U21 Premier League launched

[Zaschrona]

This is far from a glorified reserve league lids, there is a wider context and agenda going down here.

Im not against this idea in principle - but i think the PL are trying to dress this up as a wolf in sheeps clothing.

This is another devleopment in what soon will be a race to the bottom in the PL and its interesting the measures that the PL are taking.

For me this is all down to financial fair play and likely eventually Platinni taking over from Blatter - hes going to have a right go at the "money leagues".

So in Prep for financial fair play the PL have taken these steps:

EPPP basically doing away with rules on being able to recruit players from a geographical catchment area - meaning you can now recruit youngsters straight of the bat from anywhere. If they are already at a lower league club the PL has bullied/threatend the league clubs into agreeing to minimal compensation arrangement for their training of the player.

The intro of the above and the U21 league will now see a race to the bottom for the best young talent in the country, in the lower leagues and likely around the world - this could revolutionise the transfer market with young players being massively valued and going for big fees (in context to what they are now) as spending 35mill on the likes of Aguero will be a thing of the past under FFP.

This isnt a decision that was taken on a whim by the PL clubs its part of a wider systemic agenda and preperation in the way the game is going to be structured - academies are going to swell and the compititon in the market for young players recruitment is going to massive. You will have the likes of Utd, Chelsea, City and Arsenal - bringing young players from all over the world for buttons and loading them into their academy teams.

This is all about, the structural changes in the game over the next few years and the race to the bottom away from established players to youth players to cut huge transfer budgets with FFFP.

This could really marginilise traditional English League football. I expect to see a few Newcos in the lower leagues in the next two years.

As I already said a little bit of it, you said it way better - absolutely spot on. This new EFFP was signed by lower league clubs only because of the new TV deal - Premier League clubs said them something like: Sign EFFP or you will see no money from TV deal.. And it is going to ruin them, because they are going to loose their talents for almost nothing.. And where will they get new players? Yes, it will be probably only players released by PL clubs.. It should help England to win World Cup or Euro in 10 or 20 years, they said.. The only thing which it helps is giving PL clubs more big talents for almost nothing. And it won't help them much in general, a lot of clubs will still spend every penny whatever FFFP allows them to pay for new players, so it will be even harder to make a jump to PL from the new U21 league, because there will be way higher number of talented players in academies and reserves..

For Everton I quite like that, we have one of the best academies in England. But in general, it is going to change English League football a lot, in a bad way.

 

[Tommy.]

I like this, I'm a bit unsure to how it will work though, I mean, any under 21 (and the named over-age players) involved are going to have extra games thrown into the mire of a full season of fixtures. If these lads are on the cusp of, or are already in the first team then is it wise to burden them with it? It seems this is just going to be a "youth cup" for a later generation to me?

 

[swisso]

It's essentially a replacement Reserve League, rebranded for "U21s with some overage players" which is what we fielded every week anyway, nothing to worry about at all.

They're trying to ensure the 3rd, 4th and 5th year players; the likes of Hope, Barkley, Lundstram (3rd years) through to Bidwell and Garbutt (4th years) and McAleny and Duffy (5th years) have a more competitive and structured environment to play in on a weekly basis. Most of our U21 home games take place on a Sunday at 1pm, so those bench warmers who don't get game time on a Saturday at Goodison can play 24hrs later rather than playing the occasional Reserve game as and when they're scheduled.

It's mostly just 'sexing' up the Reserve League, but theres a lot of good come from it.

 

[Tommy.]

It's essentially a replacement Reserve League, rebranded for "U21s with some overage players" which is what we fielded every week anyway, nothing to worry about at all.

They're trying to ensure the 3rd, 4th and 5th year players; the likes of Hope, Barkley, Lundstram (3rd years) through to Bidwell and Garbutt (4th years) and McAleny and Duffy (5th years) have a more competitive and structured environment to play in on a weekly basis. Most of our U21 home games take place on a Sunday at 1pm, so those bench warmers who don't get game time on a Saturday at Goodison can play 24hrs later rather than playing the occasional Reserve game as and when they're scheduled.

Hi Swisso, long time no speak.

So yes, as I alluded to; nothing is going to change?

 

[swisso]

Aye, no change really.

Apart from playing at St Helens and playing at a sensible KO time on Sunday, it's mostly just the organisation thats improved.

 

[Tommy.]

And we have better opportunities to sign youngsters as a class 1 academy.

Sweet.