Plans for a League 3

[Uncle Leo]

I used to love England, but watching them in the last 10 years has been akin to having a red hot poker up your arse. When you have had cocks like Terry, Cole and Rooney playing for them at stages hardly appeals. Heres to them coming home early from Brazil :happy:

I really don't get this attitude. They're still England. Yes, following England has hardly been riveting the last ten years (although the way we stormed through World Cup 2010 qualifying scoring goals for fun often gets overlooked) but it's my country. My national team. I'm not going to give up on them just because Ashley Cole is a bit of a wally or because John Terry is a shagger.

More generally, I hope these proposals don't result in a backlash against the national team. Any Englishman I see wearing a Brazil shirt during this World Cup deserves a shoeing.

 

[C'mon you Shrimpers]

Peterbrough's chairman clearly fuming about it.

Worth following on twitter @DMAC102

Would be nice to hear other league club's come out.

Seems quite an intelligent bloke. One idiot criticised him for being American and not caring about "England". Darragh MacAnthony fears that the FA will use the opposition to the plan to withdraw funding to the lower leagues.
I just cannot get this argument at all. The Premier League because it attracts the best players in the world is probably the best league in the world. If it reduces the number of foreign players (just think Ya Ya Toure or Suarez) then there might be more English players but the league will be worse. Remember when Division 1 (the proper one) was full of English players and we were still crap nationally. It's a red herring. We do produce talent in this country. We produced the player commanding the biggest transfer in the world. OK he's Welsh but he came through the curent system. How will a league of B teamers most of whom will not be English playing conference teams improve things. It may cut some of their careers short by dodgy tackles and dodgy pitches. Insane and illogical. It just does not bear scrutiny. Maybe MacAnthony is right and ther is a hidden agenda.

 

[stickyboy]

I really don't get this attitude. They're still England. Yes, following England has hardly been riveting the last ten years (although the way we stormed through World Cup 2010 qualifying scoring goals for fun often gets overlooked) but it's my country. My national team. I'm not going to give up on them just because Ashley Cole is a bit of a wally or because John Terry is a shagger.

More generally, I hope these proposals don't result in a backlash against the national team. Any Englishman I see wearing a Brazil shirt during this World Cup deserves a shoeing.

Sorry wont be supporting England, although I wont be wearing a Brazil shirt either. In all fairness doubt i will watch any of the World Cup anyway

 

[Jim Levenstein]

Sorry wont be supporting England, although I wont be wearing a Brazil shirt either. In all fairness doubt i will watch any of the World Cup anyway

You Welsh?

 

[Uncle Leo]

Sorry wont be supporting England, although I wont be wearing a Brazil shirt either. In all fairness doubt i will watch any of the World Cup anyway

Now that truly is bat**** mental.

 

[Beefy]

It's nonsense. stickyboy will be out there lining the streets of London when the boys parade the World Cup in about nine weeks time. :smile:

 

[Jam_Man]

Now that truly is bat**** mental.

I second this.

I dont watch much live Premiership football other than Match of the Day.

That said, the World Cup is the World Cup. Ive supported them with Carlton Palmer playing for petes sake.

 

[stickyboy]

Now that truly is bat**** mental.

I only really watch Southend to be fair. If i am not supporting my team then football has no real appeal as a neutral for me.

 

[Jam_Man]

I only really watch Southend to be fair. If i am not supporting my team then football has no real appeal as a neutral for me.

You arent a neutral when it comes to the World Cup though.

 

[haveaguiness]

In my view the whole situation has been created by the greed of the Premier League. When it was created one of the benefits the clubs talked about was how it would benefit the England team. Anyone with half a brain (even me, and I was only in my early 20s then) could see that that argument simply didn't stack up, and the ONLY reason was because the big clubs didn't like sharing TV revenue with the rest of us.

So, we then had a situation where lower league clubs were being starved of much needed revenue. One of the only ways to alleviate this was to try and take advantage of any windfall when a big club wanted to buy a player. For that reason the lower league clubs started to demand probably excessive amounts for their players. You then heard Premier League managers "complain" that it was cheaper to buy a proven player from abroad than it was to buy an unproven English player from a lower league club. This is what led to the two things. Firstly the issue with few English players making the step up, and secondly it is what led to the change the PL brought in a few seasons ago limiting how much they have to pay for young players.

However, what has also exacerbated the problem is the pressure PL managers (and all managers for that matter) are under to achieve results. They simply can't afford now to take the risk with unproven players even if they are English. And this is where I see the idea of feeder clubs being a huge red herring. If players in lower league clubs aren't able/allowed to make the step up, how is loaning us clubs a few players going to make any difference? Take John Egan and Jakub Sokolik as examples. AFAIA they have both been let go by their parent club because they're not good enough. How is that going to change under a feeder system? These players are going to end up in the same position.

If the FA had any balls it would ensure that the financial playing field between the PL and the FL was levelled. That simple thing in my opinion would go a long way to solving many of the issues with football today. Instead they are picking on the lower league clubs who are the victims in this, and leaving alone the perpetrators, i.e. the PL clubs.

Moreover, the FA have finally set up their training centre, but that is about 20 years too late. They haven't even given it a chance to prove itself yet, and already they're already assuming it will be a failure and looking for a solution. The problem is that they're heaping mistake upon mistake rather than looking at the root cause.

In that respect the FA remind me of the middle managers from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy books when they adopt the leaf as a form of currency, and when people start going round with wheelbarrows picking every leaf in sight causing massive inflation they come to the conclusion that the only way to deal with the it is to conduct a huge programme of deforestation.

This is a great post and I completely agree.

A few people have also mentioned the fact that most of the players in these youth teams are not English anyway and you only have to look back at our loanees for some evidence. The best loanees we have had over the past few years include - Devitte, Assombalonga, Sokolik, Egan, Federici, Mvoto - none of which are English! Yes, we have had a couple of good English ones, Sawyer on his first stint for instance, but the numbers are far greater towards imports.

Look at Josh McEachran. Came through as the next big English talent and is probably 12th choice at Chelsea and will never play for their first team on a consistent basis because they would rather spend £25 million on a player they sold for £5 million only 2 years ago!

A complete change in mentality needs to happen but it won't because the Premiship teams have too much money and too much influence and couldn't give a damn about England.

 

[onceknownasrab]

I don't understand the mentalitry of wanting England to fail but regardless, sounds like your issue should be with clubs who spend what they don't have rather than a club like City who could afford to spend a hundred times more than they do.

If a club can afford to spend fortunes on players then good luck to them. If the same club/s think that because they have more money they have a right to dictate to the whole of football then I have a problem.

Many top flight players have arrived there via the lower leagues. If a lot more of the money that went to the big boys found its way into the smaller leagues coffers via pitch improvements, training facilities and FA subsidised coaching staff, then the supply of better players upwards would improve.

The game has lost itself. The tribalism does not exist. Its not as though its about Southend producing all its own footballers for example and competing against Col U and their home grown side. The fans have descended into pack mentality to support the mercenaries that will fight on the supporters behalf.

The true loss though is to sport. Whether its at the higher echelons of decision making, the boardroom or players that cheat in every match, sport is the loser. Invariably whatever success in the game is gained through money it is at the expense of sport and sporting behaviour.

The Prem has the biggest wad the rest of us have the biggest loss.

 

[stickyboy]

It's nonsense. stickyboy will be out there lining the streets of London when the boys parade the World Cup in about nine weeks time. :smile:

Why would Spain be parading the trophy in London?! England will bring their sorry little arses back 2 weeks earlier than that as usual. You all know that really

 

[stickyboy]

You arent a neutral when it comes to the World Cup though.

Are you telling me who i have to support now?

 

[Beefy]

*plug* So as not to sidetrack the specific conversation about the specific proposed changes I've created another thread in General Football to discuss what changes could be made in order to improve our National game.

 

[Beefy]

I second this.

I dont watch much live Premiership football other than Match of the Day.

That said, the World Cup is the World Cup. Ive supported them with Carlton Palmer playing for petes sake.

Absolutely. To me, the World Cup is the pinacle of football. I love my Club but it was the World Cup which got me into football, it was Euro 96 more than anything that changed football's image in England, IMO, and personally I can't imagine not caring about International Football.

It seems such a fashionable thing to say nowadays that you don't like the England team but actually when you look at the squad it is a young bunch of fairly talented and, with one or two exceptions maybe, nice bunch of lads.

 

[Jam_Man]

Are you telling me who i have to support now?

If you arent interested in International football that's your prerogative, most football fans wont understand that though.

Even most non-football fans still support England for World cups.

Im sure if we reached the semi final you would stick to your guns and not be interested....

 

[stickyboy]

Im sure if we reached the semi final you would stick to your guns and not be interested....

They could win the bloody thing and still would have no interest i'm afraid. I enjoy watching Southend and pretty much go all over the country watching them but i dont expect everyone living in Southend to do likewise?

 

[Blue_Wes]

They could win the bloody thing and still would have no interest i'm afraid. I enjoy watching Southend and pretty much go all over the country watching them but i dont expect everyone living in Southend to do likewise?

Your argument that you stopped supporting England because you don't like the players doesn't really hold up. Otherwise, you would have stopped supporting Southend when we had Mohsni, Dickinson, Ferdinand and Hall. All of which proved themselves to be pretty odious characters. Would you stop supporting your club side just because you don't like a few of the players. Of course not. I don't see why you would turn your back on your national side for the same thing - I thought all fans were loyal, supporting their team through thick and thin.

 

[Jim Levenstein]

They could win the bloody thing and still would have no interest i'm afraid. I enjoy watching Southend and pretty much go all over the country watching them but i dont expect everyone living in Southend to do likewise?

I smell something

 

[Jam_Man]

They could win the bloody thing and still would have no interest i'm afraid. I enjoy watching Southend and pretty much go all over the country watching them but i dont expect everyone living in Southend to do likewise?

No, but World Cups are different, people who dont even follow football get involved.

Its not about being a hardcore England supporter, these days I rarely watch friendlies, and not all qualifiers, but the World Cup is a massive event and the biggest coming together in the sport. I dont watch Nigeria vs Argentina because I support either, I watch them because its the World Cup.

If you dont like the World Cup that's your choice, not one I can comprehend to be honest.

All that said and done (and to get back to the point of the thread) I still dont want the integrity of our English leagues compromised to improve the National side's chances of doing better at them. The leagues and our Saturday afternoons mean more to most supporters than international tournaments (despite how much we moan after going out of every one!)