Wes Burns

[Loramski]

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.

We haven't been bringing players with three legs through the Academy though. It's bewildering trying to work out who's going to make it, there's no rhyme or reason to it half the time. Me and TOBW watched Bellamy's Academy team the season they won their league, we both thought we were seeing the basis of a future first team but Colwill's the last man standing for now. Some are still here but most are spread far and wide.

Sion Spence got released. Outrage on here. Palace picked him up, more outrage. Got a hat-trick for their under-23s, meltdown. My eldest played hockey at Chippenham recently. The clubhouse overlooks their football pitch, they were playing Havant and Waterlooville, who are next to bottom of the National League South, and Sion Spence plays for them now. Mark Harris is doing well for himself though. Go figure.

I'd love to see more local youngsters coming through but we can't keep them all here for ever just in case a couple make the grade ten or fifteen years later. How would we have kept the three you're talking about? How many times can you send someone out on loan while you're waiting for them to make the grade? Not local, but we let Ajayi go even though he was playing Championship football every week with Rotherham at the time.

Good luck to Regan Poole and I hope he makes it but, ten years after we released him, he still hasn't kicked a ball in the Championship and he's older than Declan Rice. I'm sure Chelsea fans can't understand how they released Rice when he was 14 but it just shows what a lottery player development can be.