BradKnowles1

I reckon he will end up in league one

Looks like we are getting a b team competition. From the athletic Premier League and National League in talks over new cup competition Matt Slater The National League and Premier League are in talks about the creation of a new cup competition between the top 16 teams in English football’s fifth tier and 16 under-21 sides from the top division. The proposed competition would involve four groups of eight teams, comprised of four teams from each division, arranged on a regional basis, with each National League side playing each Premier League U21 team at home. The National League teams would not play each other in the group stage. The host National League club would get all of the gate receipts and half of the prize money, with the other half going into a central pot to be split between the 56 non-participating clubs in the National League and sixth-tier National League North and National League South. The Premier League, therefore, would be heavily subsidising the competition. The participating National League teams would be the top 16 sides in the previous season’s table, with the two teams relegated from League Two replacing the two promoted sides. Final details are still being ironed out but it is likely that the top two from each group would progress to a knockout round, which would no longer be regional. There is even a possibility that the final could be staged at Wembley, much like the final of the competition this idea is based on, the EFLTrophy. Officially known as the Bristol Street Motors Trophy, the EFL Trophy is a midweek knockout competition, which starts with a regional group stage, between the 48 teams in Leagues One and Two and 16 U21 sides from Premier League and Championship clubs that have top-level “category one” academies. The EFL Trophy dates back to the early 1980s and has been through various formats and sponsors, including a six-year period when sides from the National League were invited to take part, but the current format has been in place since 2016. The participation of Premier League academies was highly controversial at first, as many fans of lower-league clubs believed it was the first step in an attempt to introduce B teams to the pyramid, and attendances were often embarrassingly low. In fact, gate receipts remain tiny for the group stages but the Premier League has funded the competition as its clubs want their youngsters to play older, stronger players, making the EFL Trophy far more popular with club executives than supporters. That said, attendances for the competition’s knockout rounds, particularly the semi-finals and final, are now significant, which suggests the initial concerns about B teams have eased. This is probably helped by the fact that no U21 team has made the final yet. More than 42,000 watched this month’s 2024 final between Peterborough United and Wycombe Wanderers, which Peterborough won with an injury-time goal, but more than double that number saw the 2019 final between Portsmouth and Sunderland. The proposed National League/Premier League competition is very unlikely to attract those numbers but it should go some way to compensating National League sides for the abolition of replays in the first two rounds of the FA Cup, which were scrapped last week, provoking widespread anger. Some of that anger has even been directed at National League general manager Mark Ives, as he wrote to his member clubs telling them he supported the Football Association’s decision to shelve replays because of fixture congestion. The Athletic has spoken to several National League clubs about the matter, all of whom have said they were not consulted by the FA or their own league, and that they categorically disagreed with the need to axe replays in rounds one and two. After all, they pointed out, that is before the Premier League teams most concerned about fixture congestion even enter the competition. In truth, Ives was not consulted about the decision to scrap replays either and he has already told his clubs he will argue to keep them for the qualifying rounds, which involve hundreds of amateur sides, that precede the first round proper. It is also possible that he will lobby the FA to reverse the decision to scrap replays in rounds one and two, if that is what his clubs ask him to do at the league’s annual general meeting this summer. However, he, the FA and the Premier League, clearly believe that National League clubs will feel differently about the decision to scrap replays once they learn more details about the extra £33million the Premier League is giving to the FA to share with the grassroots game, including clubs below the EFL, and it is explained that more lower-round FA Cup games will be televised in future. If that does not do the trick, perhaps the new EFL Trophy-style competition will, particularly as it is pencilled in to start in the pre-Christmas period just made slightly less congested by the scrapping of cup replays. But what this means for the stalled plans to expand the actual EFL Trophy by inviting all 20 Premier League clubs and increasing the group stages to five games is unclear. Those plans appear to be another casualty of the breakdown in talks between the EFL and Premier League over a new financial distribution model for the professional game.

I’m not so certain you know…

Some names which have been doing the rounds in different latics chats Im in. Not sure if any substance to them: Paddy Madden offered two year deal Stockport only offered ine. Paul Lewis Tranmere Jeff king chesterfield ash palmer chesterfield Cian Hayes seen on Twitter we need a right back Connor Barrett out of contract for fylde. Tylor Golden another we have visited before out of contract

Absolute fantastic news Hogan and Sheron have been told to find new clubs. Doubt many will want though. hogan has been a dire captain. Hopefully some leaders are signed

I reckon there will be that’s why get rid of them all.

If there is no budget for bringing better than them we are in trouble

Well it was in the Oldham times confirming the 4….

You can’t slate the team, say you know what a good player is and moan about the budget then offer potential contracts to 4 players. Fans are pissed off as it is. The club are burning bridges and some will end up voting with their feet

York have a more bloated squad than us. Recruited so poorly. 23 professionals even after their released players. Plenty of them were out on loan as well at places.

Anyone catch what Hogan said on TNT

That statement is really bad. It’s like they are trying to piss fans off. I still reckon two or three of them will get deals. why not just say the ones we are definitely not keeping and the ones we are in talks with.

Not very clear has anyone been given a deal

Fantastic news they are all gone

This is very true. Hes taken some pelters