Originally Posted by
FormerlyJohnnyBreadhead
It's a fair argument for Lockyer, who has said that leaving to play in the lower leagues made him the player he is. And, to an extent, Burns (although it's worth noting Fleetwood made the League 1 play-offs in two of the seasons he was there, one of which he won POTY. So it's not like he had to drop to the depths to prove himself).
I disagree with Regan Poole though. Poole was told he was too small to play U16s football (as was Lockyer, incidentally), but within 2 months someone at Newport decided he was big enough to play senior men's football. That's not a case of hindsight, that was awful judgement at the time (and I remember Danny Gabbidon who was involved in the club at that point, saying as much). Either he had one hell of a growth spurt in those 2 months, or someone wasn't doing their job properly.
As I said, I'm not talking about players released at 18/19 here. I'm talking about 14 and 15 years of age, with several years of development still ahead. If our production line had been churning out talent after talent over the last 15 years, you could say "OK a few slipped through the net". But given the absolute dearth of quality academy players coming through in that time, I don't think it's an unfair point.
I find it hard to believe that each of those players could have racked up hundreds of Football League games without showing any potential at 14. Especially when you consider that 95% of their teammates in those youth teams have gone on to do absolutely nothing in football.
Of course there's always an element of luck, I get that. Players develop at different rates. Coaches get calls wrong and rejected players become more determined to prove themselves. But over the last 15 years, City's academy hasn't got much right - and they got a few big ones wrong.