The model that this is based upon, considers promotion and relegation as a part of its schematic. If your B Team isn't good enough, they get relegated. If they are good enough, they get promoted. However, the law states that the B Team cannot play in the same division as the First XI. And that's a wonderful idea. Beautiful. Fucking dandy, even. But it won't work in England.
Where do I begin with how fucking stupid the Premier League is? If they are going to consider implementing this as a manner of player development, what happens to the Reserve squads? That's first on my mind. And actually rather important. Second, these teams cannot, and let me stress this with maximum emphasis possible cannot start play in the Football League. The Football League is hallowed. It is revered. It is what all clubs aspire to be, under the 4th level of the pyramid. Premier League B Teams do not deserve the right to start their play directly in the Football League. I don't care if it's Manchester United, Manchester City, Liverpool, or Chelsea. It denigrates the spirit of competition and the fighting for promotion or survival. It completely make a monkey's of the history of the Football League. I mean, worse than Arsenal buying promotion into the First Division over a Spurs club that finished better than them in the table. This is bad.
With that being said, I have been a proponent of the B Team system, after watching how successful it has proven to be with Madrid and Barcelona. Especially Barcelona. But the ideas that the Football Association are wanting to institute, they are fucking madness. A blight upon the game. And yet another blinding example of how the FA really don't understand the modern game of football at all. They're just there to play politics, to swim around in monies paid to them by Premier League clubs to assert their clout, and to charge ridiculous ticket fees for matches at Wembley so that they can pay off the construction of that fucking abomination.
This is the proposal I found, regarding the B Team structure:
The four key proposals are:Let's address these one by one. The first proposal. No. There doesn't need to be a Fifth Division. There are 20 teams in the Premier League. Use the results of the 2015-16 table to divide the clubs up, and place them into divisions starting with the North West Counties Football League (or geographical equivalent) and make them earn their way into the Football League. If clubs like FC United of Manchester, or AFC Wimbledon have to start this comparatively low, it's only fair that these B Teams go out and prove their salt. Allowing them to start any higher than that, is an insult to all of the clubs who have worked their asses off to earn that spot.
• A new League Three to be introduced in 2016-17, combining the top half of the Conference and 10 Premier League B sides.
• A beefed-up homegrown players' rule requiring 13 members of the 25-man squad to have been trained in England as youngsters by 2020-21.
• A more strictly enforced work permit system that would prevent Premier League sides from having more than two non-EU players.
• A new loan system that will allow Premier League clubs to loan up to eight players to a strategic partner below the Championship.
Members of the England Commission said the national side would wither on the vine if the four-pronged plan to bring through more homegrown players was not approved in full.
I'm not entirely sure what this second one means. As I'm not entirely sure how long one has to be registered as a player in England, as a youngster, for them to be considered homegrown. Birth certificate notwithstanding. The one thing that I do hope that this does, is force the youngest levels of coaches to actually learn a bit more about tactics and strategy, and stop relying on the tried-and-true Stan Cullis tactic of hoof and chase. Those tactics are lazy. They're uninspired. And they're fucking boring. Just like Man United's insistence upon playing the attack in from the wings. It's stale and predictable. And if England wants a chance to actually develop strong youth players who turn into full internationals, then they need to actually fucking develop them. And to develop tactics that reflect a more modern approach to the game. Ye olde 4-4-2 is great when you're playing Total Football, and you're constantly adapting and changing shape. England are too scared to adapt tactically, thus they have been left behind in terms of international football. So, homegrown players need better homegrown coaches. That should be an important caveat included in this point.
The third point takes me back to the olden days of English exceptionalism. That sort of arrogant xenophobic mindset that England has carried on and off throughout its history when it came to those dastardly foreigners. Non-Eu players makes up a lot of nations. Plus, with the limitations being placed on homegrown talent. I can't figure out if this is a bit of hypocrisy, or if someone wasn't paying attention when they were writing this proposal and just wanted to be direly repetitive. Also, that seems stupid to limit Premier League sides. That doesn't encourage competition for placement on squad lists. It just rewards complacency. And England wonders why its national team is such utter shite. It's because the FA has been utterly complacent about evolving methods for grooming young talent. Because the clubs in the Premier League have grown equally complacent being cash cows, milking whatever bloody cent they can finagle away from their supporters for every last piece of fucking merchandise you can imagine. And in doing so, they haven't had to answer to any glass ceilings or restrictions or caps. They only care about moving units and shilling and whoring to whomever is willing to pay for their overpriced knick-knacks. And more importantly, they have made oodles of money on the backs of international superstars. Since 2000, no English player has won the Premier League Golden Boot. What does that tell you? That depends. To me it says that these internationals want it more.
Loan systems. Fuck the English loan system. It is the stupidest piece of garbage that was ever designed, uttered, implemented, and executed. The English loan system does not train players. It doesn't prepare players. It doesn't groom them. It just leads them to their own brand of complacency, or frustration, or retirement. It's a fucking joke. And it does nothing to develop the player at all. It just relegates a player who could have all sorts of potential, yet needs polishing and refinement, to being viewed as inadequate. I have said, regarding the loan system, that if you wanted to develop younger players through loaning them out, send them out of England! Keeping English players in England doesn't progress footballers. It just leads to a deterioration of their skills. Mostly because there is little in the way of experience that a young footballer could get in England, depending on position and role, that he could not enhance his skills by playing abroad. The variety of styles and philosophies of the game that exist outside the English border, would be a better educational tool than anything. Making these kids go abroad on loan, and work for a place in that club's XI would be nigh-invaluable. It would eliminate, or at least attempt to curb the sense of entitlement, that a lot of young players from bloated Premier League megaliths seem to carry. There is such a vast world of football out there, especially in Europe, that a youth player in England could benefit extensively from the experience he could have in Spain or Germany or France or Italy. Look at Owen Hargreaves, for example. He had proven himself almost invaluable for England when he played. As well as for Man United, when he played. So why not take the risk? Set up affiliate clubs in other domestic leagues, and build from there.
This whole idea that the Premier League has taken to the Football Association is so blithely inept, I'm amazed that the FA are gullible enough to consider it. I hope that the Football League either takes a massive shit on it. Or they say that they'll accept it, with the large caveat thrown in, as to how low down the pyramid these B teams start. It'll dilute the quality of the domestic football, in its first few years, but if these B Teams are forced into fighting for promotion, and earning their place in the Football League, then there's a very strong chance that this could work out splendidly for all parties involved. However, given England's headstrong tendency toward cocking up anything that involves player development, I'm sure this will just prove as large a waste, as David Moyes feels his time at Old Trafford was.
