My strong disagreements with both of you would come on player quotas. Sky (or any broadcaster) is not a benevolent organisation handing out money to the poor. The Premier League gets the money, because it has some top players involved in competitive and not-totally-predictable games. Viewers want to see Aguero and Hazard, not Joey Allen! 8 Brits per team would solve the problem of where the money trickles to ....... it would stop the money. And it wouldn't significantly improve the progression of young talent, because once the money wasn't there, other sports would be to the fore and a talented youngster would be looking to play a different game .......
A medium-sized club like Southampton has come through with Bale, Lallana, Walcott, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Shaw, Chambers ..... whilst Chelsea and Arsenal, despite vast investment, produce little and ruin a lot. Is Tammy Abraham the next England centre forward due to partner Rashford ...... or is top scorer in the Championship as far as he'll go? Look at all the money top clubs think they spend on developing talent and examine the return. First choice England players - Joe Hart (Shrewsbury), Dele Alli (MKD), John Stones (Barnsley), Jamie Vardy (sent to the steelworks by the Sheffield clubs). That doesn't only say there is something wrong with what the big clubs do, but it also says there's a huge opportunity for the EFL to exploit an area of weakness in the Premier league and PROFIT from it.
I want a Premier League side to field 8 British players not because they are British or black or whatever, but because they are good ..... very, very good.
I can't go for dragging National league sides into more of our cups as they have all the problems of our leagues magnified. Torquay travel to fckuing Gateshead, they can barely afford the bus to Paignton. The "Conference" desperately needs regionalisation and fewer games. Four Conferences perhaps 18 each at that tier, would provide four Champions playing off to get into the League. Difficult to make it, but exciting and a real achievement, not some sham second place play-off to reach the league by not being the best.
And while I'm having my rant - DISABLED ACCESS. No club which delays in providing proper access for reasonable numbers of disabled people to watch games in comfort should be in professional game at all in three year's time. The numbers each club provides should be in direct proportion with its average crowd.
[b]I THOUGHT THIS MIGHT INTEREST YOU:-[b]
I looked at the backgrounds of the ENGLAND squad for the Euros. Less than half started with current Premier League teams.
Forster (Newcastle)
Hart (Shrewsbury)
Heaton (Man Utd, who then let him go!)
Bertrand (Gillingham)
Cahill (AFC Dronfield, then Aston Villa)
Clyne (Crystal Palace)
Rose (Leeds)
Smalling (let go by Millwall, went to Maidstone Utd)
Stones (Barnsley)
Walker (Sheffield Utd)
Alli (Milton Keynes Dons)
Barkley (Everton)
Dier (Sporting CP in Portugal)
Henderson (Sunderland)
Lallana (Bournemouth to Southampton)
Milner (Leeds)
Wilshere (Arsenal)
Kane (Spurs)
Rashford (Man Utd)
Rooney (EVerton)
Sterling (QPR)
Sturridge (Man City)
Vardy (Wednesday to Stocksbridge Park Steels where he was 20 before he made the first team)
If I were picking an England team I wouldn't be looking at most of those clubs, but they might be places you might well see 16 year-olds with a future. It also suggests Premier clubs actually need to have their youngsters play against the Chesterfields AND that Chesterfield really could plug a gap in the market with its own youngsters as well as those who are falling through the net, or have fallen to non-league level.
A medium-sized club like Southampton has come through with Bale, Lallana, Walcott, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Shaw, Chambers ..... whilst Chelsea and Arsenal, despite vast investment, produce little and ruin a lot. Is Tammy Abraham the next England centre forward due to partner Rashford ...... or is top scorer in the Championship as far as he'll go? Look at all the money top clubs think they spend on developing talent and examine the return. First choice England players - Joe Hart (Shrewsbury), Dele Alli (MKD), John Stones (Barnsley), Jamie Vardy (sent to the steelworks by the Sheffield clubs). That doesn't only say there is something wrong with what the big clubs do, but it also says there's a huge opportunity for the EFL to exploit an area of weakness in the Premier league and PROFIT from it.
I want a Premier League side to field 8 British players not because they are British or black or whatever, but because they are good ..... very, very good.
I can't go for dragging National league sides into more of our cups as they have all the problems of our leagues magnified. Torquay travel to fckuing Gateshead, they can barely afford the bus to Paignton. The "Conference" desperately needs regionalisation and fewer games. Four Conferences perhaps 18 each at that tier, would provide four Champions playing off to get into the League. Difficult to make it, but exciting and a real achievement, not some sham second place play-off to reach the league by not being the best.
And while I'm having my rant - DISABLED ACCESS. No club which delays in providing proper access for reasonable numbers of disabled people to watch games in comfort should be in professional game at all in three year's time. The numbers each club provides should be in direct proportion with its average crowd.
[b]I THOUGHT THIS MIGHT INTEREST YOU:-[b]
I looked at the backgrounds of the ENGLAND squad for the Euros. Less than half started with current Premier League teams.
Forster (Newcastle)
Hart (Shrewsbury)
Heaton (Man Utd, who then let him go!)
Bertrand (Gillingham)
Cahill (AFC Dronfield, then Aston Villa)
Clyne (Crystal Palace)
Rose (Leeds)
Smalling (let go by Millwall, went to Maidstone Utd)
Stones (Barnsley)
Walker (Sheffield Utd)
Alli (Milton Keynes Dons)
Barkley (Everton)
Dier (Sporting CP in Portugal)
Henderson (Sunderland)
Lallana (Bournemouth to Southampton)
Milner (Leeds)
Wilshere (Arsenal)
Kane (Spurs)
Rashford (Man Utd)
Rooney (EVerton)
Sterling (QPR)
Sturridge (Man City)
Vardy (Wednesday to Stocksbridge Park Steels where he was 20 before he made the first team)
If I were picking an England team I wouldn't be looking at most of those clubs, but they might be places you might well see 16 year-olds with a future. It also suggests Premier clubs actually need to have their youngsters play against the Chesterfields AND that Chesterfield really could plug a gap in the market with its own youngsters as well as those who are falling through the net, or have fallen to non-league level.