The two key issues Pep Guardiola got wrong with with his “B teams” suggestion
Rob Fielding argues that Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola’s argument for B teams is flawed and that Premier League clubs themselves are to blame for young talent not getting match time.
Rob Fielding writes…
Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has enraged the vast majority of Football League fans after he proposed that Premier League B teams compete in the Football League. It’s a suggestion that has already been rejected by Football League chief Ricky Parry.
Guardiola said it was “best for English football” if the move took place – however, I think he’s confused the phrase “best for English football” with the phrase “best for Premier League clubs.”
The Man City’s manager’s argument looks to rest on two points and I think he’s wrong on both.
Point one – young players need exposing to first-team football
Yes, all Engligh football supporters and fans of the national team want to see young talent flourish but there’s a far simpler way to do that then the method Guardiola suggests. For too many years, the super rich Premier League clubs have been effectively hoovering up young talent, outbidding traditional clubs who nurtured young talent such as our neighbours Crewe.
The Premier League model is actually damaging young talent rather than helping it. Having hundreds of youngsters means many are lost along the way, don’t get the experience of first-team football they need and that stunts their development as footballers. Having so many young footballers in academies is shielding them from first-team football. Yes, the very best, the likes of your Phil Fodens, get through (they would do anyway) but there’s a huge amount of talent wastage.
There is another possibility though. If Premier League clubs were not allowed to bring in so many youngsters then young talent would stay at their local, Football League club instead. In smaller academies, the best young players would have a far greater chance of breaking into the first-team early (in Vale’s case look at Anthony Gardner’s debut as a seventeen year-old) at a lower level of football.
Not all the players who would progress into Football League first-teams would be stellar talent but it would arguably increase the quality of football in the lower leagues as well as developing younger, home-grown squads and thus, by default, reducing the Football League’s reliance on foreign or aged additions to their squads. In other words, by reducing the barriers to young players (that of being a small cog in a huge Premier League academy) the English game as a whole would benefit and it would still allow the once-in-a-generation starts to develop too.
Point two – the financial gap could be reduced as Football League clubs could get more TV revenue for allowing B sides
This idea sounds worryingly like a threat to me. Allow B sides in and we’ll give you more money from the Premier League pot. Don’t and we won’t.
Well, if the youngsters were allowed to progress and develop at Football League sides, it’s possible the clubs wouldn’t need that revenue.
For years, clubs like Crewe relied on transfer profits from talented youngsters. If players were in Football League academies then it’s reasonable to expect that they could start demanding transfer fees for the best of them. That would go a long way towards both reducing the financial gap and also encouraging Football League clubs to put their faith in youth.
So, Pep, I think you’ve got the whole argument the wrong way round. Premier League clubs are not helping young talent to develop and the way to develop that talent isn’t to allow your B sides into the Football League, it’s to get the youngsters, often being failed at your academies, to develop at Football League clubs instead.
Image: Josep Guardiola 0525.jpg by Thomas Rodenbücher is licensed under CC BY 2.0