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BUt your second clause sounds so so naive. Well,if Liverpool don't go and get X from that third division side,then Man U will and if Man U don't,then Chelsea will. That's how it works in football,or rather in the business part of it. If you are a 17 year old football aspirant playing for an obscure little club in the south west of England and the out of the blue,the likes of Man U or Arsenal come knocking at your doors,you do find it really so very,very tough to refuse the offer,even when you know that you might find life in a bigger pool too tough for your constitution.

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With respect Sub, as a football fan who lives in England and has been going to games for 15 years, I don't think I am naive. I also think I am in a more educated position than you to discuss the lower reaches of the English leagues, as you yourself have said you have limited knowledge of this arena.

Of course I know that if Liverpool don't sign that kid from League 2, then someone else will, my point was that if all the managers of the top clubs are REALLY concerned about development of young players in England, and not their own interests, then they wouldn't sign young players so early, they would let them develop. There are many examples of young players going to big clubs too young, and then having to go back down the leagues to rebuild their careers.

I also disagree that the reserves of the premiership is a much higher standard than the football league. Yes there are better players, but football is not just about player quality, it is about coping under pressure. There is no pressure in the reserves because there is no crowd, little to aim for and teams are a ramshackle mixture of players coming back from injury, trialists, young players hoping to break through, and squad players playing out their careers.

The football league may not be to the highest standard, but it is competitive (just look at the league tables and see how tight they are throughout), and the games are high pressure because the stakes are massive compared to a reserve game. That is why Rafa (and Wenger, Mourinho, etc etc) wants his young players playing in the league and not in the reserves.

The scenario here is that that the big boys may need the football league, but the football league is doing very nicley as it is thanks, and doesn't need them, other than to sign players on loan, which the big boys are only too happy to do. This is they way it should continue.

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