In case you didn’t notice, Tottenham sent 22 players out on 32 different loan spells last season. Why? Because Spurs elected not to take part in the Premier Reserve League during the 2009/10 season, which clearly left an awful lot of their players kicking their heels.

It’s an intriguing policy and one I personally feel isn’t too clever in the long run. Equipping your up and coming talent with competitive experience, albeit at a lower level, may well be the smart thing to do according to conventional wisdom, but it remains to be seen whether handing the wholesale development of the players outside the first team to other clubs is the way to go.

By contrast, there were three players at Villa last time out whose development MON specifically wanted to keep in house; Nathan Delfouneso, Marc Albrighton and Ciaran Clark. He more than likely wanted to ensure they were available for the first team too.

How Tottenham deal with the rehabilitation of players following injury I’ve no idea, but whatever it is, they won’t be alone next season. Stoke, Fulham and Birmingham City have joined Tottenham in electing not to enter the Reserve League for 2010/11, forcing the introduction of a new format for the remaining 16 teams.

For 2010/11, there will be three groups; two in the north; A & B, and one in the south, which will include Aston Villa. The teams in the south will play a 20 game season, while the teams in groups A and B will play a 19 game season, before the winners of each group meet in a play-off for the right to play the winner from the south in the final.

I presume hosting the final will continue to alternate between north and south, in which case it will be the south’s turn next season.

The groups will be as follows:-

Are the days of the reserves league numbered? I would hope not, but it will be very interesting to see whether this trend continues. You can bet the other Premier League clubs will keep a very close eye on how Tottenham et al get on over the coming seasons and it’s equally likely that the clubs in the Championship and below are going to be extremely happy with these developments. Between the 4 Premiership sides no longer competing in the reserves league, it could easily mean 40 or 50 players being available for loan next season.

Everyone’s a winner? We shall see.