Fortunately, there are better ideas than that in the Middle Kingdom and the A-League wouldn’t be alone in looking at the Chinese Super League model when it comes to encouraging or even forcing clubs to give serious game time to young players.
The A-League may follow suit. Head of leagues Greg O’Rourke said this week there has been a shift of focus in the recruitment policy of clubs away from signing big-name foreign marquees.
"We're going to have a focus on trying to improve, we'll call them young, but effectively if you had to categorise them it'd be under-23s,” O’Rourke said.
“We're changing some rules and some policies inside the regulations to actually incentivise clubs to have more game-time for under-23s, to have more under-23s available for match day on the park and on the bench and a few other things we're working on in the background, which haven't turned into policy views yet."
Going for big names, as well as giving the young game time do not have to be mutually exclusive - and there haven’t been that many big-name marquees over the years anyway - yet few would argue against more opportunities for youth.
The question is how. The K League and Saudi Professional League are just two of the competitions that have introduced rules which mean clubs must select under-23 players in their squad or starting eleven, but there has been more attention on China, a country that has traditionally not trusted youth (the country's Asian Cup squad in January was the oldest of all the 24 national teams).
The Chinese Super League responded in 2017 to the situation from the previous season that saw just 32 players under the age of 23 get any minutes on the pitch.
The initial rule stipulated that every Chinese Super League team had to start one under-23 player in every game.
What followed was, at times, farcical.
Players were subbed out in the first half with the likes of Shanghai SIPG boss Andre Villas-Boas waiting just 15 minutes or so to make the change, a situation that didn’t benefit anyone.
“I was considering when to change him, but we can’t change the young players at the first minute of the game, that will be ridiculous,” Villas-Boas said.
“I always say that the players should play in a very natural way instead of in a forced way. Our under-23 players are not under-23, they are under-21. We can only adapt to that slowly.”
There have been tweaks since, but in July, a new rule came into effect that forces clubs to play one under-23 player for the full 90 minutes.
Club coaches, like Villas-Boas, have been critical as they naturally don’t like being told what to do.
The short-term nature of the head coach’s position can mean there is no thought given to developing young players. It is all about the here and now and that is the case in China, especially as the quality of young players coming through has not always been of the desired quality.
Yet even the talented ones often wait too long to be given game time. The real problem however is not the rule itself but the fact that under-23 players are considered especially young.
In parts of Asia, especially the eastern and western sides, players have traditionally come through the system late when compared to the rest of the world.
While players in Europe are getting serious professional experience while still teenagers, the equivalent in East Asia is the early twenties.
Those who went to Europe as kids benefited. Son Heung-min started playing for Hamburg’s first team just after turning 18. Lee Kang-in was just 17 when making his Valencia debut last October.
Had they stayed in Korea, it is highly unlikely they would have been playing top level football at that age. The system and the mindset is starting to change and this will see more players given game time earlier in the future but there is still some way to go.
Australia has a different culture and while it makes sense for China and other Asian nations to look at under-23s, the A-League should think about incentivising clubs to promote younger players than those who are under-23.
It’s a start but in modern football, it’s not that young. Here, the A-League can lead and others in Asia can follow.
