Quote Originally Posted by blue lewj View Post
I asked in another thread but people chose not to answer. What have we changed in the academy for it to now be producing such a glut of players when for years it produced nothing?

Or is the truth closer to the board saying we have to use the kids because we are not giving you the money for new signings?

If people can work out that academies do not start churning out Championship level players time and again overnight but we're forced to use them anyway then what happens is a gradual fall down the league.
Our manager building up Bournemouth as if Real Madrid had rolled into town may be managing expectations in view of this.

People can believe what they like. Nothing wrong with positivity but blind positivity and not seeing things for what they are is something different. I know what I think is going on.
Academies rarely produce finished championship level players. Almost all of them need playing time at a good level in order to reach that level. We've thrown in a bunch of inexperienced players in the last 18 months or so and none of them have looked completely out of place. Will they all spend the majority of their career at this level or higher? no probably not - but a couple of them might.
If we hadn't started to introduce them into the team then probably none of them would ever make it at this level.

There are probably young players in previous academy groups that could have made it but never had the opportunity.
Other clubs in this division have had a pathway to the first team for years, we are just putting in place what should always have been there.

Now we can attract good players to the academy, and the intensity in academy games is probably higher as thy know if they perform well there's a chance they'll get into the first team.

Yes we have almost certainly done this out of necessity rather than lofty ambitions, but it is a good thing to be doing so lets see where it goes .