- Jan 23, 2006
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As we march relentlessly into another frantic period of transfer speculation and some action no doubt Spurs and some other clubs will try to buy players only to lose out to one of clubs able to pay a small fortune and we'll be left feeling hopelessly inadequate I have been mulling over a possible solution.
I was watching Setanta on the Sunday after the Cup Final and they had Lawrie Sanchez on and he made what I thought was a very good point.
I don’t know what people think of Sanchez as player or coach but he is a clever and knowledgeable guy and I thought what he said made sense.
Sanchez made the point that in 1987 Wimbledon finished 7th and Liverpool were all conquering and had won the title at a stroll which made Wimbledon proper underdogs; this year however Everton were even bigger underdogs even though they finished fifth only two places lower than Chelsea who finished third emphasizing the huge gap between the top finishing four clubs and the rest.
His theory as to why the disparity is so great is that as we all know money talks and the top four finishing clubs have a huge advantage through CL and other channels but not because they can buy and pay the top players for their team but because they can buy and pay the top players for their squad.
Obviously that makes sense as you have better players as cover and they have effectively two top teams so the other teams are basically competing for the 2nd and 3rd tier of player however his point was that this is only possible because most of the squad players get to be involved quite regularly even if they don’t start a game or at worst even if they are only part of the first team on the sub’s bench, what makes this possible is that teams are now allowed to bench seven subs.
What he said was that if teams were only allowed three subs on the bench, which is all they can use anyway, then a good third or more of the squad would never make the bench or even see the inside of the stadium and however much they are paid many of them would not be willing to stay as nothing more than a reserve team player prefering to leave and play regularly at another club.
I think this has some merit as the squad system skews the whole league, imagine three top players from these sides leaving and being added to other sides wouldn’t that level things up significantly?
I was watching Setanta on the Sunday after the Cup Final and they had Lawrie Sanchez on and he made what I thought was a very good point.
I don’t know what people think of Sanchez as player or coach but he is a clever and knowledgeable guy and I thought what he said made sense.
Sanchez made the point that in 1987 Wimbledon finished 7th and Liverpool were all conquering and had won the title at a stroll which made Wimbledon proper underdogs; this year however Everton were even bigger underdogs even though they finished fifth only two places lower than Chelsea who finished third emphasizing the huge gap between the top finishing four clubs and the rest.
His theory as to why the disparity is so great is that as we all know money talks and the top four finishing clubs have a huge advantage through CL and other channels but not because they can buy and pay the top players for their team but because they can buy and pay the top players for their squad.
Obviously that makes sense as you have better players as cover and they have effectively two top teams so the other teams are basically competing for the 2nd and 3rd tier of player however his point was that this is only possible because most of the squad players get to be involved quite regularly even if they don’t start a game or at worst even if they are only part of the first team on the sub’s bench, what makes this possible is that teams are now allowed to bench seven subs.
What he said was that if teams were only allowed three subs on the bench, which is all they can use anyway, then a good third or more of the squad would never make the bench or even see the inside of the stadium and however much they are paid many of them would not be willing to stay as nothing more than a reserve team player prefering to leave and play regularly at another club.
I think this has some merit as the squad system skews the whole league, imagine three top players from these sides leaving and being added to other sides wouldn’t that level things up significantly?