This week's U23 League Review

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http://www.uptheclarets.com/three-wins- ... the-bottom" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Is there a reason why all these teams have better development teams, shouldn't the standards be similar to our 1st team (as in Crewe and Bristol City should be below us)?

Claret82 wrote:Is there a reason why all these teams have better development teams, shouldn't the standards be similar to our 1st team (as in Crewe and Bristol City should be below us)?

It is a huge leap from being a 'reserve' team who played a few matches each season (mostly behind closed doors) with a single year's entry into the Premier League Cup for experience, to being a squad capable of competing with teams who have been harvesting players for a long time. If you add to that the team being often used to give valuable experience to lads from the youth set-up and triallists with very few players from the senior squad being used then you see the learning curve and recruitment we still need to undertake.

So it is about not having a consistent team and that it's used for experience and checking players out?

Does this mean then that it is not taken seriously as a competition?

Claret82 wrote:So it is about not having a consistent team and that it's used for experience and checking players out?

Does this mean then that it is not taken seriously as a competition?

It is a competition that we’ve worked hard to get into and our new status is a boost for us in developing footballers. It will take some time to get things anything like how we want them. We are the new kids on the block at this level, we field a very young team and are currently looking at several trialists.