Football League chief operating officer Andy Williamson aimed a stern rebuke at Villas-Boas. “The suggestion that Football League clubs should become feeder clubs to a select handful of elite clubs is frankly offensive to the hundreds of thousands of people who watch competitive professional football in our competition every weekend,” Williamson said.
Moyes wanted to introduce an Everton ‘B’ team into the non-League to guarantee weekend fixtures. “My idea was we would go into the Conference and there would be no promotion, but we could get relegated,” he said.
“Instead of the reserves playing on a Tuesday night, my reserves and best young players would play in the Conference. It would be a tough test for our boys. It would have felt more real for them.
“I asked the club to go to the FA, but they told us we’d need to go into Division Nine of the Outer Hebrides league or something like that, so we couldn’t do that.”
The Premier League is reviewing the structure of reserve competition as part of its Elite Performance Plan. Next season, senior and reserve teams might play each other on the same weekends. Moyes thinks that is a step in the right direction.
“What I think is going to happen is if we were playing Chelsea at Goodison, the next day our reserves play Chelsea down there,” said Moyes.