How would the reserves do in the Premiership? 4 April, 2007
Posted by lasagnechef in Arsenal News, Transfers.trackback
One of the few positives we can take out of this season is the performance of our kids. It’s pretty well known that the Arsenal youngsters are an exiting and talented group. They’ve proved themselves at the top level in the Carling Cup and have beaten many top-flight teams. Some are now even considered first teamers despite their young age. Most reserve/youth players would easily get into Premiership sides and Arsene Wenger has put forward the question, how would an ‘Arsenal B’ side fare in the league? In Spain they have these ‘B teams’ in the football league. Real Madrid’s and Barcelona’s reserve sides now playing in the Segunda Division but they are not allowed to play in the same league so however well they do, they can’t get promoted. There is a whole reserve league here but it would be much more interesting if those sides were actually included in the top-level football leagues.
With players such as Connolly, Merida, Traore, Randall, Gilbert, Garry, Simpson and loads more I think our reserve team would be quite a match for many sides. Whether or not they’d be a Premiership side is another thing but I reckon they’d be pretty decent. Also, those young bodies enduring a full top-flight season is another factor. Here’s what Arsene had to say on the idea of reserve teams joining the football league:
“I would love it. What used to happen is that you had a Reserve League and an Under-18s League that was very important. What has happened now is the Under-18s League has transferred to the Reserve League while the Under-18s has lost a little. When you look at it these days, 90 per cent of the Reserve games are played with Under-18s players so one may have to be cut off. We have many players who play on Saturday [for the Under-18s] and on Monday for the Reserves. That means they play too many games and cannot practice.”
It’s an interesting idea but I don’t think it will happen. It would be nice for our reserves to officially beat Tottenham though.
There’s actually a bit of decent news about! But it’s not good news…Mathieu Flamini is leaving. He and his agent have confirmed he’ll look to move away in the summer. It’s a shame but if you think about it he’ll never get a run in the team. With Gilberto, Fabregas, Diaby and Possibly ahead of him and then Hleb/Rosicky who are natural centre midfielders he doesn’t really stand a chance. He did amazing last season at left back and god knows if we’d got to that final without him. He did well earlier in the season; he got a run in the side, scored a few goals and did really well against Chelsea. At least he’ll be leaving on a sort of high. He will be missed but to be honest, we have better players now.
Right I’ve got to go, see ya.
The reserves have scored 2 and conceded 21 in their last 9 games. They’ve won 1 and lost 8. I don’t think they’d do too well but probably better than the first team is doing at the moment!!
Typical arrogant Premiership manager really…
But by all means, your reserves can come and join us in the Football League, they can start at the bottom of the pyramid like any other club starting out would, a la AFC Wimbledon.
Oh sorry, you actually want them to play in the Championship instead? I’m sure a Championship team will kindly say “Of course Mr Wenger/Benitez/Mourwhingio. You have our place, we’ll sacrifice that TV money and exposure to go and play at Chesterfield or Hartlepool next season, we’d love it.”
Out of interest, who’ll be going to watch your rezzies? Surely you lot will be watching your 1st team, so when the rezzies are away they’ll have virtually zero support. When they’re home, will you all shell out an extra £20-25 to go and watch them as a Championship team when Arsenal are away?
Dear Messrs Wenger/Benitez/Mourwhingio, we have this thing called a loan system… Use it, stop whinging.
Franny Jeffers that is factually correct but you are not very well informed beyond that. The thing with Arenal is the team, the reserves and even the u-18s are all younger than your average. Fabregas, Denilson, Diaby, Clichy, etc. might all expect to be young enough to still be in the reserves but have been elevated to first team status. Bendtner, Lupoli, Muamba, Larsson and Gilbert would all have been in the reserves this year but are all out on loan. You can throw in Stokes too. Most of those lads are doing very well and all are in and around the promotion spots which suggests they do have what it takes to compete. As a result of their absence, many of the reserve team players are actually theage of your standard youth cup team, 17 to 18. Whereas the FA youth cup team of the other night, 9 of the starting XI were in their first year in the category. So before you start putting the reserves down, go a little beyond the results.
As for the Lower Division Fan, if that were the case of Arsenal starting from a lower league, the 16 year olds each year would be able to do enough to take a league place in successive seasons!
As for your nonsense about who would go to see them, the fact that in excess of 36,000 watched the Arsenal U-18s recently suggests Arsenal have a more than adequate and committed fan base.
p.s. if we had a reserve team in the league we wouldn’t have to loan them out to morons like Steve Bruce.
The Arsenal B team already beat the Spurs!
an analysis by i think the Telegraph projected that arsenal’s b team would probably finish around 5th in the premiership. So there is your answer
Pabz
1 – If your kids can do it in successive seasons, then I look forward to entertaining them in about 8 seasons. Fair enough?
2 – That 36k crowd is absolutely flawed. Why? Because it was a complete and utter one off, they don’t even usually play reserve games at The Emirates. So that argument is pretty lame to be honest.
3 – If Manure, Liverpool and you lot want your reserves in the Championship say, maybe Southend United and Crewe Alexandra want their reserves playing in the Rymans Premier. So how about we do that. How about we get rid of decades of tradition, rip apart many clubs so that your reserves can play in front of a handful of people against QPR and Hull City reserves can play in front of a handful against Southend United reserves in the Rymans Premier, whoops, we’ve just ourselves a reserve league there haven’t we.
4 – BIGGEST FLAW IN THE ARGUMENT HERE… If the big three get reserve teams in the Championship, then why can’t Watford, Wigan and Blackburn etc… Then before you know it, we’ve got Arsenal Res vs Blackburn Res in the Championship, whooops a daisy, we’ve got ourselves a reserve league there.
Or do the big three/four have greater importance over the rest of the Premiership and Football League?
Ironically, I’m quite a closet fan of Arsenal (hence why I’m reading this board) as I appreciate what Wenger has done and how he has done it. However this idea frankly has that many flaws and shows such petulence and arrogance, that its disgusting.
Why can’t we just have a permanent loan arrangement with a number of Championship clubs, whereby they agree to play our players, and in return, we subsidize their operations and provide technical support? As a bonus, they could have first option on the loanees if they don’t make the cut at Arsenal.You don’t need to fly under the “Arsenal” moniker to play the Arsenal way.
Is that even legal? the fact that we have a “feeder club” already kicked up a shitload of crap from Sepp Blater (wanker) and his possey (wankets).
I must admit, I don’t agree with Wenger on this one…
Putting our reserve team, in with the lower league clubs, will just push the big four, even further away from the smaller clubs!
Yes, it would be good experience for the youngsters, but all it will do is install more hatred towards our club, form other sets of fans, because, quite rightly, it would be a sign of flashing your assets…
And imagine if say the kids clicked, big time, and went onto dominate that league, for years to come, but never really pushed for a 1st team place at Arsenal… it would devalue the lower leagues to even more mediocrity…
We should be supporting grass roots & smaller clubs… not pushing them away with, what can only be called, an arrogant move.
Crouchy !!!!
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Arsenal have zero committment to smaller clubs. That may not be very loyal or romantic but the fact is Arsenal, United, Chelsea and Liverpool are all on a different planet. Along with the other large European clubs they are the money and power. Over the next few years they will start to flex that muscle and the concerns of ‘lower division fan’ will be meaningless. That might not sound attractive but small local teams are like small local post offices and petrol stations. Nice to have and important to a community but they are utterly antiquated and cannot survive in real market terms. That is not Arsenal, Pool, Chelsea being arrogant. That is them stating the reality of their position. they are the reason English football is marketed around the world. Not Leyton Orient. They have zero obligation to worry about the lower league clubs so are more than entitled to argue for the best situations for themselves.
As for the 36,000 attendence well DUH it was one-off. The point is that there is more than sufficient interest to match attendences in lower leagues. For instance league one tends to well under 10,000 on average. The fact of the matter is Arsenal fans are hugely interested in the young players and several thousand each week would be interested in seeing them play at league level.
ps. arsenal reserves don’t play blackburn reserves anyway. reserve leagues are regional. hence not very competitive.