Quote Originally Posted by the other bob wilson View Post
I think I've brought up the matter of how Sion Spence has gone from intended first team substitute to not good enough for the Development team twice on my blog this season (I've definitely made mention of it). It's strange how he has gone from being a regular member of the Development squad at the back end of last season to an occasional member of it to me and, on the face of it, there seems to be an admission that City got it wrong a few months back when he was considered to be up to playing against people years older than him in the Under 23s and would have been a sub at Huddersfield if it had not been for a problem with red tape.

When Spence was featuring for the Under 23s last season, he was still being selected for the Under 18s, so he was often playing on Saturdays and Mondays. Therefore, it may be that City have decided that they want to limit him to one game a week even though most 16/17 year olds on the books of a pro club want to do is play as much and as often as they can at that age - he seems quite an athlete as well.

http://www.thepowerof10.info/athlete...hleteid=528196

Anyway, if that is the reason for his non selection in what is effectively our reserve team, then I think it's a poor decision, because he's shown he can do well with the Under 23s and he should be with them if it really has to be one out of the two teams only.
My son's (excellent) coach threw me a few years ago when he questioned moving youngsters into higher age groups. He wasn't against it, of course, but he said it wasn't a simple issue. He said there were a number of benefits in keeping talented youngsters involved in their own age group; it gave them a responsibility they wouldn't have at a higher level, taught them leadership skills and, obviously, it's also a huge plus for the other youngsters in that age group to be playing with better players.

I'm not saying any of that is relevant to the Sion Spence situation but it just shows (as if we didn't already know from all the discussions we've had on here about it) that there are many different views on how, and how quickly, to bring talented youngsters through. It's an interesting and complex issue.