twosips said:
Well we know the obvious choices, for the rest there would be some sort of system. Things like this should not hold back a progressive idea that has done well in countries that have developed superior World Cup winning footballers than our own.
Pedro, Busquets (who Pep promoted from the Juvenil A team... a natural progression into the professional game, playing the same style while not being ready for the top league yet) and Thiago Alacantra were in Pep Guardiola's Barcelona B side in 2007 as well as players who didn't make it at Barca but have gone on to have good careers in top flights like Xavi Torres, Marc Valiente, Iago Falque and Jeffren Suarez.
A City B team would see players promoted from the U18s into League Three/Two, playing the exact same style as the U18s and first team, but at a lower level in the professional game (which, even at such a low level, is much more intense than the poor and lifeless U21 league). Then the gems could step up and the rest would be well equipped for the professional game. B teams could even sign players of a similar style to be mainstays there, like Bayern's B team is captained by Tobias Schweinsteiger, older brother of Bastian Schweinsteiger. Players like that can serve as role models and bring some maturity to teams full of youngsters. This isn't really an option in the U21 league because while you're allowed overage players, none want to play there full-time.
It's no surprise that City, being one of the few Premier League teams run by men from another league, were one of the few to back the B team idea and weren't prejudiced by tired old 'traditions' that wouldn't have even been impacted much anyway, since they'd have introduced a new league rather than forcibly relegated clubs.