Spurs reject EFL Trophy invitation

[wearetheparklane]

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.

Good point.

Although I would add that I follow my local team very closely (Wealdstone) and had been led to believe that as high up as league 2 and even league 1 the fans still have a very vocal say in club matters - granted not nearly as much as they do at Weadstone's level in the conference South. Goes to show that it isn't always necessarily the money men of the PL alone who are wrecking the game in some peoples eyes.

 

[Ribble]

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.

I think that ascribing the idea that lower league fans think beating Man United's youth team is in any way similar to beating their first team is massively condescending.

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

B team football died because it lost any kind of recognisable competitive atmosphere. Nobody wants to risk getting hurt and missing out on first team football.

 

[theShiznit]

I think that ascribing the idea that lower league fans think beating Man United's youth team is in any way similar to beating their first team is massively condescending.



B team football died because it lost any kind of recognisable competitive atmosphere. Nobody wants to risk getting hurt and missing out on first team football.

I was at a Sutton United Vs Spurs XI, they won and took great pleasure in it. What's condescending about that?

 

[Saoirse]

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...

The thing is, when Tottenham sign up a talented kid, they get to develop with the help of top coaches at a world class training facility around one of the best teams in world football. They are watched very closely, the smallest details of their game and lifestyle are worked on and they have fantastic role models around them to give them the best possible chance of success. Sadly you just can't replicate that at, say, Leyton Orient.

 

[mightyspur]

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

Are they above Watford? Yes = Northern. FACT.

 

[Spurs1960]

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.

Restraint of trade I expect

 

[Spurs1960]

I think that ascribing the idea that lower league fans think beating Man United's youth team is in any way similar to beating their first team is massively condescending.



B team football died because it lost any kind of recognisable competitive atmosphere. Nobody wants to risk getting hurt and missing out on first team football.

Which is exactly what development football is, a non contact sport basically. I don't think it was quite as simple as you are portraying the situation to be with B football. There is plenty to learn playing with and against experienced players, far more than against other kids learning their trade.