ColinLee said:
sjk2008 said:
OK, humour me.
Tell me why this proposal will be a good idea.
And not for you, for us lower league minnows.
According to you it's a bad idea because Chelsea's 'B' team(presuming they get promoted to League 1 in the first place) would be better than Oldham. At the moment there's 14 teams better than you, do you want to have them removed?
You do know that even if there were say 8 'B' teams finishing above you they wouldn't be allowed to gain promotion? You also wouldn't have loanees from PL teams stopping your own prospects coming through. Is that not a good thing for the club?
Perhaps instead of abusing anyone who doesn't agree with you, you could explain why exactly it's a bad idea and son't give me all this 100 years of tradition crap because a lot has already changed over that period.
Way to miss the point completely.
I made reference to being in Chelsea B's shadow in League One as an example of how uncompetitive the league would become. Yes, we finished 15th this season, and I'm not about to sit here and say we're in the wrong position. However, it's still bloody competetive. We've beaten Wolves, held Brentford & Leyton Orient, put 5 past Peterborough etc, so it's not as though we're not getting a look in in games.
Regarding the fact that these B teams wouldn't be able to gain promotion - so fucking what? So after a year or so when the B teams are filled with stars of the future and they've all had the short time given to them to earn promotion from this "League 3", then up to League 2, and finally up to League 1, whereby during this time of serious uncompetitiveness the likes of Carlisle, Crewe, Tranmere, Gillingham et al have all been relegated because of these B teams, the rest of us who have managed to stay in League 1 now have to pretty much compete for 11th place to earn promotion, all because of this little law that doesn't allow the B teams to earn promotion to the Championship? It might be "numbers" to you, but regardless of whether finishing 11th guarantees you promotion and the title of "League 1 fake champions", it sounds fucking shit and makes a complete mockery of the "Football League".
Furthering that, given for example 11th place means you win promotion, there will still only be 24 teams in the league, so that means out of the 14 positions taken up by us normal folk (and not the B teams), there'd have to be 2 automatic promotion spots, 4 play off places and 4 relegation places, meaning mid table effectively consists of 4 positions - that is unless, of course, there's plans to lower the chances of getting out of the league, which makes it even fucking harder for us minions to reach the "promise land".
I want to be competing with teams at our level, like we have for decades, where competitiveness is still abundantly clear despite the Wolves/Sheff Utd's of this world, rather than watch us play the reserve sides of the Premiership, where in all likeliness these teams will have the next stars of the future in who will more than likely destroy teams like Oldham week on week. Now where would I, and the thousands of Carlisle, Crewe, Tranmere & Gillingham fans find the fun in that?
As for you "loanees stopping our prospects coming through" - this doesn't really happen now, so that's a pointless argument. Look at the youth stars Crewe have churned up over recent years that have gone on to reach the Championship and Premier League, all whilst at the same time loaning players themselves.
And what about those sides down in the Conference North & South, who are working hard to reach the football league and yet because there's now a plan to put Premier League reserve sides into a league inbetween League 2 & Conference Premier, they'll have their potential progress through the divisions stalled by at least a year. I say at least, because the Conference Premier sides who were knocking on the door of League Two, are now well behind terms of ability compared to, say Southampton B, and therefore that has a knock on effect on those lingering just behind those at the top of the Conference as it is now, a la Cambridge, Halifax & Gateshead.
And then after all the reasons I've given for my side of things, I still struggle to see how it would benefit the fat cats of the Premier League. You really think the likes of Pozo, Huws, Lopes et all would be better prepared for Premiership football in the future by playing against Dagenham & Redbridge etc, as opposed to playing in a well organised Premier League Reserve League, against the best of the best of each PL team? The only reason for this option not being taken is because Greg fucking Dyke cant seem to get it to work, so decides to fuck about with a well run Football League system instead.
Look at it this way - do you think Chelsea are more likely to put one of their B team players into their match day squad because they've played well against Dagenham & Redbridge than what they are now, given they loan them out to much, much better sides around the world and still dont get a sniff? Are they fuck.
Instead of meddling in our little world, how about implenting rules in the Premier League to improve the National Side, given that's where the problem is?
How about having to field a number of home grown players in your starting XI, or even in the match day squad? Further on, giving the Prem sides a target of 2020 before this comes into play would mean those sides would have to focus more on their youth set up with regards homegrown talent. They wouldn't have to stop recruiting non UK players, but there'd be much more focus on improving the English youngsters within their ranks.
How about limiting the number of non UK players you can send out on loan (since Chelsea have apprently got 25 across Europe), meaning our academies can focus more on British talent without completely wiping out the number of non UK youngsters on the books.
I believe across Spain, Germany & Italy there's around 28k qualified coaches. UEFA license courses over there, I believe, cost around £450. Here in England we have less than 3k qualified coaches, and we're being charged in excess of £2.5k to take one. How about looking at that, and trying to promote better coaching over here?
I could go, but I've already given enough reasons as it is.
The funny thing about this also is, IMO, the majority of supporters who like to watch/support/follow the English national team are supporters of lower league teams, whereas a lot of PL supporters are now so fixated on their own club's success, and fuel hatred for England players who play for their club rivals, that they're not really that arsed. Yet if this comes into fruition, all to apparently boost the English national set up, us lower league fans will go the other way. We're all for finding ways to improve our side, but not to the absolute destruction of OUR football league.
