09-02-2015, 14:19
Where I disagree with you Dancing is that I don't think players need to be phenomal to make it at Championship level. Clint bloody Hill gets a game in the Premier League. BUT I agree a club does need to be very good at developing talent.
Premiership clubs have all the right steps in place to develop players, but they also throw in an enormous amount of hurdles that everyone is expected to jump at the same time and at the same age. And then they feed in the buying power to bring in potential first teamers from all over the world ....... No wonder so few home-grown players make it. No wonder clubs make so many mistakes in rejecting future stars too early.
To jump from the Juniors to the first team without any reserve team structure makes it almost impossible to develop younger players. It also makes it very difficult to maintain a subs bench of seven players when your first eleven is staying fit and doing the business. So I don't think we are making a revolutionary move, but we are correcting a fatal error in our structure.
Crewe and Exeter develop a lot of their own players, so it's possible. Getting them to Championship level is harder, but Ajax supplies much of Europe with the talent it develops.
For us what is the alternative? We can only improve by bringing through talent and finding and exploiting that talent rejected by bigger clubs. We will always lack buying power, but there's no reason for us to lack brain power.
Premiership clubs have all the right steps in place to develop players, but they also throw in an enormous amount of hurdles that everyone is expected to jump at the same time and at the same age. And then they feed in the buying power to bring in potential first teamers from all over the world ....... No wonder so few home-grown players make it. No wonder clubs make so many mistakes in rejecting future stars too early.
To jump from the Juniors to the first team without any reserve team structure makes it almost impossible to develop younger players. It also makes it very difficult to maintain a subs bench of seven players when your first eleven is staying fit and doing the business. So I don't think we are making a revolutionary move, but we are correcting a fatal error in our structure.
Crewe and Exeter develop a lot of their own players, so it's possible. Getting them to Championship level is harder, but Ajax supplies much of Europe with the talent it develops.
For us what is the alternative? We can only improve by bringing through talent and finding and exploiting that talent rejected by bigger clubs. We will always lack buying power, but there's no reason for us to lack brain power.