Ferran Soriano: “The welfare of the players has been a problem, now it is an extreme problem.”

Manchester City executive Ferran Soriano spoke about a range of topics in a new interview. Let’s recap some of his thoughts.

On the 5 sub rule-

“The welfare of the players has been a problem, now it is an extreme problem. Extremely disappointed the PL decided against five substitutes.”

On Covid Impact-

“We believe revenues will be back and the team - especially Man City - is the engine of our business. If we don’t play good football, we have no business. Our whole business is built on that so we can’t avoid that. We have to take some risks...”

“This crisis can be a good opportunity for different elements of football business to get together and solve problems. There are other problems, for example the challenge of developing young players in England where B teams are not allowed...”

On transfers-

“We believe the risks we’re taking are very well measured. Look at net spend - we sold Sane to Bayern for €49M and that money needed to be reinvested. We bought Ferran Torres, a similar player, for €23m - we sold for 49 and invested for 23...”

“Sometimes these are out of context but we need to continue playing good football. If we need a central defender, we need a CB. Otamendi has done so well, but his age and other things the best thing is to switch him for a younger player.”

On league cup/player development-

“We have a development gap of boys that are 17/18 who don’t find the right place to develop. Then, for example, they are taken by the German teams who try to sell them back to us at 10x what they have paid...”

“This is bad and something that we needed to solve and maybe now the crisis will give us an opportunity to nudge us and get together to solve these issues.”

“There might be opportunities to add more clubs into the pyramid. Look at places like the US, where more and more franchises are being created. I don’t know the answer but maybe we should ask if we have enough clubs or do we have more?”

“Or can we give more resources and opportunities to clubs that already exist and have tradition to develop? It is a good time now to get all of these questions on the table.”

“One of the challenges is the EFL (is) a business that is not sustainable enough,” Soriano said at LeadersWeek.direct.

“They were discussing ways to improve it, they were discussing salary caps, now they were sort of nudged, almost pushed, to solve the existing problems because of the crisis.”

“There are other problems, the challenges of developing players in England where B teams are not allowed,”

A lot to take away from his thoughts, Two takeaways - 1 His league cup idea is a solid one. Having a B team or supplemental cup is a fair one with the congestion at the top of league’s and team’s minds. From cups to international friendlies, maybe making it a supplemental cup could be a good idea.

2. That the PL ruled out the 5 subs is ludicrous. All serious leagues have kept it one more season and England should have as well.

All in all many interesting, no filter, thoughts. Thoughts on them all?