[Devongone]

I agree that such midweek idiocy could easily be altered. A seasonal fixture list takes a computer nano-seconds to produce, how much more work would it be to pre-program it so that some fixture idiocies would be avoided midweek. BUT that still does not solve the disruption and strain the midweek programme produces for tiny profits and even some losses. Dagenham cannot financially afford to travel to Barrow inside or outside the EFL, but more important for clubs with small squads that midweek game looms large in their entire week's activities and must alter their attitude to both the Saturday before and after. Long haul on Saturday, home game Tuesday, long haul again Saturday. That's only going to turn thighs into tree trunks and mind sets into pure survivalism. Managers become trained in reacting to immediate circumstance rather than planning ways forward. You are never going to find a far-sighted man if he never gets to look further ahead than next Tuesday .....

Last night's EFL fixtures didn't produce a single gate of 20,000 and three clubs in Division 2 failed to reach 2,000, two of them only just topped 1,000 and no one made it to 5,000. Yep those midweek games must be a real financial winner and if you were a club developing young talent your first consideration could well be how disruptive introducing developing youngsters to your team might be if you kept having to rest them. My thought is at 17+ young players need to be playing against men, but if you tailor your structure to something that is a survival test for a 25 year old at his physical peak you shouldn't be surprised if the finished article in your youth programme looks more like Jordan Henderson than Jean Tigana ..... and with subtlety to match.