Quote Originally Posted by Arfur Europe View Post
I still wonder whether these kids would be better off staying put with their development clubs, as he'd probably be in the first team with us by now.

If his performances then dictated that big club offers came in, surely this route would benefit him (and us) more?
Its interesting especially when looking at the cases of say David Brooks against the Liverpool pair of Woodburn and Wilson.

You have Brooks getting some actual game time in the championship, learning and learning quickly in a challenging league. Where as you have Woodburn and Wilson doing really well in the U23s but getting no where near any level of competitive football. If you look at Woodburn his last 3 competitive matches has been for Wales.

There is a lot of talk about Brooks getting a Premier League move, but would that really be for his benefit at the moment, when we have clubs stocking young players for U23 action. If you listen to the Feast of Football podcast you will here Gabbidon talking quite harshly about the merits of U23 football, where it is nothing like the real thing, in terms of intensity.