7 to 5 to 7

I’m old enough to remember when there was just one sub, although not quite grey enough to remember the very first substitute in the English game, who I don’t need to remind you was one Keith Peacock on 21 August 1965, when Pee-Wee replaced injured goalkeeper Mike Rose 11 minutes into the away match against Bolton Wanderers.

The Premier League went to two subs (from three including a goalkeeper) at the start of the inugrual 1992/3 season. Three subs of any position were introduced by the Premier League and Football League in 1995-96.

I’m going off topic a bit here but the Premier League also changed 80 years of tradition and introduced squad numbers at the start of the 1993/4. The Football League didn’t join in until 1999. Remember Stuart Balmer at no.1?

The number of substitutes listed on a team sheet was increased to five in 1996 with the Premier League further moving that number to seven for the 2008/09 season. The Football League followed suit in 2009/10 but then a year ago due to pressure from League One and Two clubs the League moved back to five on the bench from seven. I remember Barnet’s chairman saying the move would save them £80-100,000.

The reason for the history lesson is today, after just 12 months, the Football League have announced that their clubs will revert back to 7 substitues effective from the beginning of the coming season.

No doubt there will be mixed opinions on this. Pompey and some others had trouble making 3 subs during the end of last season, yet others often gambled by not having a sub ‘keeper to allow more options. Powell never did though.

7 on the bench certainly encourages the inclusion of a more specialist type of player. I’m thinking the likes of Ceddy Evina and is better news for youth players. I did hear that the FL were going to rule that 2 of the 7 had to be under 21 but I have not seen that mentioned today.

Chris Powell was an advocate of 7 substitutes. All we need now is entry into a reserve league.