Premier League - Villas-Boas wants 'B' teams in Championship
Chelsea manager Andre Villas-Boas has said that the top clubs in England should be allowed to have reserve teams in the Championship to help bring through young talent.
Many of Europe's top leagues allow clubs to field 'B' clubs in the lower leagues without letting them earn promotion to the top division.
Barcelona's B team for example, finished third in the Segunda Division (the Spanish equivalent of the Championship) last season but could not take their part in the league's play-offs as they are a reserve team.
Indeed, Barcelona's coach Pep Guardiola first made a name for himself as a manager by taking charge of the Barcelona B team.
Villas-Boas said a similar system in England would help give big clubs the chance to field their young English players in a competitive environment and thus ultimately help the national team too.
"The youth development system in England is not right, in my belief," he said.
"There is plenty of effort and talks to get it right but, in my opinion, it is not. The reserve-team league is not competitive and doesn't serve the progression of talent coming through. The gap between the reserve team and the first team is immense here.
"Barcelona B play in the equivalent of the Championship and if that European model was applied in England, it could be tested. Feeder clubs might be a solution but there would be more of a cultural identity if it's called a B team. (If the reserves competed as Chelsea B) it would be the same name, the same environment.
"If it's a feeder club, I couldn't call a player up to my first team until the transfer window opens. What happens in Barcelona B is a good model in terms of competitions. They promote talent. That's the main difference I see. Maybe the English model is working, though not in our case. I always felt like that.
"If your B team plays in the Championship, and are fourth or sixth and threatening, playing good football, you'd call players up if you had suffered injuries. There is immediate identification of the process you're trying implement in your first team and B team and it would be an ease to call them up.
"And it could be a great benefit because you don't have to work with a 26-man squad but a 19-man squad and just recall the best young guys with constant activity. If Ryan (Bertrand) and Josh (McEachran) could make the jump from Championship to Premiership every week, their involvement would be much better."
If such a system was to be implemented it would require a huge overhaul of the current league system.
Currently only two new clubs enter the Football League each year via promotion from the Conference into League Two.
Comment 106 - 125 of 125
Boas, already bringing your filthy ways to the EPL? Who are you? What did you achieve in England?
englishman are stupid.that's why you dont stand a chance against latin team.bye bye euro :) 1st team to out of the tournament = EngCUxnT
How about leave it as it is, and AVB go away like your russian owner and do the league a favour so chelsea can go back to where they blong, mid table.
V-B should keep his mouth shut, until he has been in England for 5 years.
I've been a Chelsea supporter all my life and feel AVB has exactly what he wants , the present team is a "B" team , what has he done to improve it NOTHING ,
But agree would be good for younger and up and coming players if they had an outlet to play on regular basis
Come On AVB give us back a "A" team and lets start winning again and play like a team not individuals who are over the hill and well over paid
Best idea, happens in Spain and helps the big teams hugely and to Christopher saying why help big teams, because big teams are the ones making the English league what it is, it's them bringing in the money and it's them we all want to see, people watch football matches to see the best of the best unless they are fans of another club playing at the same time, I'd rather see UTD vs City over two teams from the Conference.
ok chelsea, can have a B team and they can start at the bottom and WORK their way up like every other new team does when they enter the league start in the Evo-stik premier and work up :)
why help big clubs? why not help the smaller ones atleast have a prayer in competing with the big ones and try to reduce the monumental gulf in finances between the elite clubs and the smaller ones of the lower leagues
AVB you havent a clue, I believe the championship is the 3rd or 4th most watched league in europe a higher attendance then Serie A, built up by loyal local fans and the standard is high for a reason, you big clubs cant join the club just because you want to!
reading most of the comments people don't read articles before commenting, the idea is not for a new league , it is for reserve teams to play in the championship against the existing sides, only elite clubs like United and Chelsea etc. would have reserve teams,
WHAT HAPPENS IF THEY WIN THE CHAMPIONSHIP?
Do they get promoted to the same league as their 1st team?
Not comtent with dominating the Premier League, they now want to dominate all of football
The question is, who would fund it? I doubt B team games will pull huge crowds and TV are unlikely to be interested. It would make more sense for the big clubs to 'loan' their surplus players out to lower division clubs. I think this happens now anyway?
A Reserve league would be great!
If the B team principle in spain is so good why they spend millions importing players to the top teams. How many other leagues are there in spain compared to UK and how many supporters go to watch the B teams play? The loan system the clubs use here works very well ALL the premier ship clubs have players loaned out to championship teams to help them develop. Why complicate a system by adding B teams.
Ngozi (93) - I don't think you understand that a 20 team 'B' team league without promotion is a reserve league - doh. We already have a couple of those already. Igonorance is due to a lack of knowledge - oh the irony - some would question who the fool is.
What a great idea. I tell you what, it would complicate the promotion relegation thing, so you need to exclude that. So we need a specific league to avoid A teams and B teams meeting. Let's call it the B-league - or Premiership B - or even better the reserves league(s) - amazing that no-one has thought of a reserves league already.
A suggestion, let the premiership reserve teams be set in a 3rd division and have to work there way through the divisions, with one exception, if they finish bottom of the 3rd division they are out of the league for good.
Seriously it is about time the premiership knew that they do not own the other three divisions, remember they broke away to form the premiership, so have no say in the hard working clubs of the championship, 1st and 2nd divisions.
So let me get this straight, 20 reserve teams join the Championship. 20 teams from the championship go down to the first division, then 20 teams go down from div 1 to div 2, does this man expect 20 teams to just go out of the top 92 clubs in the football league without a fight, or is he suggesting a new div 3.
Letting players go out on loan has been a good idea for learning, that helps championship clubs through imjury and gives players experience while their premiership club lets someone else pay the players wages.
If it aint broke don't fix it.
Seems like he has no confidence in his own clubs training.
i did think about this myself a few months ago, anybody who plays in a darts, snooker, bowls (or in my case chess) league knows what he is on about, but i'm not too sure if it will work, maybe if they have to start in the bottom division (like fc united) but be allowed promotion to the premier league, it may work but i doubt it in football
Please login to post a comment
Not already a Yahoo! user ? Sign up to get a free Yahoo! Account