Villas-Boas wants B Teams in Football League

[1871 Royal]

To be honest the Spanish first division is pretty poor outside of Barca and Madrid. Much like Scottish football to be honest.

[sandman]

To be honest the Spanish first division is pretty poor outside of Barca and Madrid. Much like Scottish football to be honest.

So it's still similar to England then?

[1871 Royal]

Would like to see a promoted side beat Barca playing like Barca. Just like Swansea beat Arsenal last weekend, playing like Arsenal do. Standard throughout EPL >>>>>>>>>> Every other footballing division.

[manny96]

The big difference here is that Tier 2 is thriving and healthy - competitively, anyway, if not financially, whilst the Spanish Tier 2 is virtually moribund.
Make ours a development league for the PL and it'll go the same way as in Spain, meaningless games of involving team with no supporters, no continuity of players, no spirit.

Oi! I'll have you know not all* Spanish teams outside the top division have no supporters and no spirit..




*and by 'not all' I obviously refer to the once great/average Union Deportiva de Salamanca, with whom I have enjoyed numerous excellent (loud and drunken) away days and despite currently languishing in the quagmire of Segunda B, remain my 'other' team.

[sandman]

:roll:

Would like to see a promoted side beat Barca playing like Barca. Just like Swansea beat Arsenal last weekend, playing like Arsenal do. Standard throughout EPL >>>>>>>>>> Every other footballing division.

Swansea beat a team who haven't won a trophy, let alone a League title, for 6 years and and that somehow proves Premier League superiority.

Different teams to have won La Liga since the inception of the PL = 5. Number of teams to have won the Premier League in that time = 4. In the last seven seasons the Premier league has been swapped between Chelsea and Manchester United. Before that it was swapped for nine seasons between Manchester United and Arsenal.

Upsets happen in La Liga as well. For instance, Getafe beat Barca this season and deservedly so. Villareal have been in European competition several times (including the CL this year) are in the relegation zone. Levante are in a Champions League place, drew against Madrid and were top for a period of games despite having no where near the amount of resources of Madrid and Barca. Malaga are trying to build something having been taken over by Sheik Al Thani and will (hopefully) grow stronger in the next few years.

Manchester City look to be breaking that monopoly but the signs are they and United will develop a similar situation to the previous dominance of two clubs and swapping the title between them.

La Liga isn't perfect but don't kid yourself that the PL is some sort of footballing Utopia.

[Alan Partridge]

THe PL is an absolutely dreadful standard of 'top flight' football this year. All 3 promoted teams will stay up and half of Norwich's side were playing in League 1 two years ago. It's the worst Man Utd team for a decade, they will be in the top 2. Man City are favourites to win the league and have already taken an utter spanking from Bayern Munich this year and are alaready out of the Chumps LEague. Ditto utd. Chelsea are an old side that are clearly worse than they were 3 or 4 years ago and the likes of Liverpool and Arsenal still lag behind.

The other issue with the PL is the middle of the road sides, your Villa's, Everton's, Bolton's, Blackburn's and Sunderland's. Have all got worse and worse over the last few years. Blackburn under Hughes were a decent side when Reading were in the PL, Villa and Everton were top 10 definites who played some great stuff. Both have lost their best players and now hover around mid table nowhere.

I have watched 10-15 or so games from the best league in the world this season and they have all been utter crap.

[Barry the bird boggler]

Don't forget the PL only really amounts to 6 clubs; Spurs, ManU, ManC, Arsenal, Liverpool and Chavski and to be honest that's all SKY give a toss about.

The rest of the clubs in the division play in the vain hope of grabbing a UEFA cup (Europa League ha ha ha ha) place but mostly to achieve, as quickly as possible, the number of points required to avoid relegation.

All in all it's only better than La Liga and Serie A and Eredivisie etc. in at least there's 6 possibilities that could win the title at the outset of each season.

Overall the whole Premier League idea and football since SKY Finance hit the scene STINKS to high heaven. Bring back the 1970s and earlier when clubs actually used to be able to be reasonably competitive and have to play 42 games rather than effectively only having to turn up for about 10 games a season.

Roll on the much mooted implementation of financial constraints...

[Silver Fox]

Don't forget the PL only really amounts to 6 clubs; Spurs, ManU, ManC, Arsenal, Liverpool and Chavski and to be honest that's all SKY give a toss about.

But that's because they're the teams Sky's subscribers want to see

[Barry the bird boggler]

Don't forget the PL only really amounts to 6 clubs; Spurs, ManU, ManC, Arsenal, Liverpool and Chavski and to be honest that's all SKY give a toss about.

But that's because they're the teams Sky's subscribers want to see

Catch 22. Burn your Sky subscriptions. Better Wrexham v Brighton on ESPN any day....

[Super_horns]

David Moyes wanted to do this with Everton rather than have a reserve side:

Everton manager David Moyes has revealed his attempts to get a Toffees 'B' team into the Conference were scuppered by red tape. "Four or five years ago I would have liked to have put an Everton reserve team into the Conference because it would have been better football for them," he said. "But we would have had to have gone into Division Nine of the North-West Outer Counties or whatever you want to call it and it would have taken 10 or 11 years to get through. I would have been happy just to be in the Conference - no promotion, not involved in cups or anything."

[Terminal Boardom]

And who would actually pay to watch a so-called B Team? Plus, this "B Team" would no doubt be prevented from playing in the same Division as the Parent Club. A complete non-starter and incredibly patronising. I look back to the days when Liverpool won the Championship with only using 14 players in a 42 game season.

[FiNeRaIn]

And who would actually pay to watch a so-called B Team? Plus, this "B Team" would no doubt be prevented from playing in the same Division as the Parent Club. A complete non-starter and incredibly patronising. I look back to the days when Liverpool won the Championship with only using 14 players in a 42 game season.

The same people who pay to go and see the reading youth get walloped by WBA in the cup, the same people who go and watch reserve teams. Not to mention the same people who want to actually see a good standard of football...you'd no doubt get much better quality from them than the other conference sides.

Who even cares who would actually pay to go and watch a so-called B team even if you take the above out of it. They aren't there to make money and they'd fall under the same finances as the main club.

[sandman]

2-1... What a Walloping.

[Tad Showbiz]

What about the idea of having a Football Combination League played on a Saturday afternoon like the old days?

[No Fixed Abode]

We've got one already. Liverpool.

[Tails]

When measuring the strength in depth of any particular league, try assessing not only who wins the CL, but the Europa League etc......

[Rev Algenon Stickleback H]

I look back to the days when Liverpool won the Championship with only using 14 players in a 42 game season.

I think that was Villa, but one thing often overlooked is that clubs had incredibly small first team squads back then.

Digging out an old rothmans yearbook from the back of a shelf, the Liverpool squad for the 84/85 season only has 18 genuine first team squad players. From there you drop into youth players who never played a game

[Rev Algenon Stickleback H]

And who would actually pay to watch a so-called B Team? Plus, this "B Team" would no doubt be prevented from playing in the same Division as the Parent Club. A complete non-starter and incredibly patronising. I look back to the days when Liverpool won the Championship with only using 14 players in a 42 game season.

The same people who pay to go and see the reading youth get walloped by WBA in the cup, the same people who go and watch reserve teams. Not to mention the same people who want to actually see a good standard of football...you'd no doubt get much better quality from them than the other conference sides.

Who even cares who would actually pay to go and watch a so-called B team even if you take the above out of it. They aren't there to make money and they'd fall under the same finances as the main club.

I think the clubs they'd be playing would care. Experience in other countries has shown the B teams are a very poor draw, and naturally they don't bring any fans to games.

I think the clubs kicked out of the conference, suffering hugely from a financial point of view, would be somewhat miffed about being kicked out so that Chelsea's reserves can have a kickabout.