At the end of the day, does it really matter anymore if we don’t have any local players in our squad, or aren’t producing any decent ones through the academy?
In an ideal world, we’d be producing players like Ramsey every couple of seasons, and have a few good ins in our 1st 11.
The bonus being, we get to see local talent on the pitch and the club cash in when they move on.
In the modern world though, most people want everything now, and in football, lots of managers at the high end can’t afford to gamble on youth, because they’ll be horsed out if doesn’t work out toot sweet.
When Celtic won the European cup in 1967, 14 of the 15 man squad were born with in 10 miles of Parkhead. The other one was born 30 miles away. As much as I’m not keen on Celtic and all the shite that goes with them, that has surely got to be one of the greatest feats ever in the game.
The top 6 in England only have a combined smattering of English players, and top clubs in Europe are turning more and more to foreigners.
I have no problem with talented youth getting snapped up by the bigger clubs, because we now have some of the most promising players in my lifetime in the Welsh squad. Lots of them are not born here, but have ties, and if they choose to play for us, then all the better.