[Blue Baggie]

We have a U23 squad to be playing around with. The F A. cup should not be dismissed as a game to let the kids have a run out. It distracts from.the kings heroics in 68 IMO.

The FA Cup in those days was as big as the league championship (the PL now, kids!) and maybe even the World Cup. NOTHING could detract from the heroes of '68!
Unfortunately the big boys DO treat it as a 2nd class tournament. Even those fighting relegation rest their best for the "more important" games, and with the money in the PL you can't really blame them, can you?
Real shame, as the FA Cup final of years gone by was the most glamorous of the lot.

Your exactly right, but alas I still hold the FA Cup in great respect. It's not impossible for a lesser club to win or make the final depending on luck and the draw. So I cannot see the throwing away the chance as the right thing to do. Maybe i'm to sentimental.

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I'm really not sure of the value of our Academy or whether it's worth having one, although I think it's an FA requirement at a certain level. It's just that the management seems to have either no faith in the young players or no desire to play them, but is happy to look at either loans or ageing players who are usually well on the wrong side of 30. I thought this would be a year when we took a step towards bringing through a number of the Academy and younger players into the first team. This is clearly not the case. It may be a case of placing all our eggs into one basket and going for promotion regardless of the implications for the long term future of the club; what I mean is that it should be clear to most of us that the team, as it stands, would not be good enough to compete or stay in the Premier League. If we go up, there will be no young players ready to compete, so we'll be reliant upon bringing in experienced players probably not good enough to play first team football for their existing clubs. There is unlikely to be any substantial investment from our owner even if we are promoted, as his stance is very much that we need to be financially sound, regardless of the league we are playing in.

So, Darren, please start playing some of the younger players before they decide that the Hawthorns is not the place for them

I've been asking this for months, Darren is to weak mentally to give any of them a chance. As promotion is a step to far and no investment is coming, our loanee's will dump us as soon as a better offer comes along. As will our better players. we're heading to be a mid table chump and/or relegated to the next tier. Sadly this will become Darren's legacy. This season is over for us unless we buy 3 or 4 players now. Next season will be more difficult then this. If any of our youngsters come through and make an impact they will be whisked away by a PL club. If we don't go up this year it's the wilderness for us. It gives me no pleasure to say this, its not just whinging, it's a reality check. We could get lucky and get a new owner who wants to invest, certainly our current owner has given up.