U23 Sides in the Football Pyramid
Pep Guardiola certainly isn’t shy when it comes to voicing his opinions and wasn’t shy when speaking on how youngsters need to have more exposure to senior men’s football following his third-round league cup victory against Wycombe Wanderers.
He made the bold suggestion during his post-match press conference that U23 teams should play in the Championship and League One regularly suggesting that it would be ‘’the best development for English football’’.
One of his reasons was that he felt playing against other 17, 18 and 19-year olds winning by large goal margins doesn’t exactly give them the best education even if they are playing against other U23 sides of big football clubs.
In that respect, Pep raises a serious point on youth development. Some clubs with the best young talent dismantling other youth sides may just reinforce to their coaches something they already knew which is that they have the best young talent in the country.
Surprisingly, this isn’t the first time we’ve heard something similar. David Moyes while in charge of Everton all those years ago mentioned how Everton had agreed in principle for the reserve team to start off at the bottom of the leagues and work their way up the pyramid
We should always be looking to improve the development for young players for the better but not at the expense of any devaluation of some long-standing football structures we currently have.
The Championship and League One as well as the rest of the football pyramid for that matter doesn’t and shouldn’t exist to serve the super-rich and super-elite clubs in the country.
In theory, it would be great for these young players but it would damage the purity and dreams of those trying to climb the pyramid. Some of these U23 sides would be better funded than the teams they would compete against.
European models
This isn’t exactly a new innovative and alien concept. There are countries all over that have a similar format. In particularly the bigger European football countries like Germany, Spain and Portugal.
In Germany, some of the clubs in the Bundesliga have their reserve sides competing within the German football pyramid with the 3.Liga being the highest division a reserve team can compete in.
Bayern Munich’s consistent participation in the top flight permitted them to have a reserve team competing in this division. The reserves won the 3.Liga in 2019/20. The current 2021/22 season sees Borussia Dortmund reserves and Freiburg reserves compete in 3.Liga.
These teams much like the U23 teams in England consist of 18-23-year olds with some players over 23 allowed to play competitive fixtures.
Despite not being allowed to play higher than the 3rd division there is a general feeling that it halts the progress of smaller clubs.
Similar to the Spanish football pyramid where the Segunda Division (second division in Spain) is the highest division reserve team, who would be accompanied by ‘’B’’ like Barcelona B, can compete at.
Barcelona B and Real Madrid Castilla have had regular participation in this division for a long time. However, the current season sees Real Sociedad B as the only reserve side currently in the second division with many more B teams further down the pyramid.
The third division in the pyramid has been remodelled as the ‘’Primera Division RFEF’’ and the current season is its first which will include the reserve teams of Barcelona, Real Madrid, Sevilla, Villareal, Celta Vigo and Athletico Bilbao.
Reserve teams will never be permitted to compete in the same division as their senior teams.
Much the same in the neighbouring country Portugal. Benfica and Porto both have their B sides competing in the second Portuguese division known as Liga Portugal 2 and Braga as well as Sporting have their B sides in Liga 3.
As with the other divisions there is a threshold where the reserve teams can’t go past. In Portugal, it’s the second division like Spain.
Ultimately there have been some benefits for this type of structure. The clubs who have their teams within the footballing pyramid don’t have to rely on the loan system and can monitor the development giving the youngsters the best senior football available.
These players are also more motivated to fight for points when they are playing against other senior footballers who are fighting for points all of which whilst wearing the colours of the club that has developed them.
With the elite clubs likely to have sourced the best young talent, it can only be a good thing that they are part of these leagues as there is a chance they raise the quality of the league and attract more viewers to the league.
There are some negatives of course. Their pyramids mean that lower league teams have to work a little more harder and access to the highest divisions is much harder to achieve.
Given that Spain, Germany and Portugal have all had some form of success with their National sides in recent years, this isn’t exactly a model we should sneer at, given it seems to work for them developing their young talent preparing for top level senior football.
There is a pathway here that works which only can provide benefits for the young players even if it’s the young players of the biggest and most established sides in the respective countries. They seem to be making much more money of their young talent too.
Existing pathways
We have a variety of U23/ reserve divisions for the various categorised academies in England who compete against each other and sometimes against European academy sides in various tournaments.
However, in recent times we have seen the inclusion of some of the top U23 sides included in their participation in the Papa John’s EFL Trophy with a group stage and knockout phase against sides in both League One and League Two.
A great model that provides the opportunity for these youngsters to fight for glory in a competition against these senior professional footballers. Where clubs can gauge much more accurately the development path of their academy players.
It does come with its criticisms. Some fans of the League One and Two sides aren’t exactly thrilled of having to play against under aged Premier League or even Championship sides.
There have been instances where the attendance numbers have only increased when their sides have been drawn against another lower league opposition either in the group stage or further along the tournament.
The most common and perhaps oldest form of youth development is…. you guessed it the loan system. The loan system has long been a place where clubs can develop their young talent in the environment of senior football either domestically or even abroad.
Straight away, they gain the necessary experience of competitive football where with all due respect ‘’it matters more’’ than reserve football against other reserve sides. Parent clubs will have sourced the best available for their players to develop.
Some clubs like Leicester City or ironically Manchester City have ownership of other clubs in Europe and have access to send their players abroad on loan to develop also benefitting from some continental cultural experiences.
Pep’s Manchester City have access to three clubs in Europe under the City group ownership. So it’s interesting to see him so vocal about how best to develop young players when there are some ready-made solutions there for him.
Most bigger clubs take advantage of a network. Whether it be loaning to a lower league side that is close to them, using the existing relationship between coaches or other members of non-playing staff in order to source the best possible destinations.
The negative is you would have to rely on reports from the loan club and don’t necessarily have complete control of monitoring the progress of the young players and would have to trust the staff as well as any possible statistics that they have throughout their spell.
Another negative, which I think perhaps Guardiola may be hinting to, is the variation of loan player destinations. Most of the U23 set up will have played together for some years and the desired goal would be to see a strong amount of them playing together at senior level.
Most players from the same set up won’t get the same level of loan. For instance, some players may be perceived as being ready for Lower-Premier League to Championship football, whilst other sent out to League One or Two.
In that group of academy players some may even be sent out on loan abroad where the tests and demands are much different. Of course, different players require different types of development but it may cause an issue on their return where some players are just ahead.
Final Round up
If it were to ever come to the forefront however I don’t think U23 sides would be allowed to compete higher than the 5th or 6 tier of English football which just goes to show the strength of the football pyramid we have.
I don’t think incorporating U23s into the football pyramid in England will work. There would be a lot of logistical issues for the clubs lower down in the pyramid. Also, England’s unique football pyramids provides hope and a pathway for a lot of lower league clubs.
One of the issues is that a large amount of Professional English clubs have reserve sides who should be afforded the same opportunity to play senior opposition week in week out. They may decide that only the top categorised academies would be allowed to have reserve sides in the football pyramid, which would be met with some resistance for sure.
There is an element of snobbery in Pep’s comments with little regards for the divisions he mentioned as well as the rest of the football pyramid. Which to be fair isn’t entirely his fault.
Guardiola has managed both Bayern Munich and Barcelona where the reserve teams play senior football. I am a fan of some of the European models, it provides arguably the best form of youth development.
It does keep the bigger sides stronger which may be a reason to argue why 4,5 maybe 6 teams in the top divisions of these countries remain so strong and maintain their dominance.
What the system is does for the development of the best young players in the county is undeniable. They are able to profit on these talented assets if needs be and produce some elite talent for their national sides.
The youth development in England may need looking at. The football pyramid certainly doesn’t exist for the Category 1 academies or the big clubs so any changes similar to our European counterparts would be difficult to introduce.