Originally Posted by
thehumblegringo
That's true but there has definitely been a change recently whereas clubs are willing to put young players in but it's noticable that this is only happening where clubs play a more progressive style of football. Norwich is probably the greatest example of this at the moment and if you look into their current structure it's incredibly impressive. They even have a loans manager who picks clubs suited to the kids development and tracks every fine detail of their progress.
I fear that we haven't got the fan base to allow us to implement a new style of play as this just couldn't happen overnight.
I fear for your cousin as he shouldn't be playing with his own age group at 18. I wonder if results are more important than individual development? Either that or the fact that the divide between academy and first team is a chasm therefore the management of the first team don't trust the academy and the management of the academy don't trust the first team!