EFL Futures

[Saaaaaaaammmmmm]

This won't be a particularly groundbreaking thread, but it didn't quite fit into any of the Academy/TV/General Football topics we have already so here we go...

The Football League have announced their EFL Futures campaign, which is meant to promote young English talent across its divisions

Basically the idea is to 'reward' sides in the Football League who give opportunities to younger players, although with only £750,000 announced per season I'm not sure exactly what clubs could potentially earn per player

In terms of TV, starting with the 10 in 10 this Friday (Brighton vs Leeds, obviously), players eligible for EFL Futures (English and U21) will have the letter (F) circled in red next to their name whenever it's on screen, highlighting the young players for any viewers

The problem for us is that the players must be under the age of 21, which rules out Jake Cooper, George Evans, and John Swift (all aged 21 and English with 80 Reading appearances between them), and it means that Tennai Watson (aged 19, 2 league appearances) is the only player who has featured for us this season who fits the criteria

Despite this, John Swift was used to promote the initiative by the EFL at the launch yesterday, conducting a Q&A session and appearing in their promo video, despite technically being ineligible for the whole thing
https://twitter.com/EFL/status/806877055153487872

The Daily Mail reports that 8 Football League clubs have failed to start an English (or Welsh if you're Cardiff & Newport) player under the age of 21 this season, although if they did their research they'd find that we haven't either (unless they're counting the EFL Cup, but unsurprisingly this whole thing isn't very clear)
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/footba ... eason.html

Obviously the initiative is completely contradictory, given just last month League 1 & 2 clubs were fined a total of £60,000 for playing youngsters in the EFL Trophy (that competition designed to promote young English talent), now it seems you will get rewarded for playing understrength sides....

So yes, the big questions are...

Will this save the national team?
Will Reading struggle due to a lack of specifically U21 English talent?
Will Portsmouth earn enough to recuperate their fine for picking a understrength team of youngsters vs Reading U21s?

and

Is anyone actually bothered?

[kwik-silva]

Ridiculous that Luton/Pompey have wracked up £15,000+ worth of fines for playing youngsters in the Trophy and then they announce this.

[Sutekh]

Agreed. All a bit pathetic really. I note also its not being applied where it matters i.e. In the PL but then 750k a season to a PL club is just a bit of loose change and they obviously would only get a tiny fraction of that.

Another idea they should stick in the same stupid place they should have stuck their EFL trophy interference.

Also is Liam Kelly really over 21.

[P!ssed Off]

Liam Kelly represents Ireland.

A lot of the FL's most talented youngsters choose to represent Ireland, Scotland or Wales at youth level as it's easier to get a game. You can usually switch back later.

This should obviously be a scheme for the PL, where players of England U21, U20, U18 etc are actually contracted.

[Saaaaaaaammmmmm]

Also is Liam Kelly really over 21?

It's surprising given what we've seen this year why it took so long for any manager to give Liam Kelly a go alongside those of his age group, especially as they've had plenty of chances - he's been a professional since the days of when Daniel Carrico was still at the club, and Carrico won 3 Europa League titles in the time until Kelly finally appeared in the first team

Of Kelly's age group (most notably reaching the Youth Cup semi-finals), only Dom Hyam is still at the club and awaiting a debut, although Hyam has made 16 appearance in the Football League out on loan, Kelly has so far played 65 minutes of league football in his career

Just looking at that Fulham side we lost to in that Youth Cup run, the goal scorers over the two legs were Moussa Dembele (scored against Man City in the Champions League this season), Patrick Roberts (also scored against Man City in the Champions League this season, despite being owned by them) and a penalty from Emerson Hyndman (two caps for the USA having just signed for Bournemouth).... our goal scorers have a combined 38 appearances in League Two this season (Dickie, Fosu, Stacey)

[tidus_mi2]

Seems dumb considering how they reacted to L1/L2 teams playing young players in the EFL trophy but if this is a quota Reading can realistically meet, it's certainly something to push for, £750k per season isn't anything to be sniffed at, while not ground breaking, in the world of FFP it would definitely be beneficial.

[Saaaaaaaammmmmm]

Just looking at who would have qualified in previous years

Let's say the Football League rewards a club if an U21 Englishman features in at least one third of a team's matches (15 games), we'd have earned theoretical money from...

2015/16
Jake Cooper (24/46)

2014/15
Jordan Obita (43/46)
Jake Cooper (15/46)
Nathaniel Chalobah (15/46)

2013/14
Jordan Obita (34/46)

In other words, Obita and Cooper have been the only U21s to make a breakthrough into our first team like the EFL are hoping for, and really 15 appearances in a season isn't all that many, particularly if a number of those are as a sub late on in a match

And yes the nationality thing could get confusing, here's our own Zak Jules describing how he and a few of our other youngsters represent Scotland (so therefore don't count) a few years back http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/foot ... he-3507462

It's almost like the Football League haven't really thought this one through...

[From Despair To Where?]

It's Ill conceived, badly thought-out tokenism by an organisation desperate to be seen to be doing something rather than nothing at all.

[Sutekh]

It's Ill conceived, badly thought-out tokenism by an organisation desperate to be seen to be doing something rather than nothing at all.

So no change there then. But then when you look at the organisations controlling the game in Europe and globally it's really no surprise.