Just who should be held responsible?

Not to my knowledge.

Are you Tim Lovejoy in disguise?

Liverpool Reserves have been known to play their home matches in another country....at Wrexham.

Some very good points there which I will endeavour to respond to whilst having one eye on Le Tour on Eurosport * and having a window on the PC open with the official tour live progress ~ have you ever used that with it's little figures chopping and changing positions?

The "death" of the lower leagues has been the subject of speculation for many, many years; somehow and some way it is still not with us and the influx of considerable sums of money now from the overseas rights to TV coverage of the Premiership, which although ring fenced for youth development; is the latest and a very substantial safety net for the clubs below the Premiership itself that is helping keep that spectrum from haunting football.

Therefore I think it is becoming apparent that the Premiership clubs are already regarding their smaller bretheren as the "growing fields" in which their burgeoning stars of the future as the nurseries in which they can place them so that instead of the German system where those types actually play for their own club's reserves; in this country they play for the incumbent clubs at those levels instead of against them. So we see a situation where a club like QPR have players in on loan from clubs like Arsenal and play them in their first team, yet in turn loan out their own young pro's to clubs such as ourselves as they don't in fact now operate in a formal reserve team competition.................a "cascading" down of talent if you like. This in turn saves the League 2 and Conference clubs who are the beneficiaries lower down on their own wage bill and development costs.

I would much prefer OUR club to have a formal "development agreement" with a substantially larger club and include their players within our squad whilst the make up of the league we play in retains it's current status, rather than seeing some our independent rivals replaced by the formal reserves of Premiership and larger Championship/League 1 clubs.

At one time last season Tottenham and Arsenal between them had a total of over forty young pro's out on loan to smaller clubs (Arsenal even lending one or two to rival Premiership clubs) so I don't really see a problem with them consolidating those arrangements so that they loan "pockets" of four or five youngsters to smaller clubs rather than dot them all over the country.

I think in reality that is the road that Paul Buckle has been working along with Tottenham in particular and using his relationship with Alex Inglethorpe whilst at the same time changing our own style of play so that the players comng in from such a sophisticated club are not thrown into some "route one" side who's football bears no relation whatsoever to that which they have been patiently coached and developed in at their parent clubs. I don't think Harry Redknapp wants his potential stars of the future developing bad habits that could manifest itself into suddenly lacking the composure to retain possession for long periods of the game as they will be required to use when they play in the Premiership and hopefully international football for their country.

That more than anything else will enhance and improve the standard of football played in the lower leagues, and we know ourselves just how the football required to be successfull in League 2 is entirely different to that required in the BSP.

* By the way, the Tour progresses from Brussels to Spa today through the Northern areas of the Ardennes where I have enjoyed some wonderful cycling/canoing/camping holidays in an area very similar to the Teign Valley. They will climb the famous cobbled Stockeu Wall at Stavelot shortly and no doubt piss up there at such a rate as to ridicule the near heart attack I suffered when manfully struggling up the bastard several years ago!

It's not the steep hills that do for you, it's all the ruddy breweries and local beers on offer every night that ruin your fitness!

I'm watching the Tour climb the hill out of Trois Ponts and it's tarmacked!

too bloody soft these modern day riders............ in the days of Eddie Merckx that was cobbled ~ I suppose they've done that to stop the locals digging them up and lobbing 'em at the Frenchies in the peleton.

I just fail to see how the introduction of reserve teams into the Football League structure could work. Who is going to be asked to leave to accommodate them? And who is to say which top-flight club (presumably one who could afford to operate what would be in effect two professional outfits) would be able to enter a second team? What would happen in the FA and League cup? Would reserve teams sit out? How would Conference teams or teams currently below the current tier 4 get a look in? As for the proposed 'bar' on reserve sides going beyond say, League 1 – how would that work?

No, our football pyramid; it’s structure, its ethos, its history is worth more than anything – more than the fortunes of the England team, more than any 'genius' at the FA or Football League or who would think of dismantling it...and certainly more than people like Wenger and Benitez and their employers whose only interest is their own.

With the European under-19 championship in France less than a week away and top flight clubs refusing to release English players being deemed acceptable! I rest my case. Pre season tours and being close to the start of the domestic season were some of the lame excuses given by the clubs.

That's a really interesting post, Chris.

I hope my comments weren't seen to be claiming any supposed supremacy for English football or culture; each country has its own history, geography and antecedents, and what exists in one country should and cannot be seen as a 'blueprint' for others to follow.

But our pyramid structure is surely something very special indeed. The fact that there is nothing (in theory) to stop a club rising from the depths of non-league to achieve Football League status, FA Cup glory and more through nothing more than winning games is little short of fantastic in my book. We are, to my knowledge, the only country of equivalent size that hosts 5 national leagues, and that to me is precious. The relatively short distances involved - for most! ;D (compared to say, Spain, Germany or even Italy) - no doubt makes this possible. But so does our footballing culture, which when you look below the Premiership and its legions of overbearing 'fans', means that loyalty to one's club, it's history, its place and the pride/despair felt at its position in the overall scheme of things - however 'minor' or temporary - is what makes supporting an 'unfashionable' club worth the effort.

You were right (as i saw it) to infer from my post that I believe this has certain negative effects. Clubs do over-reach themselves, short-term gain caused by the lure of promotion - even at lowest of levels - can and does lead to short-sightedness and catastrophic failure. It can also lead, imo, to a 'win at all costs' mentality which one could argue is not always conducive to the production of an aesthetic spectacle, the health of the national team or coaching.

But that is a price worth paying imo. To be a fan of a club of Torquay's size is not to support a club 'three leagues below the Premiership' (as i always have to explain to foreigners! ), but a club that has played the likes of Sheffield Wednesday, Bradford City, Middlesborough, Crystal Palace and others on its own terms in the League and countless others in the Cup. It's to support a team that is a 3/4/5 tier club in a 20+ tier system...and it's what thousands of clubs up and down the country aspire one day to be.

That to me is what the likes of Arsene Wenger and Rafa Benitez fail to appreciate or acknowledge when they come out with their myopic 'reserve teams should play in the Championship' nonsense, and that is why every right-minded fan, should dismiss such ideas out of hand.