With apologies to my friend Richard Holt if I got this wrong in some way, but it doesn't really matter much because it is the message of what his question conveys which is important here rather than the precise details involved.Originally Posted by Jimmy the Jock
Around two or three years ago, Richard asked on here "it only happened twice last season (from memory, he was talking about 2014/15), but throughout the whole of the twentieth century, there were only six times when it didn't happen - what am I talking about?". The answer was City played a game with at least one Welshman in their squad.
Throughout most of our history, we have had teams with a strong nucleus of home grown players - there have been plenty of times when we've had worse teams than the one we have now, but there have also been times when we've had better and more successful sides than the current one which had plenty of Welsh representation.
The irony is that it's almost certainly true to say that the degree of Welsh representation is in inverse proportion to the amount of money, in relative terms, being spent to try and ensure a Welsh presence in the team!
Therefore, there is a strong argument to say that the Academy system at Cardiff City has been a failure since it started in 2004.
However, I think on more of an emotional level than a financial one on these sort of things, while also recognising that, in essence, our "natural" level when relying far more on local talent than we do now was the old Second Division and it's been the Championship since we became a non Welsh club in terms of first team selection.
I just think that the club's heart (in terms of the people with real influence at least) has not been in providing the best system possible for Academy scholars to break through in recent years, so while it can be claimed that the system hasn't worked, it can also be said that it hasn't been given a fair chance to work either.
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