Pep urges English football to allow prem B teams into EFL.

[wilkos_perm]

It would benefit player development no doubt, but would kill the football league in the process. Championship is one of the best supported leagues in Europe, that can’t be ignored for the sake of the big 6

Sadly it will happen eventually, too much money and power for the big clubs for it not to, and if they don’t get their own way they will eventually form their own league anyway

It would benefit player development for those at big clubs who aren't anywhere near the fist team, but nobody else. Preventing these teams from hoarding players is the key. The same players could easily be developing at EFL clubs instead

 

[wilkos_perm]

Because young players who struggle for game time currently would be training at elite facilities with top coaches and playing men’s football at the same time instead of being stifled in the reserves or being farmed out on loan for years on end. It would undoubtedly benefit the national team, but it would destroy what makes the domestic game so special.

Maybe preventing clubs from having ludicrous numbers of players would be the better option?

 

[JackG]

If the big clubs want youth players to have more experience they need to look at how they are developing players, not look to what more they can take from other clubs.

Its getting absurd and it is detrimental to every other club in the pyramid.

It needs reform but I would say that the reform should be at the cost of the massive clubs. They want superstars for the first team, they want developed players able to compete at the highest level. Is it not enough that they can spunk £100million on a player, or spend £40 million to hardly play them? That they also have to hoard youth talent, mainly to sell on to lesser teams or take loan fees.

The point re Chelsea shows that when they have top class young talent, they aren’t developed to potential.

The rest of the league should not be compromised for the sake of a few already asset rich clubs.

If the big clubs can’t develop them and give them game time, they shouldn’t be allowed the opportunity to.

Agreed. We could achieve the same effect (more competitive game time for young players) by a simple rule change - a limit on the number of contracted adult players per club. Not squad sizes - players under contract. Obviously, this wouldn't suit City, Chelsea etc with their factory farming model, but it would benefit the game overall.

 

[wilkos_perm]

Rubbish idea. In the long term it would mean about 10 prem teams had a B side occupying a space in the Championship. So everyone else has to slide down a bit to make room. Clubs like ours more likely to become a Champ-League 1 yoyo team. And at the bottom of league 2 it's 10 teams like Hartlepool becoming permanently non league.

I don't think it'd "kill" English football. But it would mean fewer towns and cities around the country would have a team, and the ones that did have a team would be less likely to have a successful one. Meanwhile there'd be extra teams exactly where they're not needed - Manchester, Liverpool and London.

Finally it'd make match days worse too. Who wants to be a Liverpool B fan when Liverpool exist? The B teams would have tiny fan bases, and the support they did have would obviously never be as impassioned as for the real things.

They wouldn't have any support at all. My German mate who supports a lower league team over there absolutely hates it. They have loads of games which aren't much better than friendlies as there's no fans following the B teams and the line-uops of the B teams change entirely from week to week.

 

[Otto42]

As a young lad in the late 60's early 70's I would go to Ayersome Park with hope and watch the Boro every home game. My cousin and I never missed a game. At the time we flirted with promotion but could never seem to finish in the top two spots. My dad would ridicule me for going and tell me they would only get beat (we all know the drill). In 1977 I got the chance to watch Manchester United play Liverpool in the FA Cup Final. Liverpool were on for the treble that season and had already secured the league. Both teams were full of stars and I witnessed a great game but the thing that sticks out in my mind is wishing I could see the Boro walk out of the Wembley Tunnel.

Not only have I seen the Boro walk out at Wembley on four occasions, but I have also watched us lift a cup at Cardiff and reach a European final (we all know the history).

What I am getting at is, this was the dream of a 15 year old lad that came true and if the likes of Pep got his way, these dreams would never come true for other young lads who are happy not winning anything but watching their teams take part. B teams would kill these dreams.

Agree with all of that Norman, the dream is important, but it doesn't need to be at all costs. Pep and his like are obsessed with winning and being the best, whatever it takes, just look at the bar codes celebrating being taken over by a cruel dictator. I want the Boro to be successful, but let's be honest the money involved in the current structure is unlikely to let that happen.

 

[Sheriff_John_Bunnell_ret]

Can I just take this opportunity to remind everyone that whilst you are saying man city have too many players, you are also saying we have too few players.

 

[Norman_Conquest]

Agree with all of that Norman, the dream is important, but it doesn't need to be at all costs. Pep and his like are obsessed with winning and being the best, whatever it takes, just look at the bar codes celebrating being taken over by a cruel dictator. I want the Boro to be successful, but let's be honest the money involved in the current structure is unlikely to let that happen.

And that is exactly what I am saying. It is easier being a Man City fan than a Hartlepool fan. City fans expect even demand they win something, Hartlepool fans do it out of love for their team.

 

[Otto42]

Can I just take this opportunity to remind everyone that whilst you are saying man city have too many players, you are also saying we have too few players.

Yes, I get the impression (maybe incorrectly) that some complaining about this would be less vociferous if Boro were in the position we were in 2005 and likely to be able to field a B side!

 

[go-nads!]

Nothing at all wrong with having a B side as long as there is opportunity to progress within the club if you are good enough.

That’s not what Man City and Chelsea do though is it?

 

[Otto42]

Nothing at all wrong with having a B side as long as there is opportunity to progress within the club if you are good enough.

That’s not what Man City and Chelsea do though is it?

Have a B side and let them play other B sides then? In my opinion they shouldn't be sucking the life out of other competitions.

 

[Jonny Ingbar]

Have a B side and let them play other B sides then? In my opinion they shouldn't be sucking the life out of other competitions.

Agree with this, there's no way that second-string EPL sides will play competitively in the EFL, it undermines the brand and the integrity of the competition.