Quote Originally Posted by the other bob wilson View Post
Our last game of the season was played with nothing whatsoever riding on it for either side. Birmingham, like countless other teams in a similar position that weekend, decided to use the occasion as a chance to look at one or two of their youngsters, while Slade did what he did throughout eighteen months of league games and cup matches (which other City managers had used as an opportunity to blood a few Academy products) - relied on a starting eleven where, Tom Lawrence apart, the youngest player was 25!

Stacks of managers up and down the country gave players in their early twenties and teens debuts in competitive matches during the time Slade was here, he didn't do it once. All of those other managers would have known about what a results driven business they were in, but would still have seen that there was a bigger picture involved if their club was to develop in a way which would help his long term job prospects. Slade was all about short termism though and, even when presented with a run of eleven games at the back end of 2014/15 which had as much riding on them as that Birmingham match did, still preferred to pick a Danny Gabbidon counting down the days until his contract here ran out on the bench in front of a younger player - Slade was in a class of his own among the City managers I've seen when it comes to ignoring youth development.
I remember very well the selection of Gabbidon on the bench at the end of the 2014/15 season instead of a younger player. At that time the obvious choice would have been Tom James. I heard from sources close to Tom ( his mum !) that he was not going to be offered a new contract at the end of this season and he would have to look for another club as Slade did not rate him. Interestingly, when the retained list was published he was among the DVP names who had been offered a contract extension which is good news. Perhaps one can read into this that those in the club with more of an eye on the future and concern for the youth structure of the club had the input into the DVP/U21 retained list and not the outgoing Slade.