It wasn't my intention to belittle Matt, but his use of the statement, "If it ain't broke don't ..." whose cleverness has been used and abused in every conservative and redneck point of view expressed ever since didn't seem worthy of the Matt I know. I have a high opinion of Matt and regard him as I friend I've never met and feel free even to insult him in fun (and you too Saltergate!) but if you aren't blinded by the glitter of the Premier League there aren't just cracks, but yawning chasms everywhere in football.
As I more than suspected my views proved a cry in the dark, that's why I was so vehement. Take a look at the Bananarama, it is full of clubs which would struggle with league football. Dagenham are top - no crowd, little finance, travelled on the train to away games whilst in the Division 2. Forest Green, is basically an alternative energy tycoon in football kit in a big village, their neighbour Cheltenham struggles financially, despite being much larger than Chesterfield and 25 miles from any competition. It is just ridiculous to burden clubs like Torquay and Dagenham with regular 600 mile+ round trips. We admit it at Evostick level, but we insist on dragging impoverished league and non-league teams round the country to play on a Tuesday night (games which often provide a result which would never happen on a Saturday) AND THEN AS A BONUS FOOTBALL FANS SAY THEY THINK IT IS A PRETTY GOOD IDEA. (So why don't more than 3,00 turn up to watch?) Plymouth and Carlisle played each other in a night match last season, two clubs that would have good away support, especially if they didn't have jobs and lives and families!
If football struggles near the bottom end when you look what the glamorous Premiership produces that is also dubious. It creates great media interest but, as I pointed out, in the England squad for the Euros less than half the players came through the giant production mills of the big clubs. It is simply true that the big clubs cream off the majority of young talent and pump out one Marcus Rashford every blue moon together with a load of disappointed lads to fill the benches of clubs like Chesterfield. In education parents pay out big bucks for their sons to enter private schools with small class sizes so they receive individual attention, come out with 4 As, a place at Oxbridge and the prospect of a career in a merchant bank. In football parents plonk their son in a big anonymous academy, where he'll sink or swim, develop or not, and if one lad looks a bit like Lionel Messi they'll consider it an achievement. Clubs get away with this because these are the sons of the working class. They get away with it because dads are football fans. They get away with it because they are playing with (and abusing) people's dreams! SO, that's why I think there is a gap in the market for clubs like us to do it better. But if we look old-fashioned and unglamorous, which we undoubtedly do in the current depressing structure, we will only ever get to work with the left-over talent (now some of that is good), but if we can make a silk-purse once why can't we go bespoke? Last season when Costa was having a crisis Chelsea were howling about not having a centre forward, but I can name three very promising youth centre forwards on their books in Abrahams, Solanke and Brown. How much more talent do they want to discard and disregard?
Crystal Palace spent £30 million on a centre forward who contributed to the decline of Aston Villa, did nothing at Liverpool and flopped for Belgium. With that money they could have easily created an entire football club. Their young players could be popping off a production line in a few years. Instead of just being the loudest, youngsters would want to go there because they'd be the best. But instead they got a once-delicious Belgian who might well have gone off. You couldn't get a better illustration of why I want to change the game whilst the money's there. Sky might decide to go elsewhere. China might buy up all our talent. The Murdochs might die in a plane crash ...
On the face of it my proposals do mean less revenue, but under them we'd play every Saturday & you have to remember that of the reduced number of games HALF would have been away and would not have provided so much a revenue stream as a drain. (In any case gate money is now relatively insignificant within the revenue stream.) Freeing the ground in midweek could also provide significant benefits and fewer games would keep players out of the treatment room and provide an actual return on our wage bill.
By any measure The Premier League has been a massive success. I can remember the sixties and yes some of the memories are fond, but there were frozen pitches, violence and racism in game that looked old-fashioned even then. The World Cup was a lovely accident whose lessons we misread. We were like Adele regretting the past and we weren't even 19. BUT the Premier League has succeeded at the expense of our national game. England went down the nick and football league remained with both its feet firmly anchored in the grave of the past. I'm not surprised that my thoughts are echoed by between 0 and 20% of fans. I'm just sorry the trainer fitted blinkers and so few people thought to take them off.
But that doesn't mean that those who disagree with me aren't friends. I'd never talk to anyone if I waited to find someone who agreed ....... before I started to chat. I'm a lone voice. That means I'm either a prophet or require institutionalisation. Like Saltergate's typing finger some time in the latter may be indicated ...
As I more than suspected my views proved a cry in the dark, that's why I was so vehement. Take a look at the Bananarama, it is full of clubs which would struggle with league football. Dagenham are top - no crowd, little finance, travelled on the train to away games whilst in the Division 2. Forest Green, is basically an alternative energy tycoon in football kit in a big village, their neighbour Cheltenham struggles financially, despite being much larger than Chesterfield and 25 miles from any competition. It is just ridiculous to burden clubs like Torquay and Dagenham with regular 600 mile+ round trips. We admit it at Evostick level, but we insist on dragging impoverished league and non-league teams round the country to play on a Tuesday night (games which often provide a result which would never happen on a Saturday) AND THEN AS A BONUS FOOTBALL FANS SAY THEY THINK IT IS A PRETTY GOOD IDEA. (So why don't more than 3,00 turn up to watch?) Plymouth and Carlisle played each other in a night match last season, two clubs that would have good away support, especially if they didn't have jobs and lives and families!
If football struggles near the bottom end when you look what the glamorous Premiership produces that is also dubious. It creates great media interest but, as I pointed out, in the England squad for the Euros less than half the players came through the giant production mills of the big clubs. It is simply true that the big clubs cream off the majority of young talent and pump out one Marcus Rashford every blue moon together with a load of disappointed lads to fill the benches of clubs like Chesterfield. In education parents pay out big bucks for their sons to enter private schools with small class sizes so they receive individual attention, come out with 4 As, a place at Oxbridge and the prospect of a career in a merchant bank. In football parents plonk their son in a big anonymous academy, where he'll sink or swim, develop or not, and if one lad looks a bit like Lionel Messi they'll consider it an achievement. Clubs get away with this because these are the sons of the working class. They get away with it because dads are football fans. They get away with it because they are playing with (and abusing) people's dreams! SO, that's why I think there is a gap in the market for clubs like us to do it better. But if we look old-fashioned and unglamorous, which we undoubtedly do in the current depressing structure, we will only ever get to work with the left-over talent (now some of that is good), but if we can make a silk-purse once why can't we go bespoke? Last season when Costa was having a crisis Chelsea were howling about not having a centre forward, but I can name three very promising youth centre forwards on their books in Abrahams, Solanke and Brown. How much more talent do they want to discard and disregard?
Crystal Palace spent £30 million on a centre forward who contributed to the decline of Aston Villa, did nothing at Liverpool and flopped for Belgium. With that money they could have easily created an entire football club. Their young players could be popping off a production line in a few years. Instead of just being the loudest, youngsters would want to go there because they'd be the best. But instead they got a once-delicious Belgian who might well have gone off. You couldn't get a better illustration of why I want to change the game whilst the money's there. Sky might decide to go elsewhere. China might buy up all our talent. The Murdochs might die in a plane crash ...
On the face of it my proposals do mean less revenue, but under them we'd play every Saturday & you have to remember that of the reduced number of games HALF would have been away and would not have provided so much a revenue stream as a drain. (In any case gate money is now relatively insignificant within the revenue stream.) Freeing the ground in midweek could also provide significant benefits and fewer games would keep players out of the treatment room and provide an actual return on our wage bill.
By any measure The Premier League has been a massive success. I can remember the sixties and yes some of the memories are fond, but there were frozen pitches, violence and racism in game that looked old-fashioned even then. The World Cup was a lovely accident whose lessons we misread. We were like Adele regretting the past and we weren't even 19. BUT the Premier League has succeeded at the expense of our national game. England went down the nick and football league remained with both its feet firmly anchored in the grave of the past. I'm not surprised that my thoughts are echoed by between 0 and 20% of fans. I'm just sorry the trainer fitted blinkers and so few people thought to take them off.
But that doesn't mean that those who disagree with me aren't friends. I'd never talk to anyone if I waited to find someone who agreed ....... before I started to chat. I'm a lone voice. That means I'm either a prophet or require institutionalisation. Like Saltergate's typing finger some time in the latter may be indicated ...