The now formerly Johnstons paint trophy is to have a group stage and inclusion of 16 PL academies. With money being stumped up by the PL I think it is probably a good thing for the yoof development and the existing participants. Bah!
Adds a bit more money, and probably a few more games for the teams involved. Hopefully staves off talk of PL youth sides in the lower leagues for a little longer. Only a one season trial and apparently was quite a split decision when voted on. I wonder if this is to make the 5 leagues of 20 proposal more palatable too. Going from 46 to 38 games per season could be somewhat compensated by a guaranteed extra 2 cup fixtures, with more prize money too. If 2 teams from each group go through then that's probably even more games.
I wonder if our academy will be "invited" we're in group 1 so top half. I assume the PL referenced is he u21s premier league which is where the cat 1 academies compete. Would be good experience for some of the lads.
Are we still in group 1. Didn't we get relegated ? http://www.premierleague.com/en-gb/...r-league-tables.html?paramYouthStage=NATIONAL
Ah. So we did. Still in the top 16 though. I wonder if the European competition we were in had an effect on our league performances. Didn't think I'd be saying that about a Norwich team.
So we weren't invited as its depended on the league position of the senior team, which seems a touch odd. However, Man U and Spurs have both turned it down so we no doubt will be offered a spot.
Yay the tin pot paint pot cup that Crissy Martin won at Luton and the thing they forced us to play in when in Lg1. We played a youth side and lost. Yeah I hope we qualify for that ? Pretty sure they were trying to fine teams for fielding weakened side at one point.
For our youngsters it would provide a good opportunity to put their training into good use in a competitive match! m
Should still be in the Prem U21 thing but got relegated to the second league. The european thing was for the top 8 so doubt we'll be dong that this year.
