I posted this on another fred but it relates to this one.
...this competition needs elbowing, or at least restructuring - Newcastle under 21s indeed! Whatever next, under 21s teams in League 2? And the pushing aside of properly supported independant clubs and their fans to the National League, just to provide for the next Premiership big boy's trialists on their way to their first £Million?
During the Chelsea v whoever game in the week, the commentator said that Chelsea had forty players out on loan - FORTY! He also said that FIFA are looking into stopping this practise of having so many also-rans. The Big Boys don't want this stopping of course because it is basically a system used to deprive other clubs of their talent and it is these young players who are making up the under 21 sides. The Premiership clubs of course, say they are giving these youngsters their chance of the big time, but when the percentage of this excess who do succeed is so tiny, and the clubs know this, it is obvious that they are taken before anyone else can have them, they then filter out the maybe one or two and scrap the rest. If there is not one or two good enough then they simply spend ten, twenty, or thirty million on some furriner. They are NOT doing anyone a favour but themselves.