PL2 or Central League

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Eggs

Player Valuation: £100m
Posters of an older vintage will remember pre-Academy days of Everton A & B teams playing in the Lancashire Leagues and the Reserves in the old Central League. None of this football was age restricted & increasingly I’ve been debating to myself whether PL2 is actually fit for purpose, or whether a return to Central League format might be a better development route for our youngsters.

In recent times I noticed how our U23 team struggled playing against foreign youngsters who compete weekly in open-age football. The old Central League was where your fringe 1st teamers and those coming back from injury played games with a real competitive edge. They were joined by promising youngsters playing alongside and against seasoned professionals. A great learning ground.

Critics suggested the older pro’s were blocking the path for youngsters coming through & PL2 was born, but now there are voices suggesting this format is uncompetitive with youngsters playing in a comfort zone & not being stretched.

With no age restricted fixtures to complete at U23, a re-structuring would maybe allow clubs to better manage the number of young professionals they keep. The most promising rewarded with contracts, allowing them to be tested in a competitive open-age league.

My suggestion is maintaining the Academy system but re-introducing an open-age element to replace existing PL2 format.
 
Totally agree . '' The old Central League was where your fringe 1st teamers and those coming back from injury played '' Exactly what is needed ,been saying it for years. Moyes said it too..
Also ,these games should be played at Goodison to give the young ones some experience. We have enough local support to pull in a few thousand fans .
 

Don't see too much of a problem if they were coming back from injury/trying to get into first team/needed to maintain match fitness.
They can already do that for a few weeks with the u23s if they want. To me reserves implies they'd be involved for extended periods if they weren't in the first XI and that I don't see.
 
Tough tits if that is what is required. This is the problem with modern footballers pampered, they do what the club tells them to do end of.
This would be acceptable if the club actually had the player's best interests at heart, but they don't, so players shouldn't be expected to show blind loyalty.
 

I'd be in favour of an open age reserve league rather than U23 but with the number of subs there are sat on the bench nowadays I can't see too many fringe players being risked playing a reserve game. A couple of injuries and the manager might have to resort to putting two goalkeepers on his bench!

And I'm not sure too many of our out of favour 'superstars' would be keen on turning out.
 
This would be acceptable if the club actually had the player's best interests at heart, but they don't, so players shouldn't be expected to show blind loyalty.
No mate they are employees, they are under contract. They do as asked. This pampering and allowing them to dictate what they will and won't do is half the problem these days. The club pays the wage they doa s they're told.
 
No mate they are employees, they are under contract. They do as asked. This pampering and allowing them to dictate what they will and won't do is half the problem these days. The club pays the wage they doa s they're told.
They aren't normal employees. I can quit my job tomorrow. They can't. They shouldn't expected to act as such.

I don't think you want a football setup where they resemble someone working a desk job.
 

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