kicking about in a reserve league nobody gives a shit about, why not encourage a 'twin' club situation or loaning these players out more readily to smaller clubs?

Who is going to support the B team anyway? Surely a lower league club attracts more fans than a B side ever could.

[Green]

OK, I can understand the opposition to this - but if you're against it, what other options would you look at for reforming the reserves league?

It got folded in 2012, apparently.

There is a new reserve league, that's basically being rejigged and reformatted.

I seem to remember going to the odd reserve game as a stundent.

I had a few days off recently and was scouring the web for fixtures and there was basically nothing. Not just nothing on a random Tuesday afternoon, but nothing at all. This new reserve "league" seems to only meat once a month.

RIP the football combination basically.

[stealthpapes]

What happens when the B side overtakes the A side in the league pyramid?

In the Spanish league, the B side can never be in the same league as, or above, the A side as I understand it.

I think that's the case. I'm sure I heard a case where a team got relegated from top tier and the B team got relegated down to the third as a result. The direct response was half the B team went straight into the A and the team got promoted straight back with an experience, young and relatively local side.

Awful.

[Stretts]

More importantly, the whole financial structure of football needs to be sorted out.

Otherwise we will never be any good at international level, and the lower league clubs will always struggle to survive.

[Brum Royal]

Otherwise we will never be any good at international level, and the lower league clubs will always struggle to survive.

So basically what's happening now then.

[Hoop Blah]

There seems a decent flow of young British players coming through without this
Imo

Well yeah, I largely agree and have been saying much the same for a while. We don't seem to turning enough of the talent into 'top top players' and so the stats for the minutes played by English qualified youngsters in the Premier League is behind most of the other big European nations. Personally I think the quality of the Championship means we should probably include some of those players in the comparison, but that's possibly a slight leap of faith on my part.

[Stretts]

Otherwise we will never be any good at international level, and the lower league clubs will always struggle to survive.

So basically what's happening now then.

Yup. The problem is that the Premier League is the best league in the world and the obscene amount of money the clubs are paid ensures that they can attract the biggest stars.

[Hoop Blah]

At least it's just a discussion point at the moment.

As much as I don't see it as a good idea and hope nothing comes of it I do think they have a duty to look into it.

[St Pauli]

I used to watch St Pauli play Bundesliga B teams in what was then the German third division. It was shit.

St Pauli getting 17-18,000 at home with away attendances of around 50, taking 2000 away to what were essentially training grounds where only the opposition's Mum and Dad turned up to watch.

It was pretty depressing when you lost 2:1 to Bayer Leverkusen B after a 15 hour hungover round train journey standing in sleet on an uncovered terrace, having been groped by the police for flares and watching alcoholic local punks who didn't even like football collapse in front of you.

[Hoop Blah]

You should've gone on strike.

[Whatevs]

Floyd is going to be sat wondering why no one cares about his B team thread on GF

[Will95]

Feeder clubs is probably the way forward, but not to other UK clubs as it limits where they can go as the bigger club can stunt the growth if they become too competitive near them, but feeder clubs abroad I think is a very viable option.