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While I cannot vouch for Leagues 1 and 2, the Championship is in rude health and in no way needs 'quality' charity handouts from the 'bigger' clubs! I personally feel that introducing reserve teams into the lower leagues devalues the status of those lower league teams...Not every club in the land sees the premiership as the be all and end all of their world. Sure, every club would love to reach the top, but a lot aren't too bothered whether chelsea or Man U win the title, so long as they whup their local rivals.

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Of course, I was forgetting the lower leagues are only there to act as testing grounds for the top clubs...silly me for assuming that we should be allowed to have any pride whatsoever in the league we're in...how could I forget we are here only to serve...why not just rename the lower leagues 'The Big 4's Reserves' Run Out League'?

The arrogance of the premier clubs knows no bounds!

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I don't think the intention is to make the lower leagues "testing grounds" for the top clubs, as you put it. If it is, then it shouldn't be. I think the idea here should be to provide the reserve sides of both the Premiership AND Championship teams an opportunity at solid competitive play. It would be almost the same as loaning players out, except that clubs would still be "in control" of their players' development.

I can certainly see why you would think that this may devalue the lower leagues, but I must respectfully disagree. I think it all might boil down to two questions here: Do we want to improve the quality of English Football relative to the rest of the world? or do we want to decrease the gap between the top teams, and the lower teams?

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