Originally Posted by
the other bob wilson
The most ludicrous thing of all is that anyone who has seen the current crop of youngsters coming up through the age groups, will now that the methods they were taught during that time were completely contradictory to what awaits in the first team. It's easy just to look at the careers of the many talented footballers who have come through the ranks at Cardiff in the last decade and more and say they weren't good enough because they didn't break into the first team, but all that proves is that they weren't suited to the "Cardiff way".
Keenan Patten's older brother Robbie was released by the club after injury disrupted his progress and I know he had teams interested in him at National League level, at least, who didn't offer him a contract because his footballing education at Cardiff had taught him to play the game the "right way". He was too much a footballer for the way these clubs were going to play!
It's been a joke at Cardiff in recent years - you get players coming through who are unsuited to the way the first team has played in the last ten years or so. Therefore, you have to ask why are we spending so much on the Academy?
We may, finally, be about to see a return on all of that investment, but my impression is that nearly all of the promising crop of players coming through will fail to fulfil their potential if the first team continues to play like it does.