Spurs reject EFL Trophy invitation

[FreddieYid]

On the surface it felt like a good opportunity for some of the younger players to test themselves, but it appears a clash with the international breaks could be the reason behind us turning down our invitation.


Arsenal, Liverpool, Manchester United, Manchester City, Tottenham Hotspur and Newcastle have rejected the chance to play Under-21 teams in the EFL Trophy.

Sixteen Category One academies were invited to play against League One and League Two clubs as part of a one-season, 64-team competition trial.

Premier League champions Leicester and Chelsea have accepted the invitation.


http://m.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/36902612

 

[Marty]

Good. B-teams have never competed with senior teams in English football and it should stay that way.

 

[FibreOpticJesus]

Good. B-teams have never competed with senior teams in English football and it should stay that way.

Why?

 

[hughy]

The original format for this competition was a good chance for League 1 and 2 teams to play for a cup in front of a sizeable crowd at Wembley, why do they need to tinker with it?


They've already expressed concerns two u21 teams could get to the final. The whole idea seems flawed.

 

[Marty]

Why?

Some traditions are worth keeping alive. England has a footballing tradition and lower league supporting culture that dwarfs pretty much every other country. Lower league supporters don't deserve to see their teams play Premier League sides' reserves.

 

[scat1620]

Too right. I would be disgusted if we had entered and pushed football further towards the franchise model that the ****s at the top of the game seem intent on moving towards. Fuck Leicester and Fuck Chelsea, bunch of no-tradition ****s that they both are.

 

[mark87]

No surprises that the chavs entered, quashing a lower league teams dream of getting to Wembley and winning so.me extra money doesn't mean a thing to those ****s.

 

[theShiznit]

I can't see much wrong with the idea TBH.

It's more of a showcase for the teams involved, the fans and players of these teams get more excited (and more exposure) about playing big teams even if it is only the youth, and the young players get the chance to play against men in fully competitive matches. everyone wins...

 

[Ribble]

Ithe fans and players of these teams get more excited (and more exposure) about playing big teams even if it is only the youth

I really doubt that this is, or ever will be, the case.

 

[Saoirse]

Let's be honest, the majority of Football League clubs supported this for a reason. The new format would, if sucessful (with the big teams entering) mean more revenue for them from increase prize money and gate receipts (all of which goes to the lower-league teams in the group stage), more exposure with increased TV audiences and the chance for lower-league fans to visit iconic stadia such as Old Trafford or the new White Hart Lane as well as the Wembley final. It wan't forced on them, and they weren't blackmailed as the PL is unfortunately known to do: they wanted to try this and it could help support clubs that would otherwise run into financial difficulty.

 

[Marty]

I can't see much wrong with the idea TBH.

It's more of a showcase for the teams involved, the fans and players of these teams get more excited (and more exposure) about playing big teams even if it is only the youth, and the young players get the chance to play against men in fully competitive matches. everyone wins...

For the PL sides it makes perfect sense. For lower league sides and their supporters it's just insulting.

 

[LSUY]

Whoever arranged this tournament has a very poor grasp of geography. Cheltenham and Cambridge are in the northern half of the draw.

 

[Saoirse]

Whoever arranged this tournament has a very poor grasp of geography. Cheltenham and Cambridge are in the northern half of the draw.

It's unfortunate but often works that way. If you look at the sixth level of the league system where it's first split into North and South, there's often teams you'd consider southern in the North league - there's generally far more teams down south than up north or in the midlands to the border ends up way to the south of where you'd expect. A couple of seasons back Oxford City had to play an entire season in the Conference North as a result.

 

[theShiznit]

I really doubt that this is, or ever will be, the case.

No i'm sure they'd much rather play with no exposure with no one potentially watching them... (outside the two teams playing)

You really believe the players wouldn't want to show off their game against top youth prospects?
And the fans would love to get one over on them "yeah we beat Man Utd" etc.

At the moment barring the loan system, young players at top clubs play far too much meaningless football during the season, and that has to be addressed somehow. AFAICT they have made an effort to do that here and teams have shunned it.

 

[scat1620]

At the moment barring the loan system, young players at top clubs play far too much meaningless football during the season, and that has to be addressed somehow.

Ugh, that line of thinking is pretty much anathema to me, and I just can't see football through that prism. I don't like the fact that top clubs (including ours) hoover up any and every young player (all the way down to kids football) who shows the vaguest hint of talent, and then have to contort the very structure of lower league football via mechanisms like the loan system and the proposed EFL Trophy changes in order to get 'meaningful' football for all the youngsters that they've done everything in their power to hoard in the first place.

It would be a much fairer and more egalitarian system if the likes of us, Chelsea and all the other clubs with huge youth football setups didn't snatch up all of the best players at age 8+ and add them to their massive academies in the hope that one or two of them will make it to the top (in most cases via a loan spell to the kind of clubs that they're taking these kids from in the first place). If young players stayed at their local club for more time earlier on in their careers then they would get more 'meaningful' game time at an earlier age than they would at a PL club, and then if they shone and caught the eye of a big fish their local club could sell them for proper transfer fee reflecting their potential rather than current the diddly-squat they get when PL clubs take them at 10 years old. Talented players would get first team football, lower league clubs would get more money to help them survive and even financially grow to a point where they could dream of bigger things (rather than have their highest ambition being to knock out a team of Chelsea reserves in a devalued cup tournament), and the only losers would be the bank balances of the top clubs who would have to pay fair prices if they want to sign the best players.

I type all of the above knowing both that what I would like to see happen would be a bad thing from a purely THFC perspective (but I think it would be a price worth paying for a more level playing field across the 92 League clubs), and also - more importantly - that I'm massively swimming against the tide of popular opinion and what looks like happening in reality. I don't expect my hopes for the future on this to be any more successful that King Canute trying to hold out the tide, but it's where I am and I felt the need to vent and get it off my chest. Back to reality and the slowly increasing despair at the state of the game I go...

 

[wearetheparklane]

League clubs voted to have this trial a reality... everyone shouting it down knows what's better for these clubs than they do themselves? And then to imply that the format is belittling! Oh the irony!!

 

[scat1620]

League clubs voted to have this trial a reality... everyone shouting it down knows what's better for these clubs than they do themselves? And then to imply that the format is belittling! Oh the irony!!

It's important to remember that what clubs vote for isn't necessarily the same as what supporters want. A lot of my friends are Luton fans and they are all aghast at the changes for much the same reasons as I have posted above, and they aren't at all happy that the majority of Football League clubs have voted for these changes to the competition.

I'm not claiming to speak for all lower league fans, or indeed anyone other than the people I know who I've spoken to about this, but just to make the point in principle that the arguments against the EFL Trophy changes don't automatically become invalid because the changes were voted in by a majority of board members across the Football League clubs.

 

[Spurs1960]

The original format for this competition was a good chance for League 1 and 2 teams to play for a cup in front of a sizeable crowd at Wembley, why do they need to tinker with it?


They've already expressed concerns two u21 teams could get to the final. The whole idea seems flawed.

The idea isn't to help League One and League Two clubs, it is solely for the benefit of youngsters in Premier League academies to try to give them meaningful football, which they will never get against other development teams.

 

[Spurs1960]

Ugh, that line of thinking is pretty much anathema to me, and I just can't see football through that prism. I don't like the fact that top clubs (including ours) hoover up any and every young player (all the way down to kids football) who shows the vaguest hint of talent, and then have to contort the very structure of lower league football via mechanisms like the loan system and the proposed EFL Trophy changes in order to get 'meaningful' football for all the youngsters that they've done everything in their power to hoard in the first place.

It would be a much fairer and more egalitarian system if the likes of us, Chelsea and all the other clubs with huge youth football setups didn't snatch up all of the best players at age 8+ and add them to their massive academies in the hope that one or two of them will make it to the top (in most cases via a loan spell to the kind of clubs that they're taking these kids from in the first place). If young players stayed at their local club for more time earlier on in their careers then they would get more 'meaningful' game time at an earlier age than they would at a PL club, and then if they shone and caught the eye of a big fish their local club could sell them for proper transfer fee reflecting their potential rather than current the diddly-squat they get when PL clubs take them at 10 years old. Talented players would get first team football, lower league clubs would get more money to help them survive and even financially grow to a point where they could dream of bigger things (rather than have their highest ambition being to knock out a team of Chelsea reserves in a devalued cup tournament), and the only losers would be the bank balances of the top clubs who would have to pay fair prices if they want to sign the best players.

I type all of the above knowing both that what I would like to see happen would be a bad thing from a purely THFC perspective (but I think it would be a price worth paying for a more level playing field across the 92 League clubs), and also - more importantly - that I'm massively swimming against the tide of popular opinion and what looks like happening in reality. I don't expect my hopes for the future on this to be any more successful that King Canute trying to hold out the tide, but it's where I am and I felt the need to vent and get it off my chest. Back to reality and the slowly increasing despair at the state of the game I go...

Bring back 2nd XI football where kids play against and with men (if you'll pardon the expression). Meaningful football solved.

 

[scat1620]

Bring back 2nd XI football where kids play against and with men (if you'll pardon the expression). Meaningful football solved.

My ideal solution would be to severely restrict the loan system so big clubs couldn't hoard all the players. That way if a talented youngster wanted to be sure of playing first team football they'd be more willing to stay for a few more seasons at their local club before being sold on to a top club if their talent shone through. Problem solved.