Darragh MacAnthony's Premier League Draft System

[Son of Cod]

Darragh MacAnthony has suggested a draft pick system for loaning the Premier League's youth players. I'm gonna stick my neck out and here and say I actually really like this idea.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bbc.co.uk/sport/amp/football/46559442

Would be interested to hear everyone's opinions.

 

[valefan16]

Its one of his better comments to be fair and a better alternatively to the Checkatrade U21's.

He is spot on when i've seen the U21 games they are physically weak in terms of being bullied by the more experienced pro's but do knock the ball around well.

 

[Boz]

Agree it’s a good idea in theory, but many of the Prem sides are quite possessive of their youngsters and would be reluctant to see them go out to a side with a different style of play to the parent club.

 

[immariner]

Darragh MacAnthony has suggested a draft pick system for loaning the Premier League's youth players. I'm gonna stick my neck out and here and say I actually really like this idea.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bbc.co.uk/sport/amp/football/46559442

Would be interested to hear everyone's opinions.

Someone else's good (imo) post and my reply from the Fishy:

I don't see the Prem clubs being in favour of this as they'd have no say in where their young kids go. I'd imagine they'd prefer to send a player of theirs to a club they know will look after them and whose playing philosophy might relevant to them.

It also wouldn't help Clubs that really do look after young players on loan and really help develop them. I mean if we do it with Embleton and others too, we start to get a reputation in football circles and the bigger clubs become happy for their potential stars to come here for a few months/a year. We would've earned that. A draft system just gives everyone that same level of privilege.

I'd much rather not have anything like an American draft system. Just cap the squad sizes better at the top level so they can't hoard so many players. That's the reason they don't all play, because they've taken so many players on (because they can afford to) in the hope that one turns out to be the next Messi.

Beat me to it with this bit. Someone used the phrase yesterday (which I rather like) 'sledgehammer to crack a walnut', which I think fits here. Just as with the U21 sides in the Checkatrade, I wouldn't be for anything that marks the PL clubs as "special". In a meritocratic system, they are simply the clubs that happen to be at the top table at any given time (and not always for long). NFL, NBA, MLB teams are "special" by their nature as franchises and having the same teams every year. The players are also drafted from an external competition, college football, and not drafted between clubs. So in such a draft system, lower league clubs would essentially be deferring to PL clubs' academies as the best places to nurture talent and there would be little need for anyone outside the championship to have a youth system at all.

In short, the PL teams need to be curbed and not rewarded for stockpiling young talent.

Maybe my view is a bit quaint, perhaps
I am in denial about how football is now just a money game, but the moment my club becomes a secondary status football club behind the likes of two times administration Bournemouth, being forced to develop their players because they simply have too many, is the day lower league football final goes down the shitter. May as well have B teams then.

We should not be bowing down to the inequity, we should be fighting against it.

 

[Vanni]

Darren who? Never heard of him .

Terrible idea. The bit about guaranteed playing time is almost comical.I can already picture in my mind L1 and L2 managers up an down the land drawing up their first XI for some league game only to be rudely interrupted by the club owner - say gaffa, did you include those coupla Watford players we got on loan? I know they're woefully out of form but what can you do eh.

There are other things about this idea that just won't work. For starters, you cannot tell any youngster that he hasn't really got any say on where he'll be spending a year playing footy. Imagine a Liverpool youngster getting little Cambridge United. 'You sure I can't go to Tranmere?' 'No?' 'What about Oldham then?' 'Not even Bury ffs?'

Or what about when little Cambridge want a striker and a no 10 but get lumbered with two defenders when they're already well served in that department? And bear in mind they've got to give these two not-really-wanted kids guaranteed playing time.

 

[Plumbob]

Maybe Barry lost the transfer kitty and Darragh needs a new way of signing players?

 

[Vanni]

Could be, but Darragh's comments read like he's actually doing the PL clubs a favour by taking their youngsters on loan. It's not like the kids will help to make his side stronger or anything.

If he's got a problem with dishing out £5,000 a week for a PL youngster, then he could always look to the Championship clubs I guess. Should be cheaper I think. But then again, that kid with the second tier club will not be as good as the PL club one eh.

ps - I wonder if the PL clubs are asking him that much for a kid only because they know that he hasn't got a problem paying that and more to his own players.

 

[Chris FGR]

We got Brad Collins on loan from Chelsea for virtually nothing last season. Quite a few Prem clubs don't care about paying these kids wages, it's spare change to them, they just want them to get games.

 

[Son of Cod]

Darren who? Never heard of him .

Terrible idea. The bit about guaranteed playing time is almost comical.I can already picture in my mind L1 and L2 managers up an down the land drawing up their first XI for some league game only to be rudely interrupted by the club owner - say gaffa, did you include those coupla Watford players we got on loan? I know they're woefully out of form but what can you do eh.

There are other things about this idea that just won't work. For starters, you cannot tell any youngster that he hasn't really got any say on where he'll be spending a year playing footy. Imagine a Liverpool youngster getting little Cambridge United. 'You sure I can't go to Tranmere?' 'No?' 'What about Oldham then?' 'Not even Bury ffs?'

Or what about when little Cambridge want a striker and a no 10 but get lumbered with two defenders when they're already well served in that department? And bear in mind they've got to give these two not-really-wanted kids guaranteed playing time.

You've never heard of the Peterborough owner?

Loads of loan deals are already all but done with guaranteed playing times nowadays anyway. Albeit not officially, but it's not uncommon for a parent club to recall a player for not being used at all or not enough.

Both yourself and immariner are right in that it wouldn't be able to work in exactly the same way as an NFL draft, in that players and parent clubs would need to have more of a say in where they went.

With regards to the last paragraph though, you wouldn't get lumbered with players as the lower league clubs are the ones who would be initially selecting players. It wouldnt be a randomly assigned thing.

The idea of Prem clubs not stockpiling youngsters is obviously the best solution, but let's face it - that isn't going to stop.

 

[WhiteRussian]

I would say the answer is the Prem clubs not nicking all the good youngsters in the first place however I'm not that naive that it will ever stop. Also if some youngster gets an offer from a prem club on a lot more money, he isn't going to want to stay in div 2 and most lower clubs will jump at the money.

The idea isn't without merit but whether it is workable or even acceptable to some clubs? I doubt it.

 

[Vanni]

You've never heard of the Peterborough owner?

Loads of loan deals are already all but done with guaranteed playing times nowadays anyway. Albeit not officially, but it's not uncommon for a parent club to recall a player for not being used at all or not enough.

Both yourself and immariner are right in that it wouldn't be able to work in exactly the same way as an NFL draft, in that players and parent clubs would need to have more of a say in where they went.

With regards to the last paragraph though, you wouldn't get lumbered with players as the lower league clubs are the ones who would be initially selecting players. It wouldnt be a randomly assigned thing.

The idea of Prem clubs not stockpiling youngsters is obviously the best solution, but let's face it - that isn't going to stop.

Peter who? Oh, you mean the club with a fat crook for a manager and his not very nice assistant? The Pish is the word you're looking for

Seriously though, I agree with your first point and you're correct in saying that this 'guaranteed time' restriction is already in place. That's something even the L2 clubs themselves do when they send out their youngsters to NL clubs.

But I don't see how the lower league clubs wouldn't get lumbered with players though. Going through this board, I get the impression that a good number of L2 sides are missing a decent striker or two, or an attacking mid, the 'no 10 type', with barely any fans saying the priority for their club is to get in a RB or a LB. It's probably the same thing in L1. If the idea for the proposed system is for clubs to state their preferred choice of playing position, then it's a sure thing that most will be left feeling disappointed as there simply aren't that many decent strikers/no 10 type players to go around.

If this idea takes hold, it will most likely be a luck of the draw affair.