Quote Originally Posted by Badly Ironed Shirt View Post
The facts are that the academy has been failing to produce players for some time - that isn't Slade nor Warnock's problem because an academy is a long term process. I'm slightly amused that one man is slated for not picking players that were not good enough, whereas the other is defended with sporadic examples. My point is, the academy is struggling and, unless it improves, the next manager will also have the tag of refusing to give youth a chance. The players are obviously not ready because Mackay, Slade, Trollope and now Warnock are unwilling to find anything other than a token place for them.
Or maybe the players aren't good enough. Tommy O'Sullivan was hyped up... and where is he now. A lot of the youngsters can't even be loaned out to league sides.

Reality is, the overwhelming majority of youth players bomb out irrespective league status. Someone like Southampton is a rarity and even they have been quite the past two seasons or so.

Another point is players even on their first pro contract have decent contracts relatively speaking. Where is their motivation to take risks, drive themselves on when they can get a very nice salary, get a very nice car at a young age etc. Doss around playing u23 games from 18 onwards, job's good 'un.