City have been drawn against Peterborough, Barnet and MK Dons in this revamped competition. Good games for our younger prospects to play against older pro's and gain valuable experience.
Cool - I agree. Hopefully the Peterborough game will be at London Road which means I'll be able to get to a midweek game for a change.
Your wish is granted ocf, at London Road week begining 29th August. Also away to Barnet and home to MK.
This will be a useful chance for the younger players on the fringe of the first team to get some real match time to keep them in the reckoning.
I'm not sure about this. The Paints trophy was a way for these lower league teams to have a cup to compete for. I don't know how I feel about b sides from the higher divisions included. As one of the teams included, it's great for us. Competitive games for our youth and reserves. If we were a team in the lower leagues, and suddenly all these teams got added, I'd be really P**sed. How does the competition work now? Why are we drawn with all those teams? Is there a group stage? Or are they naming teams in our side of the draw?
This is what will happen for this trial year! In addition to the “invited clubs”, the regionalised knockout format of the competition will have a group stage added to it, where games that finish in a draw will feature a penalty shootout, with the winners getting a bonus point.
That does sound a more exciting set up. Will it benefit clubs with increased match revenue? Probably not, I've read sides like Chelsea and United have pulled out. Those teams involved might bring more fans to games of League 2 sides. I think if they changed to this format and kept it the same teams eligible, it would still be more exciting a prospect than it was.
It guarantees three cup games for each team, which is more than 50% would expect in a straight knockout. I believe the Premier League have contributed more money too in return for the youth sides inclusion . I agree it's a shame the big 5 or so have pulled out in terms of attracting fans of those clubs to contribute to non-PL football. That said, there's a bigger risk with them included that the final could be two youth sides, which would kill the tournament.
Basically what I was saying. Where's the line between drawing fans by top teams B-sides being included, and them hating us for using one of their only chances to win a cup, for a competitive friendly for our youth.
Selfishly I'm glad our U21s are in it and I want them to win. In general I'm not sure it is good for the fans of lower league clubs. As if the final is two u21 teams it will undermine them. On the other hand the greater the opportunity for young players to get into the professional game instead of expensive foreign imports will join doubt help the development of home grown players. There's been talk of B teams joining the lower leagues this seems like a step that way.
Me too - it would be great if our boys could win this - it would be a good experience all round and we all love it when the Canaries win something don't we ?
My understanding is that it is in fact an under 23 team for us lucky enough to be invited, with 4 over aged player allowed. This should be enough with other fixture commitments to give our fringe players a meaningful season.
Why can't a cup competition be a straight knockout? This group thing is not great and while I applaud the chance for an under 21 side to have a go at something, as has been said, it is unfair to take cenre stage over a third divison (or whatever they are now) side. And, if this is a benchmark, could some templae carry forward to the F A Cup with say Man United putting in under 21, under 18 and amaybe a cheeky under a side with a couple of 'adults' No thanks!
I think the group stage is to give lower ranked teams more gate receipts, and I wonder if this is to somewhat mitigate the games lost if the 5x20 league structure gets approved.
On which subject - and apologies if it's already common knowledge, but this piece in the Telegraph from late May details the proposed changes and how the divisions may look subsequently if changes are approved. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/football...ld-have-a-fifth-division-and-number-of-leagu/
True, but once the dust has settled, I think it's far a better system. For example: Good news for fans of more 'remote' clubs, many of whom can't get to long distance evening games as things stand, or end up arriving home a 2 or 3 in the morning. For example, on Sept 28th, kick off 19.45 p.m. Newcastle vs Norwich
Not really sure where to put this but our u21 team are competing in the international competition again. The draw was yesterday we start against Valencia https://www.premierleague.com/news/73700