Benitez rant adds to March-Madness

By Nathan Jackson
March 20 2007

Liverpool manager Rafa Benitez has spoken to the press about his desire for the reserve side to join the Football League. The Liverpool manager believes that his reserves don't get enough experience playing in the reserves league, and would the set up to be similar to one used in Spain.

It was only last week that the Football League revealed an idea to end draws, a plan that has been met with a less than favourable reaction from football fans, players and management alike. Now Benitez has now decided to throw his idea into the hat for the award of "Worst Idea in March" by saying that his reserve side are too good to be playing in a reserves league.

Speaking to the BBC, Benitez said "I would like to see reserve teams of the big clubs like ourselves playing in the Football League. Why not if they have enough quality? Our young players may have the quality but not the experience for the first team. They are only on the bench. That will bridge the gap between the youngsters and the first team. If you do not give young players the chance to play competitive football and to learn things, things become impossible."

This idea is spawned from a system in Spain that sees several of the larger sides, including Barcelona and Real Madrid, have a "B" squad in the lower leagues in Spain. However, those sides are not able to enter the top divison in Spain. If this idea does come off it would be likely they would start in League 2. Fortunately though, the idea is about as likely to become reality as Rangers and Celtic playing in the English leagues.

Maybe they should let people from the lower leagues come up with ideas, because people higher up seemingly can't come up with anything realistic.