At last Arsenal reserves get a breakthrough (of sorts)

I’ve been arguing for some time that Premier League reserve teams should be able to play in the Football League, in the same way as happens in Spain, France, and Germany. It is an idea that caught on a little, as Andre Villas Boas, when at Chelsea, suggested the same. Naturally, he did not get an intelligent conversation back on this: the Football League called this “offensive”, but Everton manager David Moyes then revealed he tried to get Everton ‘B’ team to play in the Football Conference.

I have also suggested that since the English won’t play, the Scottish Third Division might be given a boost by having Arsenal Reserves in it, but on this one the footballing world has remained silent. The former France technical director Gerard Houllier said, “In England, you lose a lot of players between 18 and 21,” he said. “The two countries who are failing are England and Italy. I knew one or two players [when manager] at Aston Villa who did not have enough games to play at the top level. Between 18 and 20 there is nothing. In France when they don’t play on a Saturday, they can play for the reserves the next day.”

Arsenal have tried to compensate by using the loan system more and more vigorously, and we’ve often spoken here of the fact that Lorient is now increasingly looking like an Arsenal in the French League. But the reserves and youth team are taken as seriously as possible, and certainly more seriously than some clubs take the whole affair. Tottenham, Manchester City, QPR, Stoke for example have not played in a reserve league of late. ‘Arry pulled Tottenham out of all reserve competitions, and as for the others, I am not sure what they have been doing.

Up to last season, Arsenal played in The Premier Reserve League which started out in 1999 replacing the old Football Combination and the Central League. But no one was very happy with it and the format was re-organised time and time again. Also, because Arsenal tend to promote youngsters quickly and make great use of the loan system, they tended to use it as a chance for up coming players to experience competitive games, rather than going all out to win the league. While some clubs put unwanted members of their first team squad to play in the reserves, Arsenal never did this – using it totally for players who were over age for the Premier Academy League.

Now everything is changing. We now have the Barclays Under-21 Premier League, and there is the Next Gen knock out cup for teams across Europe. Suddenly, being a reserve is going to be a lot more fun.

Arsenal’s Under-21s will start this season with two fixtures at Emirates, against Bolton Wanderers on Monday, August 20 (kick-off 7pm) and Blackburn on Saturday, August 25 (kick-off 2pm). Teams can use three outfield players over the age of 21 and one over-age goalkeeper.

NextGen Series matches will be played at Underhill Stadium starting with Marseille on Wednesday, August 29 (kick-off 7pm). NextGen is in effect an Under-19 version of the Champions League (although teams are allowed to select up to three Under-20 players in their squad) with group stages followed by the knock out round from January onwards. Marseille are the first opponents to experience Barnet on August 29 (kick-off 7pm) before we play to Olympiacos on September 12.

Back in the new Reserve League, the 23 clubs have been divided into 3 groups. The top two teams in each group along with the two best 3rd place teams, will move into an ‘elite round’ of games to be played after Christmas. The other teams will then be divided up into 2 groups also for further games after Christmas.

Group A:Arsenal, Blackburn, Bolton, Everton, Norwich, Reading, West Brom and West Ham.

Group B: Newcastle, Tottenham, Southampton, Stoke, Manchester United, Watford, Sunderland and Aston Villa.

Group C:Fulham, Chelsea, Manchester City, Liverpool, Middlesbrough, Crystal Palace and Wolves.

Just so as you see the sort of players we are currently playing in our reserve side, here is the squad for saturday’s game: Chesham United v Arsenal, kick off 3pm.

1. James Shea2. Hector Bellerin3. Elton Monteiro4. Zachari Fagan5. Jernade Meade6. Isaac Hayden7. Jack Jebb8. Kristoffer Olsson9. Josh Rees10. Philip Roberts11. Nigel Neita12. Martin Angha13. Josh Vickers14. Chuba Akpom15. Alfred Mugabo16. Samir Bihmoutine17. Austin Lipman18. Glen Kamara

Here are the details for the season proper…

Reserve Fixtures 2012/13

Mon, Aug 20	Bolton Wanderers	Under-21 Premier League	H	19:00	Emirates Stadium
Sat, Aug 25	Blackburn Rovers	Under-21 Premier League	H	14:00	Emirates Stadium
Wed, Aug 29	Marseille	NextGen Series	H	19:00	Barnet FC
Mon, Sep 3	Everton	Under-21 Premier League	H	19:00	Barnet FC
Wed, Sep 12	Olympiacos	NextGen Series	A	TBC	Georgios Karaiskakis Stadium
Mon, Sep 17	Norwich City	Under-21 Premier League	H	19:00	Barnet FC
Fri, Sep 21	West Ham United	Under-21 Premier League	A	19:00	Old Ford Sports Ground
Mon, Oct 1	West Bromwich Albion	Under-21 Premier League	A	14:00	The Hawthorns
Thu, Oct 4	Olympiacos	NextGen Series	H	19:00	Barnet FC
Mon, Oct 8	Reading	Under-21 Premier League	H	19:00	Barnet FC
Mon, Oct 22	Everton	Under-21 Premier League	A	19:00	St Helens RLFC
Thu, Oct 25	Marseille	NextGen Series	A	TBC	TBC
Mon, Oct 29	Blackburn Rovers	Under-21 Premier League	A	19:00	Leigh RFC
Mon, Nov 5	Bolton Wanderers	Under-21 Premier League	A	19:00	Lancashire FA
Fri, Nov 9	West Ham United	Under-21 Premier League	H	13:00	London Colney
Thu, Nov 15	Athletic Bilbao	NextGen Series	A	TBC	TBC
Mon, Nov 19	Norwich City	Under-21 Premier League	A	19:00	Carrow Road
Fri, Nov 23	West Bromwich Albion	Under-21 Premier League	H	13:00	London Colney
Fri, Nov 30	Reading	Under-21 Premier League	A	13:00	Hogwood Park Training Ground
Thu, Dec 6	Athletic Bilbao	NextGen Series	H	19:00	Barnet FC