I get what you are saying but don’t you think that having a competition that teams like us could potentially go further in would be better than currently where realistically it’s going to be a Premier league club every year.
It could be regional in the early rounds
I agree - the League Cup is a good thing but the problem is that the big clubs don’t take it seriously until the later stages - and that devalues it.
You can tell by the suggestion to get rid of it. It ain’t come from us.
No, I don’t. I think it’s the presence of the Prima Donnas that gives the competition its lustre, such as it is. Without them there won’t be much of a competition left, and the legions of plastic, glory hunting fans (many of whom live in Walsall, Mansfield, Exeter etc.) will be even less aware of our existence.
Think we will have to agree to disagree
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Fair enough, but only until next season, when we win 2-0 at Old Trafford in Round 4 and then it will be clear I was right all along. 
Against UTDs youths
Not the first team for sure, it’s usually a mix of squad players and kids. Although if Gollum stays in charge he might be desperate for success in the League Cup next season.
Most EFL clubs seem to be broadly in favour.
The words and numbers as they appear seem to be a bit of a no-brainer. Lose the League Cup and lose two league places as the four leagues move from 92 to 90 but get money that should see us through Covid, a bigger share of future telly money and an end to parachute payments.
I think the people in the lower leagues who are vehemently against the proposals aren’t against them as they are written but have a serious trust issue. A big six power grab feels wrong and maybe another mallet blow to the wedge between the rich and poor. And the timing of an apparent hand out to lower leagues looks suspicious.
But I’m with Pomlett. Given the current situation and given that the power grab only really negatively impacts those who inhabit a different football universe, we should take it at face value. It is probably enough to see most lower league clubs through for another year. The caveat we need to insist on is that there is absolutely no prospect of reserve of youth teams coming anywhere near the league pyramid.
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Completely agree. This is a principle that should not be compromised in any way whatsoever.
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Brilliant piece by Matt Maher.
Under the plan, the nine longest-serving members – which helpfully includes the Big Six – would be granted special shareholder status, effectively giving them the run of the top flight.
Somewhat conveniently, the votes of only two-thirds of those special shareholders would be required to make changes, making the influence of West Ham, Southampton and Everton (the other three clubs as things stand) somewhat redundant. The Hammers have already expressed their opposition to the plan.
The special shareholders would negotiate the future broadcasting deals and also have the power to veto takeovers. A rather useful way, a cynic might suggest, of stopping billionaire owners taking over the likes Villa and Wolves again.
Whilst it might help Walsall it will take away any aspirations we can ever have that one day we might play in the Premiership.
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I look at it another way. Clubs, and people within football generally just caring about their “bit” of the game is understandable, but its also what has engendered the current anomolies, and what underpins these opportunistic proposals. I guess we all have to live in what you might call the real world, but there’s something disinctly unedifying about this situation being manipulated by opportunistic fat cats, be they in the football sphere or wider world, while the overwhelming majority beg for scraps from the table. That’s not particularly a world I would chose to endorse, if indeed choice is still part of our reality.
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I don’t think we need to worry our pretty little heads about that…
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I’m more worried about us being one of the two teams that disappear from the EFL.
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If you take away the opportunity for the likes of Wycombe, Coventry, Brentford, Luton, Rotherham, Barnsley etc to play in the Premiership then why bother competing in the Championship.
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Have to agree. Wander round any town centre and you see people (not just kids) wearing shirts of the glamour teams. These proposals would make it even harder for the small clubs to get locals supporting them, Walsall and others like us would be even more insignificant to those who think football is something delivered down a cable or via a satellite to their living rooms, and who think the game was invented in 1992.
That’s always been the case,when I was a kid I liked Man Utd,my 2 eldest brother’s liked Spurs and Liverpool,but all 3 of us are Walsall fans.I think it’s even more so these days with wall to wall coverage live of all the big clubs. You can’t force kids to be Walsall fans,something will either trigger their interest or it won’t,and they will forever be armchair Man Utd fans who’ve got a “soft spot “ for Walsall,but will never pay to watch them.
It seems that in their almost complete support for the Liverpool / United proposals, EFL clubs are looking at the £ money and not the long term impact would be of the proposals / threat.
The FA, in the middle of restructuring talks with the PL, walked away when it was seen that the big six were preparing to demand greater power, or they would break away from the PL (perhaps to align with the Juventus proposed European Greedy League).
Mark Palios of Tranmere says that he foresees the plan will see the Championship become Premier League 2, and become a closed shop with no promotion allowed from League One. The end of the league pyramid and the aspirations of supporters to see their clubs progress (which, after all, is what sport is all about)
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The point in your last paragraph has been mooted before but it won’t happen. There are too many League 1 Clubs who think they can compete in the Championship.
Not true. You can teach them anything if you try hard enough. My two boys 8 and 10 years old have never lived in Walsall, and I won’t say I haven’t had my struggles with it. It was important enough for me to persevere though, they both fully understand why we follow Walsall and not one of the bigger clubs.
I have never forced them to come to the games, just before it all wrapped up last season I had cracked it with my youngest, he was coming to every game home and away and loving it. It hasn’t helped what has happened but I won’t give up while there is still a Walsall F.C there to support. They will thank me for it when they are older, same as I thank my lucky stars my Dad did the same for me.
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Mark Palios’s crystal ball needs to enter into the conversation as a safeguard and not a reason not to have a conversation.
If I were Pomlett I too would be “broadly supportive” but I would also want to discuss it with the likes of Palios and go “looks alright but we probably have some concerns - lets list them as our subject to’s”.
This list would probably include assurances around B teams, no artificial dams built anywhere within the pyramid, FA Cup status and replays etc etc.
The breakaway group will be expecting some give and take here and a big EFL endorsement will encircle the 20 or so clubs who inhabit the EPL “not big enough” and Championship “we could be EPL” world.
That encirclement should come at a cost and if for once the likes of Walsall and Tranmere have a bit of leverage then we should ride it like hell.
Bugger it - ask for £500m and 35% as well as the “subject to” list. See what happens.
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