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Saints B v Portsmouth next season?


Fitzhugh Fella

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As much as I'd like to see a Saints reserve team give Pompey the run around I'm not in favour of the idea. I can see some merit in a regionalised League 2/Conference but definitely don't want B teams involved.

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Seems a bit odd. If the B team is mostly young PL club players trying to improve and make the first team Im not sure how playing against lg2 clubs will help that. Surely they'd be better off continuing to play against each other? maybe in a two division Pl / Championship system.

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Screw that, play the A team when that game comes up and thump them 11-0 I don't want them to have bragging rights if they beat us, even if it is our U18 team, as they'd be insufferable. "You can't even beat us when we're in L2 and you're in the prem", feck that.

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Great for the teams with big squads in the Premier League, not so sure how teams like us, Palace, Stoke, Swansea, West Ham etc who dont have huge squads would cope with that, unless they mean scrapping the U21 comp and playing them all in that !

 

So no loan players for smaller clubs, B sides representing the club in League Cup etc etc.......no dont think its a good idea !

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To put it down at that level will not appeal to clubs either really, most loaned out players tend to go to Championship or L1 sides, so clubs will not hold onto their players to play them at L2/Conference level when they can loan them out to a higher standard still.

 

The FA need to look into making a competitive and meaningful reserve league set up.

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Horrendous idea. Who the hell is going to turn up to Stoke "B" v Morecambe? The solution for player development - if the FA are actually bothered about that - is to limit the number of players a club can have under contract at any given time. That'll prevent stockpiling by the likes of Chelsea and mean that players who would otherwise join them in the knowledge that they could get first-team football by going on loan while still being paid as a Chelsea player would have to think more carefully about which club they join.

 

The loan rules should be changed, as well. No domestic loans between clubs in the same division, loans to lower division clubs limited to players under the age of 24 with the exception of a single 30-day loan in a season for older players (for those needing match fitness after recovering from injuries, etc).

 

Also, the difference in quality between the bottom of League Two and the top of the Conference is so negligible these days, especially with loads of former League clubs in non-league. The concept of only having two-up, two-down between those two divisions is ridiculous. Merging the two and regionalising them has some merit, but there certainly needs to be more scope for promotion and relegation between those levels.

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I would sooner have an actual Premier League B, with a lot of money behind it, pitched in a similar way to US College Football.

 

Sure, it's a little different - most college teams are usually supported by those that went there, but a separate and new league would solve the problem of youngsters playing competitive games with their teammates, without the ripple-effect of weird exceptions and Premier League reserve outfits taking up a spot a real club could be filling.

 

This plan is full of holes. Unlikely I know, but what happens if one of these teams with a B team does a double relegation like us or City?

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Not only is it a bad idea for the lower league clubs, it's a bad idea for all but the wealthiest premier league clubs. Can we afford another 20 plus players? We could of course use our academy and development squads but they already have their own competitions, so what is the point? It's not like we'd get much additional revenue for the extra outlay. And for any club dropping out of the premier league, the reduction in revenue is horrific enough to deal with, without adding this extra burden.

 

As ever, an idea that only helps the very elite.

 

A regional 4th tier as has been mentioned above is a good idea IMHO, reducing travelling times and distances and creating more local derbies etc. this would help with protecting interest levels in lower league football.

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Like others, hate the idea. It shows what is wrong with football. While others have included us in the rich clubs, I don't think that is fair. We blood our youngsters in the 1st team. Chelsea and Man City might well bleat on about their youngsters not being able to get game time, but whose fault is that? The PL/FA have to decide what they want from football in this country. PL want to be able to sell their product and give scant regard to the development of youth, as those teams at the top have fewer English players than they should. PL bosses are happy that the big names get bought in - makes their job easier to sell in China.

 

And these B teams - say there are 10 from PL - what happens to the bottom 10 in the 2nd Division? Do they get kicked out? Without a stable base, the pyramid that is football is not sustainable, and introducing B teams is another chipping away of the base. Surely the responsibility actually lies with the players. If they sign for a big club but miss out on game time, whose fault is that? There was a story of an 18yo player at Chelsea on something like £20k a week. Money, money, money. Wonder whether we will ever see him grace the PL? http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2605028/Meet-Andreas-Christensen-18-year-old-Chelsea-defender-20-000-week-never-played-team-wont-time-soon.html

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It hasn't harmed Spain.

 

I like the idea, it's what happens nigh on everywhere else. Also spares me having to watch players with L plates in the first team, which as you all know by now I dislike intensely. :rolleyes::rolleyes:

England differs from Spain, Italy, Germany and France, as we have over 100 professional clubs. "B" teams will stretch that even further with additional professional tiers in the pryamid.

The Spanish 2nd tier has 19 teams with gates under 10k and 9 with gates under 5k (some as low as 2k). How do the 60+ teams below that financhially support professional contracts?

 

I'm not saying the quality of football is better, but Spain doesn't have clubs the size of Wolves, Coventry, Sheff Utd, Bristol City in its 3rd tier, Pompey and Plymouth in its 4th tier or Luton in its 5th tier. "B" teams are more suited to Spain as there is less in the way of competition from other professional clubs.

Edited by Matthew Le God
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If you cannot afford to watch your team play (as many can't), there must be a positive in that it would create a lower cost football and still give access to the club you support.

 

I take the concern about the impact on lower league clubs and our pyramid system, but its not all bad and from what I read (briefly) was well researched with other leagues.

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Horrendous idea. Who the hell is going to turn up to Stoke "B" v Morecambe? The solution for player development - if the FA are actually bothered about that - is to limit the number of players a club can have under contract at any given time. That'll prevent stockpiling by the likes of Chelsea and mean that players who would otherwise join them in the knowledge that they could get first-team football by going on loan while still being paid as a Chelsea player would have to think more carefully about which club they join.

 

The loan rules should be changed, as well. No domestic loans between clubs in the same division, loans to lower division clubs limited to players under the age of 24 with the exception of a single 30-day loan in a season for older players (for those needing match fitness after recovering from injuries, etc).

 

Also, the difference in quality between the bottom of League Two and the top of the Conference is so negligible these days, especially with loads of former League clubs in non-league. The concept of only having two-up, two-down between those two divisions is ridiculous. Merging the two and regionalising them has some merit, but there certainly needs to be more scope for promotion and relegation between those levels.

 

I don't know I can barely afford to watch the saints A team these days so if the tickets were pitched at £5-10 I'd probably follow the B team instead that way I get to support saints at a price I can afford and get to enjoy that lower league vibe that I quite enjoy. Would be totally **** for division two teams though.

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I like the idea, it's what happens nigh on everywhere else. Also spares me having to watch players with L plates in the first team, which as you all know by now I dislike intensely. :rolleyes::rolleyes:

 

not having given this a lot of thought so far, there does seem to be both pro's and con's ...some of which have been presented already. Though, it's still a bit like having a Reserve team.

 

it's unlikely that there are going to be lots more JWPs, Calum Chambers or Luke Shaw's emerging every season, but if a player reaches 21 ..and has made little / no impact of the first team squad...

..... their future tends to look a bit limited, and they will go the way of Sam Hoskins, Ben Reeves and Lloyd Isgrove... fairly promising Academy graduates who ....never quite made the transition upwards,

......and they will only get games by joining a smaller club and maybe dropping a couple of divisions.

 

just now we " loan out " promising lads to get League experience in the hope they'll improve sufficiently to stay on. Jack Stephens is a prime example just now. (goalies and CBs take longer to develop).

 

Most will have been at the club from age 16 ..and in many cases much earlier...which means by the time they get to 21, but it ought to be possible to make a fairly calculated judgement of their ability.

 

Those who don't make it, will eventually move on to L1/L2 / Conference sides anyway ...whereas a permanent "B team" would provide better class opposition, and in a league against older, experienced pro's and not just another clubs " teenagers "....(no matter how good they may be).

 

The benefit being they would still train and under contract to SFC, but able to move to a " higher level squad " without too much paperwork. It would also avoid losing players who are " late developers " .

 

Though not so recent; Garry Monk was unfortunate enough to be on the books at a time we had successive top class CB's and had several loan-outs before making a career with Swansea.

Chris Baird was another such example....and (thankfully) Chelsea never seemed to find a place for Jack Cork who was loaned out countless times before finally joining us.

( Older fans will want to forget the cases of Dennis Wise and Kevin Phillips.:blush:)

 

Young players who don't make the grade by their 21st birthday would at least still get regular games, and certainly command a fee if / when transferred to another club (hopefully with a sell-on clause).

 

.....to that extent it's a win-win situation. Certainly an idea worth developing, I think....as long as the project doesn't get too bureaucratic.

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Les Reed was asked about this last night by Ed Chamberlain. Said it was a poor idea. Basically along the lines of if our youngsters are good enough they should train and learn from first team and get blooded in the Prem.

 

He stopped short of saying that our kids shouldn't stoop to Pompey's level, but I knew he meant it!

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