Quote: Clearwing "It's by no means certain that Leeds could run a reserve side whilst at the same time retaining the likes of Callum. Squad sizes are such that the only way this could be done would be to play a great many youngsters as often than not, regardless of how this would fit with their development. The quality of first grade competition is patchy, due in no small part to the number of injured players and it's no difficult feat to imagine how threadbare some reserve sides would quickly become. The resultant blowout scorelines would benefit whom, exactly?
Of course, teams could run with larger squads but this would mean that the wages would be more thinly spread meaning top players would be more likely to look for greener pastures, Wigan stylee. Now, I'm not claiming GH hasn't had influence in retaining the SC at its current level but until that's redressed reserve sides will create more problems than they solve IMO.'"
Some fair points - perhaps if the SC were refined that would then give scope for more investment in players? Perhaps if Leeds weren't lending out players they would have sufficient to provide a reserve team. If the 19s were scrapped so the progression was U16, U18 reserve grade that might work better.
Given that the base of the side would be the same the previous year's U18s with the addition of some first team squad members then you shouldn't get anymore score variation than you do at U18s and everyone still sees value in those competitions.
This would possibly give the younger players a further year of development and it would give the squad players a regular game outside of going to another club.
