Originally Posted by
delmbox
I'm no expert but from a common sense point of view I'd imagine the better your coaching, facilities, access to games against good opposition the more chance a lad will have. The initial scouting's probably the most important part though, if someone's not good enough all the coaching etc in the world won't help them make the grade. We're poor in this area as well - Ben Cabango was born in Cardiff wasn't he?
Also, and this is going back a bit now but how come Bale wasn't picked up by Cardiff scouts, especially being that he's related to Chris Pike? Obviously we ended up getting the sell on fee anyway but is there a reason he never trained with us? Did we have a set up for 9 year olds?