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Y Front Fanzine

York City's second longest running fanzine

Development Squad

Whilst City’s development squad players have been cast in all directions to get game time, next season, will City have a proper development team and in which league will they play?

The flagship reserve / development league is the Premier League Under 21 / 23 setup. It has recently changed from to an Under 21 format and features 37 of England’s top sides split by EPPP category 1 and 2 designations. For 2023/4, 26 EPPP category 1 clubs compete in Premier League 2 and 11 EPPP2 clubs compete in Premier League 2 Division Two, both operate at a nationwide level with only Reading, in the top flight, being from outside England's top 2 leagues. Currently up to 5 over age players are allowed per team as the big clubs struggle to decide the best format. It could be said that players should be ready by the age of 21 whilst the 5 over age players allows both the occasional late developer and squad or other players returning from injury competitive game time.

Beneath this, at "Tier 3", sits the Professional Development League, a 21 club competition split into 2 regional sections and features a range of clubs from Burnley and Watford down to Crewe and Colchester. If my maths and understanding is correct, that makes 58 clubs.

There are various Under 23 / 21 / development leagues in existence, pyramid fashion, beneath this. Here at “Tier 4”, many lower league clubs compete in various leagues that largely go under radar. One such league that operated during the 2022/3 season was The Central League, albeit a shadow of its former glories, a 7 team competition which included Huddersfield, Wrexham and 5 lower Football League clubs from Lancashire. For the 2023/4 season, The Central League appears to have increased to a 12 club (now all from the Football League) competition, spreading its tentacles to add Derby, Lincoln, Notts County, Mansfield and Barrow with west and east sections. This will also be around the level where the likes of Doncaster and Harrogate also compete.

I imagine “Tier 5” is the “National Football Youth League“ set up. It has a 10 team northern division consisting of Chesterfield, Mansfield, Macclesfield, Scarborough, South Shields, Steven Gerrard’s Academy (Paul Mullin is possibly the most notable graduate in its history) and 2 sides from each of Tadcaster Albion and i2i. Its 9 team southern equivalent includes Cambridge, Wealdstone and 7 teams from below National League.

Uniquely, Mansfield compete in both the revamped Central League and the National Youth Football set up.

Further down, say “Tier 6” teams like Kidderminster run Under 23 sides, they complete in a West Midlands league, competing against many clubs that many have never heard of.

Without a recognised EPPP academy, I see City fitting in at "Tier 5" (but struggling to be accepted any higher up the pyramid). So for our development, it could be tasty competitive derbies against i2i, Tadcaster Reserves and Scarborough Reserves. Presumably all winnable games but the quality of opposition might be questionable.

Whilst for City, "Tier 5" competition might provide a modicum of competitive football at reserve team level, it hardly seems the level that is needed to step into the first team, so for some time to come, loans at National League North / South level might still prove to be the best route into our first team.

Certainly, over the years, the lack of quality of a reserve league has been cited by City as one of the reasons for scrapping a reserve side.

Goal A Game

In YFF #33, the playing record of a certain Mr Jones was noted. One City appearance, one City goal. Reputed to be a player of some repute, he was spotted drinking in a pub before the game, with City a player short, he was signed on the spot and thrust into City’s side. Readers might be interested to know that he is one of 11 former City players to achieve or beat the goal a game mark.

He is one of 5 City players to score one goal on his only City appearance, whilst a certain Tyson scored twice on his only game for City, a 4-2 in over Grimsby Town Reserves in September 1927.

3 other players scored 2 goals in City appearances. The most recent being John Price, a veteran who was an occasional deputy for Alf Patrick during the 1948/9 season. However, pride of place goes to Charlie Flood (19 goals / 19 games) and R Holland (17 goals / 16 appearances).

I’ve steered clear of naming too many players, as 8 played for City during our early non league years, 2 more in the 1940s and only one in recent years.

The most recent player? Jack Redshaw who scored in our FA Trophy defeat at Ashton United in December 2020, his only “true” City appearances, I’m not counting his league appearances as the league was declared void due to covid.

What would we give for Dipo Akinyemi to join that club by the end of the season by scoring a goal a game?

Whatever, let’s hope that City never have to resort to pulling players out of the pub before a game ever again, if so, that man of repute, Michael Miles might be in line for his City debut.

Replay

If Jurgen Klopp wants the recent Spurs game replayed due to the controversial disallowed goal, I'm happy to support him, if he supports City for the same from our 1986 FA Cup tie when even the home team players thought it was a goal.

Looking back in time, how different might City’s recent history be if we could go back in tie and “replay” the incident.

Replay 1991. Michael Sinclair sold his shares to Douglas Craig who assumed chairmanship and started City on the long and rocky road to today. Previously, we’d never been cash rich, but somehow had survived and had had a good team about once a decade, usually good enough to bring us to attention of the national football headlines. Since our mid 90s swansong, its usually been in times of difficulty or ridicule that we’ve made national headlines.

I could pick out many managerial appointments that we should replay. 2015 and Jackie McNamara’s appointment being the lowpoint. A moneyball approach that didn’t work. Over the years, we missed the chance to appoint the likes of the Martin O'Neill (never got an interview when he applied), Billy McEwan (an unsuccessful applicant 12 years before he eventually got it), Malcolm Crosby, Ricky Sbragia, Graham Potter, Steve Evans (possibly the most rejected applicant) and Neil Warnock.

Whisper it quietly, might Barry Swallow have made a good manager or coach. Chris Jones likened him to Malcolm Allison, Jones, citing their confidence, slightly aggressive and arrogant personalities. It would have been interesting to see if Barry Swallow could have translated his success as a caretaker manager into something more long lasting. And another thing I’d like to go to and replay out of history is the John Batchelor aberration of a shirt.

Breaking News: Klopp wants Liverpool’s 2014 home defeat to Chelsea to be replayed due to Steven Gerrard’s slip, caused by a “significant human error” which directly lead to the opening goal and cost Liverpool the Premier League title. He said, “It was an obvious mistake and I think there would have been solutions for it afterwards”.

Issue 37 - A Landmark

This is one piece that I thought I’d never have to write. Y Front is 37 issues old, very well done to all concerned.

We put together 36 issues of new frontiers over nearly 30 years. Launched in 1992, it went into hibernation just as Jon McCarthy was sold (“where’s the money gone” wasn’t really a question at the time) and weeks later we all know what happened at Old Trafford, possibly the start of the great Douglas Craig unravelling.

Back in the day, it was a logistical challenge but most people were helpful and supportive. One toe rag still stands out from the early day, wearing a Vice President’s tie, he claimed he deserved a free copy as he’d driven them from the printers in Sheffield to the ground on the previous day. They’d actually come from Cardiff 2 weeks earlier. He walked off in a huff, refusing to pay his 50p (“all profits to the Youth Development Fund”).

Later, a few sporadic issues found their way out, partly due to the ongoing issues at City and partly inspired by Y Front.

Being based down south, logistics became increasingly difficult (family life, planning trips to York, winter weather, finding suitable selling dates and being reliant on LNER included). Back in the day, Sheila Smith took delivery straight from the printers and all profits went to club funds. The club was supportive, even Douglas Craig handed over his 50p for every issue (whether for a good read or to check for potential slander is unknown). Invariably Ricky Sbragia thrust a £1 coin into my hand (“use the change for the next issue”, he’d say, next issue, he gave me another £1 coin). The later revival years saw eager eyed stewards checking for any transgressions onto club premises whilst ensuring salesmen didn’t block the car park entrance.

I’ve got to admire Michael and his Y Front team for their ongoing work. Invariably written to a high standard, it constantly brings City’s past (both good and not so good) to the fore.

Given post the post covid world (spiralling production costs (commercial printers gave way to “self production” (I was going to say “home”, but it wasn’t always home printers / copiers that took the pounding)), the increasingly cashless society and the immediacy of social media) and the frenetic pace of production, it cannot be easy to maintain the high standards. Not to mention the need to keep the content fresh and relevant without repeating old ground. It is still a joy to pick up a new issue of Y Front.

As Y Front motors on, I await the day in about 3 years when it matches or beats Terrace Talk’s 58 issues. I’ll be even happier if we have a league position to equal those halcyon Division 3 / 4 days.

Against Modern Football - “Long” Forgotten Rules

When I was a boy, you could always tell the goalie, he wore a green jersey, unless he was playing for England when it was yellow. Up in Scotland, it was reversed, yellow for club keepers and green for Scotland’s national keeper. Their shorts and socks exactly matched the rest of the team.

Come the 70s, anything went, one tradition down. Two if you count the requirement for keepers to wear long sleeved shirts. Three, the regular sight of keepers wearing caps to keep the sun out of their eyes largely disappeared. Four if you add goalie gloves. Graeme Crawford recalled how he chewed gum and smeared it on his hands during most of his career and it wasn’t until late in his career that gloves (once the preserve of wet days only) and specific keeper coaching arrived thanks to Charlie Wright.

Indeed, pre season pictures and news of that era seemed to centre around long distance runs and laps of the Knavesmire, news of tight hamstrings and groin strains was sadly lacking.

One tradition that changed in the 80s was the pitch sprinkler. Up until then, artificial pitch watering was banned between November and March. When you recall the state of some of pitches back then, it is easy to see why. Now, pitches are watered before the game and again at half time, although I’m increasingly seeing one half of the pitch watered more at half time, is that meant to favour the home side?

The rules of the game seem to change every season. Given the rate of change, it is easy to see why referee fails to enforce many rules. What irks me is the 6 second rule for keepers to release the ball. Frequently it takes 3 times as long, allowing teams to re-set and slow the game down.

About the only recent incident of a keeper being punished is FC Halifax Under 19 keeper who was booked for this offence early last season against City. He got a second yellow for a foul a few minutes later. Imagine the outcry if that had been Alisson or Ederson.

On the subject of yellow cards, Declan Rice picked one up for England in the spring for delaying a free kick. One opponent was within 3 yards of him and another within 10 yards. Work that one out. A referee who doesn’t know the 10 yard law? Delaying tactics overrode the rules of the game, allowing a team to re-set and to limit the options for the team who’d won the free kick.

Back to keepers, at one time, they had to take a goal kick from the angel of the 6 yard box on the side of the pitch in which the ball went out of play. To speed the game up, the rule was changed to allow goal kicks to be taken from anywhere in the box. Did it speed the game up? No.

Today we take about clear and obvious, back then, the rules were clear and obvious and all the better for it.

The King’s Speech - Independent Regulation

At the opening of Parliament on November 7, King Charles laid out his plans for an independent football regulator.

Y0rk City’s initial reaction was “we welcome the King’s desire to improve transport and expect this, subject to it extending to include the “northern powerhouse” clubs, will allow us to offer free travel to away games for all City supporters whilst we will re-double our efforts to put an effective Y22 service in place. Elsewhere in The King’s speech, we note the potential difficulties in ensuring all criminals serve their full sentence, but we are considering plans to keep our exit gates firmly locked until the final whistle whilst Matthew Lever, our new data analyst for recruitment will use his skillset to ensure no poor performing player is ever again substituted, we’ll make them serve the full 90 minutes. As ever, we remain aligned to government policy of full employment, our enlarged first team pool and new development squad confirm our policy of offering opportunities to everyone of every ability, family and friend (and agent), waifs and strays included”.

The main opponents to independent regulation, The Premier League slammed The King’s speech as a mix of "cheap gimmicks and reheated policies", full of "empty words" insisting they’ll wait for a full transcript of the speech before asking Manchester City’s lawyers to provide an in depth response, who, citing their ongoing financial fair play charges, don’t expect to deliver a response until 2034 at the earliest.

Quick off the mark, The FA’s response was “we fully support The King in calling for an independent regulator for football. We have already dusted down and updated our blueprint on the subject and have now come up a name ‘Football United to Cleanse Foreign and All Nasty Sorts’ (FUCfans) for the new regulator. With his background in football and being a former Harrow schoolmaster, we propose David Elleray to head the new body. He has an ideal mix of football knowledge from working with top clubs, discipline in managing unruly children and a knowledge of lines to lead the new body. We believe our vision offers a clear and obvious way forward and will remove all subjectivity”.

One bill that didn’t feature in the King’s Speech was the controversial Conversion Therapy Bill. Its omission is believed to be a concession to all the big clubs to allow them to continue to do as they wish without fear of criminalisation if they fail to change their identity or behaviour or even to sign up to independent regulation.

The big fear for independent regulation is that it doesn’t do as it is intended. Financial Fair Play was supposed to level the playing field, it has hardly made a difference, new money comes in and big clubs remain big, effectively making it harder for little clubs to break in to the inner circle. Manchester City, Barcelona and Everton are just 3 clubs who seem to be able to circumvent the FFP intent. EPPP was meant to improve young player performance, you could argue it has, but to many smaller clubs it has been a disaster, the option to develop and sell young players is no longer a viable one whilst big TV broadcast deals provide big money which remains with the big clubs.

The energy regulator, OFGEM allowed a multitude of start ups to enter the market, at the last count, over 30 had gone bust, bailed out by others (and us the consumer). ORR, the rail regulator, has overseen several successful bids from various companies to win rail franchises to run services across Britain that have since failed. In both cases, where was the due diligence?

Perhaps, if The FA had done its job properly, there would be no need for independent regulation.

There has been talk of an independent regulator for many years, it is still just talk. Nearly every change that has come about has been moulded and / or watered down to suit the big clubs. What will be different this time?

If you handcuff the big clubs and make them comply, they’ll stamp their feet, have a strop and say no. How long will it be before the Super League idea is resurrected?

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