Did WestHam

[chrissivad]

This is going to be a long shot, but...


did westham have a reserve team when Harry was incharge and brought through J.Cole, Lampard, Rio and co?

 

[Krafty]

They probably did, but about five years ago David Pleat was employed by the FA to revamp reserve league football.

I think you use to play everyone in your league twice, very much a reserve team league. There was a concern that there were too many games, especially as the idea of 'first team squads' became more widely held and the Youth leagues became a lot more formalised.

With the congested fixture schedule as more Europe games were added it was felt that players were too busy being called up to the first team every few weeks, plus there were associatted costs that were too big for teams lower down the league structure.

They changed it to regional leagues, made up of about 10-14 teams. This resulted in a lot less games, which also indirectly led to the teams becoming worse and the standard of football declining.

Last season we didnt have a game for about three months due to various factors, then a spurt of 7 in 6 weeks at the end of the season.

I do know that a lot of the spammer kids were sent out on loan. Its far more productive and something we have missed out on over the last decade

 

[brasil_spur]

They probably did, but about five years ago David Pleat was employed by the FA to revamp reserve league football.

Is there nothing that man can't be blamed for? :wink: