The EFL Trophy (now known as the Papa John’s Trophy) is an interesting tournament. Its primary role is to act like the FA Trophy and FA Vase and allow sides in Leagues One and Two a realistic shot at making Wembley and lifting a knockout trophy.
In 2016 the EFL made the controversial decision to allow U21 academy sides from elite Category A academies to participate in the EFL Trophy. These sides with Category A academies were primarily from the Premier League and Championship, and this was seen as a foreshadowing of allowing bigger sides to introduce their ‘B’ teams to the lower leagues - as happens in many European nations such as Spain. Fan anger led to disengagement, with attendances dropping - particularly in games featuring U21 sides.
But what has been the real effect of allowing U21 sides in the EFL Trophy? And how many sides have been prevented from having their own ‘Papa John’s Moment’ by lifting the trophy at Wembley? As 2020/21 was the fifth year of having U21 sides in the tournament, now seems the perfect time to find out.
The Academy Performance
The first thing I looked at was the academy sides, as academy sides regularly progressing from the group stage and to the knockout rounds is a sign that they are roughly competing at the right level. This is borne out when looking at the best performing academies each year, as shown here:
As can be seen, academy sides regularly feature in the latter stages, with Swansea, Man City and Leicester all making the quarter finals, and Chelsea going one step further and making the semi-final in 2017-18. While no side has yet made the final, it will be interesting to see the attendance of that fixture should an U21 side make it.
In total, though, there have been 25 elite-level academies who have fielded sides in the EFL Trophy. And the following table shows how each of them did by year:
Note that teams marked with a dash did not compete that year, those in green progressed to the knockout stages, and those marked in bold were the best performing academy side of that year.
What is particularly interesting from this table is how there has not been a year where more than half of the academy sides have progressed. The best year (from the perspective of the academy sides) was in fact their début year where, despite missing five of the so-called ‘big six’ academies, exactly half of the U21 sides progressed.
This would suggest that academy sides involved in the tournament are roughly performing at the level of a League One or League Two side - where they have a good chance of progression, but not much more or less than the actual sides in Leagues One and Two.
It’s a knockout
The final table I want to show from the Academy perspective is the following, which looks almost identical to the previous table, but is showing different information.
I must dwell on my terminology now - I have used “prevented from progressing” rather than “knocked out” as the EFL Trophy is not a straight knockout tournament. It also features a group stage. Throughout this article I have decided that, if an academy side progresses from the group stage - regardless of whether they top the group or finish second - they are considered to have prevented the two sides knocked out from progressing.
This is because the academy side has progressed when a League One or Two side would have had they not competed.
If a side finishes third in the group, they have not prevented a side from progressing - even if they did in fact beat the bottom side - as the side finishing bottom could have won their other two games and progressed. You may agree or disagree with that, but this is what I’ve gone with.
Anyway, here is the table. As above, the teams marked in green progressed to the knockout stages. But the table now shows the number of teams each academy side prevented from progressing in each year they competed:
I want to pull out two sides here, the first of which is Leicester (in bold) who have the best performing academy of all 25 who have competed, preventing a total of 12 League One and Two sides from progressing in their full five years in the tournament.
I also want to note Swansea who only competed in the first three EFL Trophies with academy sides and, despite progressing each time, were stopped from competing in the tournament from 2019-20 as a long term consequence of their relegation from the Premier League.
The EFL only admits entry to the top 16 Category A academies (judged by where the senior team finishes) so only the sides finishing 1 through 16 in the Premier League are guaranteed entry (so long as they have a Category A academy). Teams lower down are banking on sides higher up from refusing to compete before receiving their invitation - which has prevented the Swansea academy from further competition despite their strong record in the tournament.
As the vast majority of Premier League sides hold Category A academies, and the vast majority also see the benefits of competing, it is now very difficult for Championship sides to field academy teams.
League One and Two Perspective
But academy improvement is not all peaches and cream. While the academy perspective is largely positive, the perspective of League One and Two clubs is less so. At the end of the day, the EFL Trophy is their tournament. Their shot at Wembley and their opportunity to make some real ‘Papa John’s Trophy Moments’. Having their road to Wembley blocked by an elite academy side such as Man City - who pay over £1m for academy talent - must be hugely frustrating.
Fans have been voting with their feet for some time and the games featuring academy sides are often far less attended than those featuring two senior sides. But how many sides have really bitten the dust as a result of an academy side blocking the way?
The following table shows just that, listing off the sides prevented from progressing (note that key phrase again) each year by elite academies. Those in peach were prevented from progressing at the group stake, with those in cream prevented from progressing (or, more accurately, knocked out) in the knockout rounds.
As can be seen, there has not yet been fewer than 12 League One and Two sides knocked out by elite academies - though the vast majority of these simply did not make it through the group stages. It should also be noted that there has not yet been more than four sides knocked out by academies in the knockout rounds - even in 2018-19 when the number prevented from progressing peaked at 18.
Before heading on, I would like to note Sunderland who hold the unique distinction of seeing their academy side in 2016-17 prevent League One and Two sides from progressing, only to then see themselves prevented from progressing as a League One side just three years later. How the tables turn.
The final table shows this information slightly differently, showing the sides prevented from progressing on more than one occasion by academy sides in the last five years. These are the ones who arguably should feel the most aggrieved by the inclusion of academy sides.
As above, it’s peach if prevented from progressing in the group stages. Cream in the knockouts:
I highlighted Plymouth on the table for an obvious reason. They have the quite strange (some may say pathetic) record of an academy side preventing them from making the knockout stages of the EFL Trophy in all of the last five seasons. They are the only unbroken line of colour in the table.
Meanwhile, Morecambe have the same record but only for the last four seasons, and AFC Wimbledon have the unique frustration of being knocked out by academy sides in the knockout stages on more than one occasion.
Conclusion
So what does this tell us?
It tells us that your typical academy side from a Category A academy can hold their own against League One and Two sides. That roughly half tend to progress to the knockout stages is evidence of that.
And it doesn’t really matter about the stature of the club either. Though Man City, Leicester and Chelsea have strong records, so too do clubs from the Championship (at the time) with Wolves in 2016-17, Swansea in 2018-19, and Reading in 2016-17 all seeing their academy sides progress to the knockout rounds when their senior sides were in the second tier.
But while this situation clearly works for the elite sides, testing their youngsters against full time players, the same cannot be said of the sides in Leagues One and Two. Though no academy side has outright won the tournament (yet), they regularly feature in the latter stages. Chelsea’s academy were one game from Wembley in 2017-18.
And every time an academy side progresses from the group stage, or pulls off cup heroics by knocking out out a bunch of fully grown men, that blocks one of our historic old clubs and their fans from having a big day out at Wembley. Unless you support the Big Six, these occasions don’t come around often, and the EFL Trophy is supposed to be there for sides in League One and Two who otherwise don’t have much of a shot in the major tournaments (though Bradford were a notable exception in 2012-13).
The quality of the academy sides is not in question. But how appropriate it is that those academy sides get to block off the road to Wembley from as many as 18 sides a year just seems wrong. And, to me, that’s what this boils down to.
Which of course is great if you’re in the Leicester Academy. Less so if you follow Plymouth.
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