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EFL Trophy Group Stage Draw 27 July - Confirmation of Category 1 Academy invitations



M

mxs_harrow

New member
Jan 20, 2009
195
HA5
A bit under the radar at the moment:-

http://www.efl.com/news/article/2016/efl-trophy-group-stage-draw-date-announced-3207560.aspx

The Category 1 Academy invitations will be announced at 0930.

According to the following Wikipedia link there are still five slots available to Category 1 Championship academies in the order in which they finished the 2015-16 U21 Premier League D1/D2 tables.

" Norwich, Aston Villa , Brighton, Derby , Wolves and Blackburn are therefore expected to be asked to enter".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2016–17_EFL_Trophy

Of the Premiership teams, Arsenal, Chelsea, Man City and Spurs all declined and Liverpool and Man Utd are thought unlikely to field U-23 teams as the early group stages clash with England U-21 games.

Of the Championship teams, Newcastle were already included in the 16 Premiership invitees and Reading have confirmed participation ( In D1 of the U21 league).

http://www.readingfc.co.uk/news/art...ophy-2016-17-3207081.aspx#OOaHH7Ix8R5pLHzG.99

Norwich, Derby, Aston Villa, Blackburn and Fulham finished ahead of Brighton in the U-21 leagues last year, so it is touch and go whether Brighton get a place in the competition.

The benefit of extra games for our Under-23 squad will be good preparation for stepping up to the first squad when called upon.

The link for the original EFL Trophy announcement with the original 16 Category 1 Premiership academies is:-

http://www.efl.com/news/article/2016/efl-trophy-format-confirmed-for-201617-3170687.aspx
 
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M

mxs_harrow

New member
Jan 20, 2009
195
HA5
6 of the starting 11 to be U21, Three over-age outfield players, plus over-age goalkeeper,

http://www.premierleague.com/news/58764

Means a good-run out for fringe/bench players especially as they can't go out on short-term (emergency) loans this year. This EFL Trophy plus EFL Cup (League Cup) can provide more games in between the U-23 Fixtures.

The invited clubs in the EFL Trophy get one home game only in the group stage and put their cut of the gate back into the pot for the League 1 and 2 clubs.
 




M

mxs_harrow

New member
Jan 20, 2009
195
HA5
A lot of negative feedback on this competition on Twitter so far and the draw hasn't even been made.

https://twitter.com/search?q=efl+trophy&ref_src=twsrc^google|twcamp^serp|twgr^search


Jaymo ‏@Run_Run_Gilkesy · 11m11 minutes ago

"League 1 and 2 clubs aren't impressed our academy will be knocking them out of the EFL trophy next season." #readingfc #minormeltdown #FL72
 In reply to Newcastle Blades ⚔


Colin Clayton ‏@ColinVClayton · 14m14 minutes ago

@Tyneside_Blades @EFL @EFLTrophy I don't even recognise it as a club game. If they played in my back garden I would draw the curtains
 
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Thunder Bolt

Thunder Bolt

Silly old bat
Aug 18, 2009
65,437
Beside the seaside, beside the sea
It's the Johnson's Paint Trophy without a sponsor because the League can't get one. When we got promoted to the Championship, most of us were glad to leave it behind.

The U21s, or U23s as they are now, have their own cup competition. Why deny the lower leagues their chance at Wembley?
 


N

NooBHA

Well-known member
Jan 13, 2015
8,584
Thunder Bolt said:
It's the Johnson's Paint Trophy without a sponsor because the League can't get one. When we got promoted to the Championship, most of us were glad to leave it behind.

The U21s, or U23s as they are now, have their own cup competition. Why deny the lower leagues their chance at Wembley?
Click to expand...


Last I heard, We are going into it............I didn't think it was a good idea but Chris likes the idea that the younger players get more games than they would usually play in a season. Apparently the first round is in and around the first International break
 




Thunder Bolt

Thunder Bolt

Silly old bat
Aug 18, 2009
65,437
Beside the seaside, beside the sea
NooBHA said:
Last I heard, We are going into it............I didn't think it was a good idea but Chris likes the idea that the younger players get more games than they would usually play in a season. Apparently the first round is in and around the first International break
Click to expand...

I'm disappointed to read that.
 




M

mxs_harrow

New member
Jan 20, 2009
195
HA5
The U-23s have their tiered leagues ( with promotion, play-off and relegation), cup and, for the top 12 Category 1 academies (including Reading) an International Cup competition against the likes of PSV, Bilbao, Celtic, Benfica, Valencia, Villareal and Wolfsburg etc..

http://www.premierleague.com/news/58754.

Tony Bloom has put the money into the academy so we are playing in a U-23 league and associated competitions that the likes of Palace and Watford can't, and hopefully this will attract more development talent and give us more of an advantage ( see Southampton).

With no Trophy competition sponsor, it is the invited Category 1 teams that are effectively funding it with their gate money contribution and only have 1 home tie in the group stage which gives the League 1 and 2 teams a more weighted home advantage.

Hope it works out for all the teams (including Brighton) involved.

It is less of a thin end of the wedge scenario compared with the plan to have 5 divisions of 20 teams each below the Premiership which would massively reduce gate money and match day income for lower league clubs
 




Thunder Bolt

Thunder Bolt

Silly old bat
Aug 18, 2009
65,437
Beside the seaside, beside the sea
mxs_harrow said:
The U-23s have their tiered leagues ( with promotion, play-off and relegation), cup and, for the top 12 Category 1 academies (including Reading) an International Cup competition against the likes of PSV, Bilbao, Celtic, Benfica, Valencia, Villareal and Wolfsburg etc..

http://www.premierleague.com/news/58754.

Tony Bloom has put the money into the academy so we are playing in a U-23 league and associated competitions that the likes of Palace and Watford can't, and hopefully this will attract more development talent and give us more of an advantage ( see Southampton).

With no Trophy competition sponsor, it is the invited Category 1 teams that are effectively funding it with their gate money contribution and only have 1 home tie in the group stage which gives the League 1 and 2 teams a more weighted home advantage.

Hope it works out for all the teams (including Brighton) involved.

It is less of a thin end of the wedge scenario compared with the plan to have 5 divisions of 20 teams each below the Premiership which would massively reduce gate money and match day income for lower league clubs
Click to expand...

Do you honestly think there will be gate money to watch a Trophy game? We only got a thousand when it was the JPT in our league. It will cost the club more to host a game.
 


SweatyMexican

SweatyMexican

Well-known member
Mar 31, 2013
4,101
This is the slipperiest of slippery slopes I've ever seen. It'll be the end of our great lower league football if youth sides are allowed to play in the football pyramid, and what a crying shame that day will be.
 


M

mxs_harrow

New member
Jan 20, 2009
195
HA5
On a Luton web site they are bemoaning the fact that they will not be playing Watford in the EFL Trophy as they are not Category 1.

http://www.lutontoday.co.uk/sport/l...tford-clash-for-luton-in-efl-trophy-1-7464563

We will only have one home game in the group stage and am pretty sure that the likes of Portsmouth, Millwall, Charlton, Gillingham, Orient, Crawley to name a few would like to play our U-23 team down at the Amex,

Or we could have Luton, Stevenage and Oxford in the initial group stage, we'd be arguably better prepared and stronger for them next time.....
 














Dick Swiveller

Dick Swiveller

Well-known member
Sep 9, 2011
9,155
Wow. The excitement. Look at the giants we could be up against.

efl.png
 




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