Quote Originally Posted by logic View Post
https://www.cardiffcityfc.co.uk/club-staff/academy

u21 manager listed as Academy staff.

Benjamin has played well for the u21s and been on the first team bench. It would be churlish not to recognise his good play this season due to not having been with the club long enough.
I despair, if the under 21s are still considered Academy players that goes some way to explaining why we’re so crap at developing young full time professional players into first teamers. Cosseting them in Academys until twenty one only gives staff more of an excuse to say they’re not ready yet.

It’s not that long ago that a City team without a home grown youngster in it was considered unusual - having seventeen year olds in the first team was fairly commonplace and you’d occasionally see a sixteen year old. Now we’re in a position where our manager considers twenty one year olds not ready yet because we’re in a relegation scrap - if I were. a member of the Academy’s staff I’d being seeing the fact that someone like Benjamin won the award for Academy Player of the Year as an admission of failure.