Aston Villa News 24/7Writer: Mike Field 
Date:Tuesday July 31 2012
Time: 5:34PM
UK time is: 21:51:07
Choose your club
Other Sites
Network Navigation
Vital Partners
'If It's Football, It's Vital'
All Change For The Second String
If it ain't broke, let's try and fix it has been the league's approach to reserve football for this season, and Villa find themselves in Group 2 of the new 'Professional Development League'.
This new fangled U21 competition replaces the old Barclays Premier Reserve League that we owned for so many seasons on the trot, and Gordon Cowans will kick the campaign off against Watford, before we face Man U, Newcastle, Spurs, Southampton, Stoke and Sunderland, who make up the rest of our group.
Venues and kick off times are still to be announced in the main, but we face Watford at the UCL Sports Ground on August 20, whilst our first home game of the campaign sees us host Stoke on August 25.
Ultimately the top three teams from Groups 1 & 2, and the top two sides in Group 3 advance to an Elite Group Stage in the New Year. Play off rounds, semis and then a final will be held at the end of the season to confirm the overall champions.
Clubs can also field three over age players in the league.
For full details and fixtures please Click Here.
Whilst the old and perfectly suitable reserve league has been dumped for a shiny new girlfriend with a fancy name, Villa will still be competing in the U18 league, the Next Gen Series and the FA Youth Cup.
Vital Villa on:
Vital Villa on:
Join Vital Villa
It's easy to REGISTER, simply click the link and enjoy getting involved!
Vital F1 Prediction League - Join now for Monaco
Your Comments
I guess it is linked with the financial fair play suggestions? Seems a bit odd, but at least they have made exceptions to allow people coming back from injury! It avoids the farces of uneven teams where experienced teams take on kids!
murph
Based on the above, if the U21's do not qualify for the knock out stage, there is little chance to get the fit again first teamers some match practice later on the season? Just thinking back to last year where we had quite a few first teamers coming back and wanted to keep some fit too, it seems that this new scheme will not be ideal from the club's first team point of view.Unless I've read this wrong of course.
Gordonsleftboot
Yeah how will this impact future Football Manager games and when I want to get my injured first teamer's match fit when they are over 21 :(
VillaHippo
It ties in with the EPP plan as well as Academies are now rated, and only those in tier 1 can take part in the league. Lower placed teams come the New Year will go into qualification group tiers, so they'll still have games, they just won't be in with a shot for the title I think.
mike_field
Seems to be a bit strange, to only allow 3 players over 21 to play in team? like GLB said what happens to the rest of the first team squad if they are over 21 and not one of the 3 players?
Kuffit
You can see how it relates with the Financial Fair Play though. Clubs now understand they can't have a huge first team squad with all players over 21 as they wouldn't be able to play fringe players in reserve games for maintaining match fitness if they're not playing in the first team matches
VillaHippo
I see where you're coming from VillaHippo, and from that point of view it does make sense. Lets see how it pans out over this season.
Pride of Lions
Has anyone told Chelsea and Citeh?
Gordonsleftboot
Have Your Say
Recent Articles
Petrov Delighted With Assistant Coach Role (Wednesday May 22 2013)
Broadcasting Revenue For AVFC For 2012/13 Season (Wednesday May 22 2013)
N'Zogbia Exit And £5m Given To Keeper? (Wednesday May 22 2013)
Villa's Pre Season Schedule (Tuesday May 21 2013)
Vlaar Pleased With First Good Touch Of The Game (Tuesday May 21 2013)
Villa Season Ticket Help Sessions (Tuesday May 21 2013)
They Think It's All Over - Not Yet - Soccer Sevens (Tuesday May 21 2013)
Vital Villa Man Of The Match v Wigan (Tuesday May 21 2013)
The Aston Villa Summer Transfer Thread Pt 1 (Tuesday May 21 2013)
Brentford Midfielder Linked (Tuesday May 21 2013)
Archived Articles
Vital Members League (view all)
| 1. | Pride of Lions | 965 |
| 2. | The Fear | 758 |
| 3. | BodyButter | 500 |
| 4. | kefkat | 390 |
| 5. | CDX_EIRE | 328 |
| 6. | ClivetheVillan | 280 |
| 7. | Villan57 | 243 |
| 8. | thefacehead | 241 |
| 9. | DeanoVilla | 216 |
| 10. | mike_field | 192 |
League Results (view all)
| Latest Results | ||||
| Wigan | 2 | - | 2 | Aston Villa |
| Aston Villa | 1 | - | 2 | Chelsea |
| Norwich | 1 | - | 2 | Aston Villa |
| Aston Villa | 6 | - | 1 | Sunderland |
| Man Utd | 3 | - | 0 | Aston Villa |
| Aston Villa | 1 | - | 1 | Fulham |
League Table (view table)
| Team | P | W | D | L | GD | Pts |
| 12. Fulham | 38 | 11 | 10 | 17 | -10 | 43 |
| 13. Stoke | 38 | 9 | 15 | 14 | -11 | 42 |
| 14. Southampton | 38 | 9 | 14 | 15 | -11 | 41 |
| 15. Aston Villa | 38 | 10 | 11 | 17 | -22 | 41 |
| 16. Newcastle | 38 | 11 | 8 | 19 | -23 | 41 |
| 17. Sunderland | 38 | 9 | 12 | 17 | -13 | 39 |
| 18. Wigan | 38 | 9 | 9 | 20 | -26 | 36 |
Breaking League News
| Liverpool: Begovic To Replace Reina?
» Liverpool : 22/05/2013 20:54:00
|
| Coates thanks friend Pulis
» Stoke : 22/05/2013 18:30:00
|
| Petrov Delighted With Assistant Coach Role
» Aston Villa : 22/05/2013 16:52:00
|
| Boateng Signs Two Year Deal
» Fulham : 22/05/2013 16:50:00
|
| Sullivan Warns Of Complacency!
» West Ham : 22/05/2013 16:49:00
|
| Lukaku Desire
» West Ham : 22/05/2013 16:48:00
|
| Carroll Withdrawal
» West Ham : 22/05/2013 16:47:00
|
Current Site Poll (view all polls)
|
|
1 © - All content copyright Vital Network Ltd, not to be reproduced without explicit permission Copyright Issues
Cookie Policy
At Vital Football, we along with most other modern websites use small files called 'cookies' to create the most secure, effective and functional website possible for our users. Without these files our business model, based on advertising, breaks down and we would be unable to continue to provide the services that you are here to utilise. By continuing to use this website after seeing this message, you consent to our use of cookies on this device unless you have disabled them. For full details please read our Cookie Policy which can be found here. However, if you would like to disable cookies on this device, please view our Cookie Policy which contains an opt-out tool for disabling advertising cookies. Please also visit our information pages on 'How to manage cookies' if you would also like to block all other types of cookies. Please be aware that parts of this site will not function correctly if you disable cookies.