Andre Villas-Boas wants a Chelsea B team in the Championship

[davieG]

http://theseventytwo..._medium=twitter

...and a 'nice' response from the 'the seventy two'

The Guardian have reported, with full quotes direct from the impressively-coiffeured horse’s mouth, that Chelsea manager Andre Villas-Boas

believes that Premier League clubs should have B teams in the Championship – the latest in a series of stabs in the dark from those towards the top of the game.

The thought process from this procession of geniuses appears to be a neverending: “Well, Barcelona and Spain are bloody good aren’t they? What do they do?”

Of course, Villas-Boas is unlikely to last much longer if Roman Abramovich’s recent past is anything to go by. He won’t win the Premier League this season and the entire cast of Animal Farm (no, not that one) will fly over the Thames if Chelsea win the Champions League this May. So should we care?

Thankfully, probably not. Even in today’s world of bloated Premier League self-regard, surely English football has enough about it not to let this kind of thing move anywhere near reality. While the likes of Villas-Boas, Richard Scudamore and those who held Football League clubs to ransom over EPPP may hide behind an excuse of making the English national team more competitive, we all know the real agenda here – “Let’s do whatever we can to compete with Barcelona and Real Madrid”.

Sadly for Villas-Boas, Chelsea and their ilk, there are millions of supporters of Football League clubs who couldn’t give a stuff how well the Premier League’s elite measure up to Spanish sides. Most of us have got enough on our plates worrying whether our own clubs will survive the current financial climate, to which, incidentally, the richest clubs are obviously impervious to the point of stretching the gap even wider at the worst possible time.

Talent can still come through Premier League academies. Even if his own charge Daniel Sturridge, a Manchester City product, is not example enough, Villas-Boas could always glance over to north London and the progression of Jack Wilshere from bright young Arsenal kid to England regular.

What’s next? Forcing all English 9-year-olds to have the same growth hormone deficiency treatment as Lionel Messi? Rewarding any Sergio Busquets-esque play-acting with a goal at youth level? Encouraging teenage footballers to go and pick mushrooms on their day off in the hope they turn into Xavi Hernandez?

Although this is just one opinion, it is a growing trend and one that should be rebuffed by supporters of Football League clubs. As with EPPP, it smacks of the Premier League forcing the burden and the blame for its inability to compete with mainland Europe, and Barcelona in particular, onto Football League clubs.

In The Guardian’s article, Stamford Bridge youngsters Ryan Bertrand, Patrick van Aanholt, Gael Kakuta and Josh McEachran are named as examples of players who could flourish in a Chelsea B team participating at Championship level. Perhaps if there wasn’t such short-termism in the desperate pursuit of success at the highest level, which applies particularly at (but not exclusively to) Chelsea, one or two of these promising youth prospects would have enjoyed more than a handful of games by now? Bertrand, van Aanholt and Kakuta are all older than Wilshere.

None of the above even veers into the territory of the tradition and history of the Football League clubs that would be devalued by such a change in the structure of the English game. We may as well all pack up and have 16 NFL-style franchises throughout the country and consign everyone else to the playing fields on a Sunday morning. You know there are some who would advocate that too – and they would probably mumble something about the England team as well.

This is how English football works. You’re stuck with it. Now go and spend your £50million on someone who can hit an aircraft hangar door with a musical instrument of his choice. Just leave the rest of us alone.

guardian report

André Villas-Boas has denounced the current system of youth development in England as uncompetitive and called for reserve teams of elite clubs such as Chelsea to be allowed to compete in theChampionship, a move that would necessitate a radical restructuring of the game.

The Portuguese echoed frustrations expressed by Rafael Benítez during his time with Liverpool that the Spanish framework, where second strings compete in the lower leagues, has not been adopted in England. Barcelona B, from whom Chelsea signed Oriol Romeu last summer for £4.35m, finished third last season in the Segunda División, the equivalent of the Championship.

Pep Guardiola, the Barça manager, benefits from being able to call up young players steeled in competitive action to his ranks if required.

Villas-Boas pointed to a gulf in quality and experience between the reserve and first teams. "The youth development system in England is not right, in my belief," the Chelsea manager 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."

Chelsea have loaned out fringe young players this season in the hope their development gathers pace with competitive first-team action elsewhere, though results have been mixed. Patrick van Aanholt and Gaël Kakuta hardly featured in relegation battles at Wigan Athletic and Bolton Wanderers respectively and have been sent to Vitesse Arnhem and Dijon. McEachran, widely heralded as the most promising product of the club's academy in recent seasons, has managed only one Premier League start in two seasons around the first-team squad and has been loaned to Swansea City.

Roman Abramovich, Chelsea's owner, has poured significant funding into the academy in recent years, a metamorphosis initially overseen by Frank Arnesen – who has since moved to Hamburg – and now by the academy manager, Neil Bath. But although the youth team have flourished in competitions such as the FA Youth Cup, the first team are yet to benefit from a graduate demanding inclusion since John Terry progressed through the ranks a decade ago.

Although Villas-Boas is confident talent is being nurtured at the club, he delivered further criticisms of the junior game in this country. "The youth levels are not competitive enough," he said. "The FA Youth Cup: does it favour talent or competition? In my opinion there is a missed link between age groups in all competitions. There should be national championships played between teams from around the country: the older kids should play nationally; the younger ones should play regionally. That competition promotes talent. If the kids weren't able to win it when they were young, they won't make it when they face the massive challenge.

"But, here at Chelsea, we do produce talent. Players are coming through. It's still a massive jump, again [to come]. It's a waiting process but there is quality in this academy. Will it be too big a gap to come straight into the first team? Maybe, yes. But could they do that if they were playing at Championship level with a team representing Chelsea? Perhaps, yes."

[marko]

That smacks of the typical self-centred, arrogant approach we've all come to expect.

I couldn't give two hoots if you can't beat Barcelona. They have no problems in throwing their best young talent in at the deep end; take Messi, Iniesta, Pedro and Xavi for example, they were all playing regularly when they were in their late teens or very early twenties. Perhaps if clubs like Chelsea took their time to develop a team incorporating the most promising youth players, as opposed to splashing out however many millions on players, they'd have more chance of replicating the Barcelona's of this world.

Edit: missing word.

[jonlcfc1990]

What about Darlington and other clubs struggling with saving their heritage. One double club is one team less aloud in our leagues. AVB is a total W@nk stain and is an idiot instead of talking about Chelsea B how about LOANING YOUR PLAYERS OUT to these struggling clubs or non struggling ones. Would Sturridge be the player he is now if he would of been playing with young chelsea nobodies in the champ or bearing his teeth up in bolton against Manchester Liverpool Wolves etc... the "Big" Clubs now should learn from the old big clubs mistakes (forest, Derby, Liverpool) share the wealth and players around the country. For too long now has money been kept with the elite raping academies of the golden players and paying a pitence for all the hard work the original club has done it's disgraceful and for what? To keep them on a bench or in reserves and then sell them on to get a nice little profit.

[hbkkids]

That would be awful, Leicester city v Chelsea b team, it would not work

[Dan]

They do it in Spain and Portugal, so I can see why he would think it.

But ultimately it's a diabolical idea and it shouldn't get any consideration at all.

[purpleronnie]

How can it work unless they start at the bottom of the pyramid and work themselves through all the leagues?

That being said it will never happen so.....

[Heart-Shaped Fox]

Will never happen and should never hapen. These foreign managers always come over with ideas liek this, but they will never come into play over here.

[Captain...]

In Spain they don't really have a reserves league so they have a B team instead, there are restrictions to the use of a B team, a B team can't be promoted to the same league as the parent club. They have no right to be in the second tier and can get relegated, I also think that, but I'm not 100% certain, that it is almost exclusively for youth players and is not used to give first team players a chance to gain match fitness. In reality Chelsea would still have 2 players in every position and then another clubs worth of players to call upon and develop. It is not a good idea and I think if it was implemented it would be the end for football, in Spain there aren't actually that many B teams in the second division, Real Madrid B is in the 3rd tier. I could see Manchester United and City, Chelsea, Arsenal, second teams all getting in to the Championship, Spurs and Liverpool not being far behind, that is potentially a quarter of the league could be B teams.

I think it would be better for the nation as a whole to get people interested in the reserve league again, and if Leicester finally rejoined it. When I was younger I loved going to reserve games and see the latest prospects, and I actually gave a shit if we won a reserve match.

[MrSpaM]

The chelsea b team would probably struggle in the championship tbh!

[Asha]

What would happen if this did come to fruition, and say, Chelsea B team won the league? Would they get promoted? Would they forfeit against Chelsea A team when they play them?

There's probably sensible answers to all of these questions from the example in Spain, but I don't follow Spanish football so, hopefully you can enlighten me

[Heart-Shaped Fox]

What would happen if this did come to fruition, and say, Chelsea B team won the league? Would they get promoted? Would they forfeit against Chelsea A team when they play them?

There's probably sensible answers to all of these questions from the example in Spain, but I don't follow Spanish football so, hopefully you can enlighten me

B teams or reserve teams cant be promoted to the same league as the other team in Spain.

[purpleronnie]

B teams or reserve teams cant be promoted to the same league as the other team in Spain.

What if the 'A' team got relegated?

[Corky]

I'd like to see Chelsea in the Championship too.

[Mike the Metal Ed]

What if the 'A' team got relegated?

As above, the 'B' team has no right to be in the second tier and can be relegated on a whim, so they'd drop down to the third tier.

Simply put, it would place the English league system into utter disarray.

[SystonFox]

does anyone think Chelsea 'B' will bring many fans to the KP on the same day Chelsea play Arsenal????

[Jagdinho]

So Chelsea A team get relegated whilst the B team get promoted from Championship...

So the B team would be higher than the original team? So many things that would cock up the English football system and make football worse than it already is!

[purpleronnie]

So Chelsea A team get relegated whilst the B team get promoted from Championship...

So the B team would be higher than the original team? So many things that would cock up the English football system and make football worse than it already is!

No the B team cannot achieve promotion to the top division, if the A team did get relegated the B team would also get relegated irrespective of their league position.

[Yojoe36]

Fvcking stupid idea. It would kill English football. Why do people think everything below the Premier League is 2nd rate bullshit. Fvcking cvnts dare call themselves football fans

[lcfcadam]

They do it in Spain and Portugal, so I can see why he would think it.

And hence Spain and Portugal both have absolutely dreadful lower leagues, not a patch on the relatively brilliant Football League and Conference we have here.

Someone should really advise these foreign nobheads before they open their mouths to the media, they clearly have no conception of what English football is all about.

I couldn't give a monkey's shit if the quality of football is higher in Spain, Portugal etc, or that England's top teams can't compete in the Champion's League any more, or that the England team suffers because of our current lower-league set up. It is how it is, and despite its many annoying quirks, flaws and foibles, it really is something we should continue to be proud of.

So, AVB? Get to ****.

[Mack]

Money talks.

I can see this happening within 10 years.

Barca B won promotion to the top league last season but could not be promoted.

[lcfcadam]

Barca B won promotion to the top league last season but could not be promoted.

This system literally makes a mockery of any league below the top tier. In some ways I can't believe even the Spanish are stupid enough to think its a good idea (no xenophobia intended - I like Spain and its people, it's just they can sometimes appear a little... backward?)

[Corky]

Ah, so they can't get promoted. But they'll be better than the rest every year, taking up a promotion place for a team that is allowed to go up.

Seriously, what would be the point?

[Asha]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/16659835.stm

That's alright then.

[Super_horns]

Even Daivd Moyes wanted to have an Everton "B" in the conference because the standard of the reserve league is so poor

Everton manager David Moyes has revealed his attempts to get a Toffees 'B' team into the Conference were scuppered by red tape. "Four or five years ago I would have liked to have put an Everton reserve team into the Conference because it would have been better football for them," he said. "But we would have had to have gone into Division Nine of the North-West Outer Counties or whatever you want to call it and it would have taken 10 or 11 years to get through. I would have been happy just to be in the Conference - no promotion, not involved in cups or anything."

Sounds like these managers just feel there is a lack of competitive edge in the Youth/Reserve games which might be true but that is why there is a loan system.

Anyway what are the chances they fill these "B" sides with more overseas players and actually it wouldn't have any positive impact on the national team...

[Guest shearfox]

This is the championship no room for reserve/youth rubbish, there is a reason this league as soon of the highest attendances in the world...