Reserve team football. We all remember the good old days of the Combination League; the Pontins League or the Capital League don’t we? Days when players made a comeback from injury by actually playing 90 minutes two or three times before they returned to the first team.
Where young players stepped up and learnt their trade against seasoned pro’s prepared to kick lumps out of them to let them know they’d been in a game.
They’re in the rear view mirror now, those ex-pro’s if you ever speak to any of them will tell you some great stories, I’ve heard plenty from the people I know and only last week Tony Incenzo was calling for the return of proper reserve team football, but is he right? Let’s have a look more closely at it.
Those leagues I mentioned above provided a clear pathway for young players to progress through the top clubs into the first team. Like now, not all made it but a huge majority played out a Football League or top non-league career with some making it back to the top via the bottom.
Saturday morning Under 18 youth, YTS, apprentice games and the best joining those in the midweek reserve games but that has long since changed and not for the better in my opinion and that of many others.
It’s filtered it’s way through the game down to non-league levels and rarely now do you find clubs with a proper reserves team playing on a Saturday afternoon opposite the first team.
And those that do have them find them not in a reserve team league but dotted about in amongst first team’s trying to get promoted. The introduction of Under 21 football for the professional clubs and Under 23 football in non-league has been detrimental for so many young players.
The statistic is less than 1% of kids going through an academy make a Premier League appearance. Most spend their young adulthood out on loan because their Under 21 football contains no experience of coming up against players who show them other sides to the game.
The same is said when you speak to anyone in the game about Under 23 football, some not even prepared to play on Saturday afternoon’s which is surely the point of the 23’s as the mid-pathway from Under 18’s to the first team.
Those players at the elite clubs also earn a crazy amount of money for their age, then receive a huge shock when released and find out Leagues One and Two and the National League is nowhere near as pampered nor luxurious in terms of money and facilities. And instead of having a proper grounding like before they drop out of the game completely instead of realising they still get a career which could still end up at the top level.
When you look around top non-league clubs most don’t operate an Under 23 side, the cost outweighs the benefit of having so many players involved, something else that gives good reason not to have but no direct help to the first team.
No place to return from injury and actually be closer to match fit rather than having to wait for 20 minutes off the bench here and there, how do you ever really get back up to speed in today’s modern game?
The lack of reserve teams has also I believe contributed to the rise in ground sharing. No other side using the pitch on a Saturday afternoon leads to that spare space, might do wonders for the finances not always for the pitch if it’s grass.
Those that do still have reserve sides on a weekend are within the National League system to some degree but ineligible for promotion. They are up against other club’s first teams who are trying to get promoted and also not to get relegated.
I’ve seen it first hand where those finishing in the bottom three are suffering from huge goal difference problems where those reserve sides who have access to players used to higher levels coming back from injury causing mismatches and sides getting thumped in midweek games versus those who face a full reserve side on a Saturday.
Going back to structured reserve team football even if only in non-league will benefit far more than being like sheep and following what the rest of the game does. It will actually protect and progress the player, ensure recovery from injury gets the proper recognition it should and produce a better quality of player, currently none of that shines through.
Will it change? Of course not! Football is built now to benefit the elite but it doesn’t stop us having an opinion on it, they might see how detrimental it’s actually been to their own young players but when most stockpile senior players who can’t get a game, what hope have you actually got?
