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I'm guessing the 50/50 mix of home grown v 'other' was pretty much the norm for most sides in those days, though Spurs had bought the majority of their side, it's true.
I just think that we haven't had the ability to identify and then develop talent for decades, and only when a real gem like Ramsey comes along do they get through on natural ability alone.
Years ago I was involved in local junior and youth football. City had a number of scouts who watched our games. They always picked the quick, nippy, small ones who looked far better than their counterparts. Trouble is, those quick, nippy small ones usually stayed smaller than the rest, and the slightly more cumbersome bigger ones who could pick out a pass but looked a tad slow, began to develop and be more comfortable on the ball, and quicker and stronger than the nippy ones they left behind.
If you recall the number of youngsters who came into the City sides in the 80's/90's, they were usually lightweights who could trap a ball but looked way out of their depth...
I was looking at an article which was saying that just over 30% of pitch time in the Premier League has gone to English players this season (I doubt Welsh players would push that up too much). That's pretty much the problem in a nutshell, it's getting harder for youngsters to break in anywhere, we seem to be be finding it increasingly difficult to even send players out on loan lately. It's been a poor spell for local talent, it's not as though we've been letting Bales and Bellamys slip through our fingers, hopefully the success of our Academy this season is a sign of better things to come.Quote:
Originally Posted by the other bob wilson
I'd like to think Waite will get a chance to be Camarasa today, there seems to a space there for him unless Reid ends up playing there. As long as he doesn't have to take any throw-ins he'll be fine, I'm sure.
The problem with what you say is that for about eighty per cent of the period I'm talking about we've been a Championship club.Quote:
Originally Posted by Loramski
I often refer to a question Binge Thinking asked in a quiz he put on here about three years ago for which the answer was that during the whole of the 20th century we only played six league games without at least one Welshman in our team compared to 39 in the 14/15 season alone. This goes right to the heart of what has been happening at the club in it's tenth decade as a Football League club and it runs totally contrary to what happened during the first nine.
Interesting read Bob. Are Cardiff really that different from other clubs (of similar status) in this respect?. Do, say, Huddersfield or Bournemouth have significantly more home-grown players featuring at the top level?. Genuine question - maybe they do!Quote:
Originally Posted by the other bob wilson
Bournemouth have two or three youngsters they've developed who have played some first team football in cup competitions, but I'm not aware of them having played any league football for the senior side.Quote:
Originally Posted by Swiss Peter
Huddersfield are interesting because they are one of a small number of clubs that have closed their Academy - these articles do a good job of explaining the problems with the current system;-
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/43342943
https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/footb...roken-11143685
That's the thing for me, it's the current system that is broken, not the Academy concept. The problems City have had in producing their own good young players in the last eight years or so are not directly down to the issues highlighted at Tranmere, Brentford and Huddersfield in my opinion - they have had a continued problem in getting young players who appear to have definite first team potential over the final hurdle of youth or Development team into the senior side.
In saying that, as Lawnmower says today in another thread, the current Under 18 team are the generation that Ken Choo and Russell Slade were so excited about when they met Trust members about three years ago and if no one from this group makes it into the first team, then even someone like me would start asking what is the point in having an Academy? At the moment, I think we are at a stage where we have a choice between using Premier League television money to try and enable us to obtain category one Academy status or just forgetting about producing our own kids like Brentford have done - I know which one I prefer, but we really do need to start producing our own first team players soon.