B teams back on the agenda

[antman]

He's from Spain where having B teams from the bigger clubs in the Segunda/Tercera is the norm. However, lower division football culture in Spain is nowhere near as vibrant as in England. Personally I think lower division football in England can be a sustainable business model if other clubs were run as sensibly as ours. When you have a few thousand people willing to spend 20 quid on entrance to a game every couple of weeks and transfer fees to Prem clubs bringing in money it is possible to run clubs to break even at least, it's just that historically they haven't been managed well, with owners often getting involved for other reasons than profit, or simply just to drain as much money as they can before they are caught out. Obviously he's speaking purely from the interests of Manchester City and his comments will be regarded in that light. It's not even ironic to note that Manchester City is anything but sustainable without Abu Dhabi money, and he has breathtaking arrogance to speak about businesses that live in the real world in such a dismissive way.

 

[ramone]

Bad enough having to put up with their B teams in cups instead of having to play them in the league as well !

You know what's gonna happen before it does , They will for the first few times field a proper B team then there will be a standard excuse that will be trotted out that big name players coming back from injury / suspension will need "game time to get fit and up to speed" and then start beating lower league teams by stupid goal lines !

 

[STURTZ]

We are stumbling blindly into an escalating crisis that threatens to destroy football as we know and love it. With every monthly paycheck going out and no income coming in clubs just can't continue to operate, ironically we will be indirectly end up being controlled by foreign money.

 

[Banksy]

Funnily enough I wouldn’t be against it. I think that actually most of these B teams would get stuffed by men’s lower league sides and it would create more interest in our players.

What , so they could pinch them for next to nothing?

 

[denzel]

Back in the day the Central League and Football Combination were both very prestigious tournaments for the top clubs to enter their reserves in.
I presume there is a reason they are no longer.
And look at the results for the u21 sides in the FLT - most of them get beaten by L1 and L2 sides fielding far from their best team anyway, so I doubt they would be good enough for the league.

Edit: a quick search states that the reason the reserve leagues failed was due to the introduction of the EPPL. So what's changed?

 

[Banksy]

I think in that event there would be a gradual fall off in attendances with folk losing interest and drifting away from the lower reaches of the game in this country.

 

[iscalad]

Taggy on SSN this morning saying it's not acceptable to fans.

 

[andrew p long]

Taggy on SSN this morning saying it's not acceptable to fans.

Well done, Taggy.

 

[Banksy]

Taggy on SSN this morning saying it's not acceptable to fans.

He knows it will kill off a lot of supporter interest in the lower leagues.Fans will already be struggling after putting up with a season of being unable to attend matches physically , without having to face a season of matches against Chelsea and Manchester United’s B sides with Mansfield and Southend sandwiched in between.

 

[Snakebite]

If only more had listened to those telling them to Boycott the EFL Trophy games, but is what it is now.

agree with the a fight worth dying in a ditch for

We put up a brave fight comrade. But nobody listened.