I saw the report. Everton had some guys in there with professional football to their name, so it was always gonna be tough.
How did we look with the switch to a back 3? Is it something that the club are looking to implement? I was under the impression that the youth sides had all gone to working in a 4231 for continuity sakes.
Good to see Edwards doing well, he certainly has that bit of magic you need around the box, could be a big asset IF IF IF IF he keeps progressing
Many of the bigger clubs on the continent have second elevens in the lower leagues, something we're understandably loathe to adopt in this country because of the perceived devaluing effect it would have on clubs with big histories and big fan bases.
"Understandably" is an understatement. It would kill lower league football, which is one of the few good things left about the game in England which continental clubs can't surpass (or really, even aspire to). The Championship is the fourth-most followed league in Europe behind the Premier League, La Liga and the Bundesliga - it even beats Serie A and Ligue 1 for matchday attendance (although not TV viewing figures). It is part of a Football League filled with (as you pointed out) big histories, big fanbases and valued, commonly-recognized elements of the national sporting fabric - all things your average 2.Bundesliga or Segunda Division club couldn't even dream about. Second teams shouldn't ever feature in a national discussion about how to catch up to continental football, because the lack of such teams is something England actually benefits from far more than it suffers from.
Post of the year, right there. Best thing about English football is the depth and amount of clubs in the country who are followed by loyal fans. I even remember reading about one of the Barcelona players forget which one now, coming over and saying how amazed he was at the level of fans and also the excitement and quality of football. Think it was Xavi talking about Brighton actually.
The Championship is one of the best leagues and also most unpredictable and that makes it more interesting for me, also I am not sure how many countries round Europe could have a team come up from the second league and then win the title as Leicester did even if it was some what of a fluke. The are also some massive football clubs in the lower leagues with 20,000 plus attendances.
Coventry even with all their problems are still running adult literacy courses for local residents, which shows what an important role clubs have to play in local communities.
Spot on. Orient are a club 92nd in the pyramid, rock bottom and looking up at every other outfit as they teeter on the edge of relegation from the Football League, with massive problems with their owner and with the fans' trust being asked to pay the club's medical bills. And yet, they run all sorts of community care schemes, sports programmes, disability inclusion initiatives and alternative education programs, alongside being a vibrant outfit that has its own groundswell of support (however small), its own place within the community that it's based in, its own proud history that stretches back over more than a century and its own place in the collective national consciousness.
Brisbane Road houses a living, breathing community of its own, one very much alive and immersed into the footballing story and societal fabric of the British Isles. It also used to house our reserve team at one point, not too long ago. And I know that there will never be a scenario where England would be benefited by having the former turfed out so that the latter could kick a ball around in an empty stadium against the Villa reserves in the hope that *maybe* a few more of them could one day be benchwarmers for Spurs before being sold back down the divisions.
Totally the wrong thread for this but as you are talking about Orient... their Trust is collecting at (London?) PL games tomorrow. Definitely worth a few spare quid or a crisp spare twenty if you have one and are at the game on Saturday...
Unless some kind of transfer cap is imposed or they up the home-grown quota significantly then nothing will change.