As a fan of Liverpool, and my home town club Peterborough United, I am in quite a unique position here!
I have to say (and this is very rare!) that I agree with Barry Fry. The big premiership clubs already have a massive advantage over the rest because of champions league money, gate money, shirt sales etc, letting their kids (who they often nick from smaller clubs around Europe and the world), play in the lower division would just widen the gap between rich and poor.
I can see where Rafa is coming from, and I don't think he is proposing this idea from a purely selfish perspective, he genuinely thinks that the system of bringing young players through in this country needs a major shake up. He may be right about that, but I don't think this is a fair solution.
If the big clubs are so worried about young players not getting chances in their teams, then they shouldn't steal them from their smaller local clubs in the first place. At Peterborough we had Matthew Etherington, Simon Davies and Luke Steele, all left at a very young age. Etherington and Davies to Spurs had mixed success, Etherington having to leave to get regular football, Davies upset by injury, would they have been better staying at Posh for another year or two? who knows.
Steele is a young goalkeeper signed by Man Utd, his career is seemingly going nowhere at present, he has played very few games other than a loan spell at Coventry, its fair to say had he stayed at Posh he may have clocked up 200 league games by now, and be a better player for it.
So my message to Rafa is simple, if you want the best young players from lower division clubs, don't buy them and stick them in the reserves, buy them and loan them back to the lower league teams, or don't buy them at all.
I agree with Barry about the passionate support in the lower leagues. In Spain, the crowds in the second division and lower are pitiful in size compared to the lower divisions in England, and that goes for the rest of Europe also. We don't want meaningless matches that are only there to make Liverpool, Man Utd, or Chelsea have a better team in the future. We want matches that matter, thats what will improve the young players, going on loan to a team fighting against relegation, or a team looking for promotion. They will be playing under real pressure and in front of noisy crowds. This will surely make them better players, as Rafa desires, without de-valuing the Football League. It will be a sad day in my opinion if the biggest game in The Championship is Man Utd B vs Chelsea B.
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