Greg Dyke is not a man
unfamiliar with controversy. A man, in
some quarters, credited with the introducing ‘tabloid’ television broadcasting
in this country. Also responsible for
reviving the failing TV-AM, and having senior positions at LWT, Channel 5 and
more latterly, BBC. As Chairman of The
FA he set up a commission to look at English football to discover ways of
improving the fortunes of the England team.
They have come up with a ‘dossier’ including a number of proposals, but
one in particular has caught the public ‘imagination’.
B Teams
The commission has
suggested an introduction of 10 Premier League B-teams to compete in a division
between League Two and the Conference with 10 Conference sides. If the intention was to open up a debate the
proposal has already achieved its aim.
But there are many questions this suggestion brings up, as the whole
concept is far from a perfect one.
If we assume Premier
League B-teams will be stronger than other League 3 teams, it creates an unfair
structure. Assume Bristol Rovers, who
have just been relegated out of the Football League into the Conference, go
into League Three, they could in theory be playing against stiffer opposition
than if they were in League Two. In
which case it could be three or four years before they ever get back to League
Two, if they ever do. Already, League
teams do not bounce straight back up from the Conference and that is with an
organic system. The promotion positions
for the next three to four years could all be occupied by B-teams and once
they’ve all been promoted to League Two, then what?
The plan for these
B-teams is that they cannot get promoted beyond League One. So, in theory League One now becomes the
B-team division possibly reducing the chances of many clubs of ever getting as
far as the Championship. One could argue
this increases the competitiveness of League One as the gap between that
division and the Championship is far greater than that of Leagues One and
Two. Alternatively, if B-teams cannot be
promoted from League One then a club only needs to finish 11th in
League One to be considered ‘Champions’ and therefore only the 26 matches
against none B-teams will become important, or indeed relevant.
In addition, if you have
a 20-club league with 10 B-teams and 10 Conference sides, surely the only
‘competitive’ matches the B-teams will get is when they come up against another
B-team? Therefore, of the 38 games they
play, only 18 are really that competitive.
Plus, you could find the relegation places are always occupied by
Conference clubs, therefore stunting their growth further. That is until all the B-teams have moved up
to League Two.
Forgetting the
hypothetical theory of what may, or may not, happen let us consider the main
aim of the proposal. These B-teams must
contain English-born players. But what
happens to these players right now?
Dyke says they are being
denied opportunities to breakthrough into Premier League first teams, but the
result is Premier League clubs loan them out to lower league clubs.
Anyone who has ever
played Football Manager and managed a club in Leagues One or Two soon discovers
the route to success is to scour the squads of Premier League and Championship
sides to identify young talent not getting an opportunity, and then try to
negotiate a loan deal. The consequence
is you can often loan the player without having to pay their wages. For the cash-strapped League One club this
gives them the opportunity to select a Premier League trained player who they
wouldn’t ordinarily be able to afford to pay, and have him play at zero cost to
that club.
Loans
I wrote an article about the loan system as I believe it to be fundamentally flawed, and a system which
just doesn’t work. This is one of the
things which needs overhauling first, in my opinion. Perhaps we should introduce a cap on the
amount of times a player can be loaned out.
A little like we now have regulation for payday loans where they cannot
be rolled over more than twice, perhaps clubs should be forced to decide what
they want to do with a player and if they don’t want him, let others have him. In my article I highlighted the career of
Josh McEachran, currently on his 4th loan deal from Chelsea in as
many years. Chelsea is the best (or
worst) example in this as they have an entire 25-man squad out on loan. Why don’t they just leave these players for
other clubs to employ? The problem of
stockpiling is one which blights English football, but the loan system is at
least a way of sharing out this talent. Introduce
a B-team league and you may just makes things worse.
What this proposal is in
danger of doing is keeping those players within the Premier League clubs and consequently
League One and Two clubs never get to use them.
You could counter this by asking “why don’t they find their own
players?” Well they do, or at least they
try to but when faced with the choice of going to Darlington or being signed as
a youngster for Chelsea, many kids and their parents will choose the Premier
League club. The pressure on parents
these days often results in the misheld belief they are being ‘unfair’ to their
children if they don’t give them the opportunity to succeed. How often are we told the career of a
professional footballer is very short and with the constant pressure of things
like ‘talent shows’ ‘following your dreams’, many parents feel they have little
choice than to take a chance at the bigger club, especially as the wages are
often higher. But there are countless
examples of this being more of a hindrance to the youngster’s career than if
they’d worked their way up from the bottom.
Squad Cap
A cap on the maximum
squad size could also go a long way to improving the situation. When big money first came into the English
game courtesy of Roman Abramovich, Chelsea bought up player after player. The sensible theory was there would be a
limit to how many players they could attract, as their squad grew larger, and
then many players would make the decision to go elsewhere as ‘the club was
already full’. Unfortunately that hasn’t
happened and there are countless examples of players still choosing a club such
as Chelsea when first team opportunities would appear scarce and remote. In those early years, English-born players
such as Glenn Johnson, Scott Parker and Steve Sidwell all found their careers
damaged, or at the very least stagnated, by their choice of Stamford Bridge as
opposed to perfectly good choices they’d already made.
One big problem is
Premier League clubs stockpile players.
If we use Chelsea as the example again, particularly as they seem to be
the worst offenders, they have a 25-man squad for their Premier League games
and another 25 players out on loan. What
is to stop them simply recruiting a third squad of 25 players purely to fill
their B-team? But then, Mr Dyke, is that
ok as the B-team squad is predominantly English?
This proposal is in
danger of denying lower league clubs one major source of income crucial to
their continued existence. Finding and
developing a youngster to sell to one of the big clubs. When Notts County received £2m from Arsenal
for 15-year old, Jermaine Pennant, they were in the third tier of English
football. When Southampton received £5m
from Arsenal for Theo Walcott they were a Championship side. They were still a Championship side when
Tottenham paid them £5m for Gareth Bale.
These fees can be vital for lower league clubs and the Premier League
are less concerned with missing out on these youngsters too early as they know
the price they will pay for them later on is a larger amount in the eyes of the
seller than the buyer. But lower league
clubs have been finding talent for bigger clubs for years. For example, look at the Liverpool side from
the 1970’s which included a number of players plucked from lower divisions who
all went onto win honours at club, European and international level. Ray Clemence (Scunthorpe), Phil Neal
(Northampton), Emlyn Hughes (Blackpool) and Kevin Keegan (Scunthorpe).
Career Choices
There lies another
problem. We are assuming it is all the
clubs’ fault yet players can make some pretty poor career choices which can
skew the whole system. Often their
decisions are motivated by money and if we are to assume this new proposal
simply swells the already burgeoning coffers of the Premier League clubs then
they can always afford to pay players more money. More often than not, football mirrors society
and if people are to be lauded for their riches and possessions rather than their
achievements then the stick of “so if you were a professional footballer, how
come I’ve never heard of you” is less of a deterrent for a player who is happy
being paid to sit on the bench. Of
course, the kudos of being able to tell a star-struck young lady you “played
for Chelsea” may be all you need than to explain it was only for the B-team
playing at such places as Gateshead, Kidderminster or Braintree.
This is certainly far
from levelling the playing field as Premier League clubs can afford to pay
their B-team players the sort of wages Conference clubs can only dream of.
Consider the situation
from the League Two clubs’ point of view and they now find a valuable source of
employment (loaning Premier League clubs players) has been closed down. By definition this will increase the wage
bill of League One and Two clubs at a time when there is little guarantee more
people will be flocking through the turnstiles to compensate.
Now presumably, there
will be the usual prize money on offer based on league positions. So if we are to assume B-teams will be
stronger than the other League Three sides then there is more money going to
Premier League clubs at other’s expense.
If my theory is correct about B-teams soon clogging up League One and
often finishing in the top positions, this also reduces the prize money which
is currently available to a League One side.
Going back to my point about the possibility of the first promoted side
to The Championship finishing as low as 11th one year, then by
definition they will be earning less prize money than the B-teams above them
which again is simply handing more money to Premier League clubs at the expense
of others.
None of this sounds a
good idea for a League One or Two club right now.
Venues
Other questions which
arise out of this proposal concern the venues for these matches and the
coaching staff. Where will these B-teams
play and who will coach them? Many have
called these proposals as the solution to providing more competitive football
at youth level and so will the role of youth team coach become a bigger, and
more important one? Does that then mean
many talented coaches take up a youth team role at a Premier League B-team
rather than choose overall control as manager of a League One or Two club? If so, this would appear to be another nail
going in.
In recent years players
at under-19 level get to compete in the Next Gen Series. This was the brainchild of Mark Warburton,
current Brentford manager, and TV Sports Producer, Justin Andrews. Clubs throughout Europe competed in a Champions
League style competition. This gave the
Premier League players an opportunity to mix with some of the best young talent
in Europe. UEFA has now introduced a
Youth League which seems to have superseded this. But once players reach under-21 level the
competition seems to fall away.
If we go back to the
issue of venues and consider what they do in the Next Gen Series, many European
clubs use their normal stadium as their venue, whereas Tottenham used Leyton
Orient, Liverpool played at St. Helens and Manchester City played at Hyde. Will these grounds be enough to attract
sufficient support to boost the profile of a B-team league?
Many managers and coaches
have stated they are in favour of more competition at this level, with both
Glenn Hoddle and Harry Redknapp giving it their backing. Brendan Rodgers also seemed to agree change
was needed without endorsing this proposal as a solution, when he said “there
is a lot of talent in this country, but the problem is it’s not coming
through”. They didn’t actually claim
this proposal would work, although Hoddle has experience in this with his
academy project in La Manga where they often played against Spanish
B-teams. Dario Gradi was another one in
agreement something needed to be done, but was doubtful this idea would provide
the solution.
Pyramid System
This then leads to
another issue possibly unique within English football. The pyramid system. English football below Premier League level
is more supported than comparable leagues around the world, with many
communities reliant on their football clubs.
Examples are often given of B-team leagues elsewhere in Europe, but they
are not as well supported as even some League One clubs are. Presumably for The FA to get this proposal
accepted the Football League clubs will have to agree to it? If that’s the case then there will need to be
some serious adjustment for it to become palatable for them. A comparison could be made with English
cricket where we probably play far too much domestic cricket mainly because
there are too many counties. But you are
never going to get counties to agree a reduction in their number, why would
they? Similarly, why would Football
League clubs vote for a system which could affect them financially?
One solution could be to
regionalise the leagues from League Two downwards. This could cushion the financial blow,
reducing the cost of travel for both clubs and supporters. It could also create more possibility of
derby matches which in turn could increase the attendances at some grounds. Personally, I would be a supporter of
including the Conference in this regionalisation.
The concern about lack of
English talent is not a new one. When he
was England manager, Kevin Keegan voiced his concerns when he was preparing for
Euro 2000. His successor, Sven Goran
Eriksson was equally concerned when he took over in 2001. We had laughed from this side of the Channel
when France failed to qualify for USA ’94, but when they bounced back with
winning the World Cup in 1998 and European Championship two years later, we
suddenly realised we might need to copy what they had done and invest in some
youngsters. Plans were put in place for
a Centre of Excellence to be built in Burton but that took so long to come to
fruition that clubs set up their own academies to do the job. So, is the problem with The FA itself? Are there far too many committees? Why does it take so long for the organisation
to do anything?
Yet for many clubs the academy
system has been a success, but unfortunately it is too often filled with young
talent not eligible to play for England.
Do we need a form of quota system for the academies only allowing them a
certain amount of overseas players? Of
course care must be taken not to breach EU laws regarding employment, but
academies haven’t solved the problem just merely improved things for a few
clubs. This then brings me to my next point, for which I will expand in a
further article.
Abroad
If opportunities do not
exist here, why does young English talent not move abroad?
In any economy and
industry if the employment opportunities do not exist locally, people have the
option of going to where the opportunities exist, which might mean in another
country. Look across Europe and you find
leagues have a reasonable smattering of foreign players. There are Brazilians in Russia, Africans in
England and even Senegalese playing in the Faroe Islands. The climate in these countries must be so far
removed from what those players are used to, yet they still take up the offer
of employment. But other than Gareth
Bale there are hardly any British players playing in leagues around the
world. There has to be a reason for
that, and I believe until we discover why that is and how we can put it right,
we will always be decrying lack of home-based talent.
What is becoming
increasingly clear is the young English talent coming through at the moment is
of a higher quality which must be a result of exposure to some very good
foreign players in the Premier League.
Look at Adam Lallana, Ross Barkley, Raheem Sterling, Luke Shaw and you
have some impressive young talent who are benefitting from playing every week
with some fine foreign players. You can
see why some clubs would argue the present system works. There may not be much talent coming through
but the ones who make it are very good.
Within the commission’s
proposals also contained suggestions for ‘Strategic Loan Partnerships’ between
clubs. But these are hardly likely to
work in practice as many lower leagues clubs will simply want to align with the
biggest Premier League clubs and once they’ve been snapped up it puts the other
clubs at a disadvantage. Plus, if you’re
not careful Manchester United could simply agree to a partnership with the club
who pays the highest fee, which again puts other less wealthy clubs at a
disadvantage.
As I said earlier, this
problem hasn’t just happened overnight so we will need patience to allow any
changes to take effect before we see any improvement. It hasn’t gone wrong overnight so it will not
be put right overnight. We need to deal
with the symptoms not the illness. We
need to discover what’s causing the problem rather than simply impose a load of
sanctions.
As with a water leak, you
need to find out what’s causing the leak in the first place rather than simply
plug up the hole, as water will simply find another way to get through. By the way this analogy is not a way purely to
combine some awful pun about Dykes and plugging holes, tempting as it may seem.
Personally, I applaud
Dyke for opening up the debate. What is
the point of difficult subjects if you’re not prepared to confront them and
welcome comment? Dyke could argue many
of his predecessors should’ve put something in place. Adam Crozier would’ve been better served
coming up with plans to solve these problems rather than looking for photo
opportunities with Eriksson at England matches.
As a media man, Dyke will know the value of ‘any publicity is the best
publicity’ or ‘no such thing as bad publicity, there’s just coverage’.
What we do need are
constructive criticisms and suggestions.
Simply calling Dyke an idiot or clueless is unlikely to lead to change
as you’re not necessarily stating how or why his proposals cannot work. A petition is also meaningless, in my
opinion. Of course it does flag up how
many are unhappy with the idea, but we can all press a button for ‘yes’ or ‘no’
but when asked the question ‘well what would you do then?’ we need some
answers.
Solutions
In my view we need a
range of adjustments, beginning with the loan system and moving onto squad
quotas for clubs to avoid big clubs stockpiling players. We also need to address the issue of lack of
English players moving abroad and you may uncover something rotten at the core
of English football. We also need more
resources spent on grass roots football as we cannot simply leave it up to
local authorities to deal with. Many
clubs were unable to play home matches for three to four months over the winter
as they were waterlogged and that could easily have resulted in clubs folding
and players lost to the game. Mind you,
I do subscribe to the opinion if you’re good enough at that level you’ll be
seen by someone and snapped up. The
problems seem to start after that. I
agree we need more competition for players at under-21 level but do we need to
mess around with lower league clubs to create this?
So, over to you. What would you do? How would you change things?
No comments:
Post a Comment