Quote Originally Posted by LeningradCowboy View Post
Are any of them even remotely ready to play Championship football?
Looking at our midfield at times this season, I've thought they were crying out for someone who could do the same sort of job that Bowen did for the under 18s, Patten and Pinchard are good all rounders who can play in a variety of positions and when I saw Bolger (who seems to have been injured for much of this season) playing back in August and September I thought he was someone who could play for the first team by the end of the season.

My point is more that at other clubs facing the likelihood of a few weeks at the end of the season with nothing to play for, I feel the conversation about who could replace a player about to be sold would include the question "do we have any youngsters coming through who could come in?" - the likelihood is that we could find out without important league points being lost come April and May and I'm sure there would be some blooding of youngsters at most other clubs under the same circumstances.

Unless you're talking about a Ramsey, there has to be a gamble involved when giving a youngster a debut, but we often did it two or three times a season until the thinking that our young player of the year has to about twenty five took a hold - it doesn't help either to have fans writing Cameron Coxe off completely after two appearances.