The under 21 Premier League will now definitely take place during the new season 12/13 and replaces the Premier Reserve League. Twenty-three clubs are confirmed to be taking part and these are the clubs who have applied for their category 1 status under the new Elite Player Performance Plan (EPPP). The 23 have been divided into 3 groups and games are scheduled to commence in line with the start of the new season. The top 2 teams in each group along with the two best 3rd place teams, will proceed to an 'elite round' of games to be played after Christmas. The other teams will then be divided up into 2 groups also for further games after Christmas. It has been decided that teams can field up 3 overaged players plus an overaged goalkeper, so first teamers returning from injury or in need of games, will be permitted to play. The groups are follows - Arsenal-Blackburn-Bolton-Everton-Norwich-Reading-WBA-West Ham Chelsea-Fulham-Man City-Liverpool-Middlesbrough-Crystal Palace-Wolves Aston Villa-Man United-Newcastle-Southampton-Stoke-Sunderland-Tottenham-Watford
Just to elaborate more on the EPPP, clubs will be graded from 1 to 4, with 1 being the highest. Category 1 is what a club will be awarded if their youth programme is deemed to be of a very high quality. This status has an impact on the funding the club will receive along with certain relaxation on the distance these clubs can recruit young players from. Of the 23 who have applied, 12 have been given category 1 status, but only 6 of these have so far been confirmed in public. These are Fulham, Southampton, Stoke, Sunderland, West Ham and Wolves. We at Spurs, await to see if we are one of the thus far unnamed other 6.
Well it looks like plenty of game there Spurcat, how competitive we'll see, does raise a few Q's though. Say the top team is pushing for...I was going to say title, but whatever prize is at the end of it, and say 2 or 3 first team return from injury, its their first match for ages and are just looking for an easy one and the team loses. Won't that scupper any competitive edge? Is there any safeguards from it turning into the old reserve league...a waste of space!
Group Three could be interesting - Southampton need no introduction, us and Villa seem to be producing kids with potential of late, and MUPLC can't afford to tap-up kids from other teams' academies these days...
Interesting to see a few non-Premier League teams in there. Teams like Southampton really need to be in this to protect their interests, don't they? Their youth system's been excellent of late. I wonder if this'll see us keep more of our youngsters at the club? Might be a useful tool for those that need games, but that we also could do with having around as cover.
The old reserve league had a ruling that matches had to be held on a league ground, but that ruling doesn't appear to have followed into the new set up. Arsenal, for example, are playing their games at the Emirates, Barnet and their training ground at London Colney and Everton are playing at the new St Helens rugby league ground. Spurs have not even got around to releasing the news yet (nothing new there I suppose), and wheras the other clubs seem to have released their fixture lists and details, we haven't announced anything. I guess the new training ground will hold some games, but as that isn't fully up and running until the second week in September, and the new league starts on the weekend of 18/19 August, then we may see a game or two at WHL. I haven't seen the full fixture list yet, but game appear to take place on Saturday afternoons, mdweek afternoons and midweek evenings.
I should've made the 2nd and 3rd sentence a separate paragraph. Corrected it now. I'll delete the space when you go down.
You could be in for a long wait. Big things going on here. Southampton received the highest score in England for the independent audit for the EPPP. The estate of Markus Liebherr are investing huge amounts of money into Staplewood training ground and academy at the moment. They also have plans to redevelop St Mary's to circa 50,000. please log in to view this image http://www.saintsfc.co.uk/news/article/saints-receive-category-one-status-274540.aspx "The audit process and the feedback we have received clearly indicates we are at the top of this list of Category One Academies." "The standards of coaching set within the Football Development Support Centre (FDSC) at Staplewood are being applied at national level too. Saints will be one of three clubs in Europe used to demonstrate the techniques put into practice at the club's training ground, with these set to be implemented at the new National Football Centre in Burton."
Is that link right, MLG? Seems to go to a page about the new website, for me. The problem that you might face is that the new rules on academies don't seem to offer that much protection for youth players, as far as I can see. The likes of City, Chelsea, etc. might be able to just poach whoever they like, as they'll be Category 1 too apparently, so you'll lose players and miss out on realistic compensation. The EPPP rules seem to benefit those with money even more than the old rules.
They updated the website today, so the links don't work any more. Here is the proper one... http://www.saintsfc.co.uk/news/article/saints-receive-category-one-status-274540.aspx Saints have the highest ranked academy in England at the moment from the EPPP audit, they also have rich and ambitious owners. We'll be fine.
Matthew Le God - While you're on here, hope you don't mind me changing the subject and asking you for your views on a couple of matters....... How safe is your manager ?? May sound a daft question after he's taken you to 2 successive promotions, but I heard a whisper a while back that he was not as secure as us outsiders might think. Oddly enough, I heard the very same rumour a few days agon from a different source, but someone who is considered 'in the know' at your club. Secondly, what does the future hold for our ex-player Lee Barnard ?? I know he was initially popular with your fans when he first joined you, but then his court case affected his game and of course others have come in and done well, so "Barney" must see his chances as limited. Does he have a future with you ??
I noticed a while ago that Adkin's odds for the boot are shockingly short, SC. Third favourite to be first out the door, with odds of 8/1. Only Allardyce and Clarke are ahead of him, bizarrely.
It is nonsense, we've had numerous stories in the press trying to stir things. Either saying Adkins to be sacked or the estate of Markus Liebherr to sell the club. It is now two years since Liebherr died and his estate is still spending a lot of money. They just spent £15m upgrading the training ground and revealed early plans to redevelop St Mary's to 50k. Adkins is the most successful manager we've had in a long time, he has a good relationship with the chairman and the owners are heavily investing. If you are thinking about putting a bet on him being sacked I wouldn't waste your money if I were you. Barnard has been training and playing with the development squad. He didn't go on tour with the senior players and is behind... Rickie Lambert Jay Rodriguez Billy Sharp Tadanari Lee Guly Do Prado Steve De Ridder ...in the pecking order for the striker role. I expect him to be either sold or loaned out this season. He is unlikely to make the 25 man squad.
To me, this "under 21 League" is just a glorfied name for a reserve league, something that really didn't benefit us. Our system of loaning out players has done wonders for us over recent seasons. Walker, Livermore, Caulker, Townsend, Carroll, Kane have all benefitted from the system and are now either first team players or challenging for squad places which is great to see. Hopefully Luongo will get some good game time at Ipswich which'll hopefully help improve his game and I'd like to see some others get the chance in League 1/ Championship too (Coulibaly, Nicholson, Fredericks etc). Really hope we don't take the competition seriously, hope to see a mix first teamers returning from injury, promising U-18 players who might be a bit too young to loan out and the reserve players without much of a future hoping to catch the eye of some lower league scouts. Wouldn't want to see the players I mentioned in the above paragraph being involved in this, can't see it benefitting them at all.
Fair comments Spurs or sex, but the fact remains that too many of todays young and 'elite' talent, do not get enough playing time. Where do players who have outgrown the academy league either in age and/or talent, play regular football ?? It's not the reserve league because so many clubs withdrawn from it over the past few seasons. This revamp will offer the best young talent weekly football (14 games between mid-August and mid-December). It is played on a CL format and for those who don't qualify, there is still football after Christmas as the remaining teams will be divided into 2 divisions. Given the success of the Next Gen tournament last season, I see no reason to be anything other than optimistic about this new venture and I sincerely hope we take it very seriosly. Furthermore, if we are to attain category 1 status for our youth programme, then we will be eligible for a new under 16 and under 18 league which will run in conjunction with this new under 21 league., giving at long last, a proper structure to the progress of our young talent.
