Quote Originally Posted by Loramski View Post
And the fact that Warnock wasn't even prepared to risk one against Mansfield speaks volumes, especially considering how short we were on numbers. The big question is, how much of the problem is the shortage of talent we're bringing into the Academy and how much is how we're developing them once they're here? Personally I believe it's much more to do with the former. I'm certainly not claiming we've helped players like O'Sullivan but it's hard to believe he'd be a regular at Championship level if we'd treated him differently. We seem to be looking for a quicker rotation of players now to stop players like him and Wharton treading water here for years which is a good thing but I'm not sure of the logic of replacing 20-year-olds who aren't good enough for us with 20-year-olds who aren't good enough for other teams.

Of course we should be on the lookout for talent that's slipped the net but we've always done that (and I'm sure all clubs do) without making a big song and dance about it. I would've thought the emphasis should be put on bringing in 15-17 year olds with potential rather than relying on players who've already failed elsewhere. It's too small a sample to generalise from but, as I said before, Ralls, Healey and Harris have worked out better for us than Ajayi, Kennedy and Barnum-Bobb in recent years. I'm wary of criticising Warnock though, hopefully he'll pull a rabbit or two out of the hat for us.

You mentioning O'Sullivan reminds me to say that Tom James is finally getting a run of starts at Yeovil, he seems to be playing at right back. A home tie with Man Utd in the cup coming up, good luck to him.
I agree that the danger with our new policy is that we will be replacing one group of players who had been here for years that were going nowhere with us in their early twenties, with another group of the same age who we'd picked up from other clubs who were doing the same.

That said, signing twenty year olds who've been released as twenty year olds by Premier League teams is not quite the same thing as ones of that age who were deemed not good enough for us because the higher standard involved means that it would certainly be possible for a Premier League "reject" at nineteen or twenty to become a regular in a Championship side a year or two later.

As for younger players at the club, I think it's really hard under the current structure to see how they could break into the first team even if they were playing superbly every week. For me, the current Development team set up just hasn't worked (I mean nationally, not just at City) and, based on some of his comments, Neil Warnock feels the same way. While it is possible for senior players with league experience to use Under 23 games to either prove their fitness after injury or work their way back into contention with some good performances, the widespread perception that the matches are too unlike what they are likely to face in first team football can lead to a situation whereby a lad of say, 17, who was playing really well for the Under 23s every week would probably still not be able to get into first team consideration because it would be felt that what are the closest thing we have now to the old style reserve team games do not ask the right questions of him.

Yes, it's good to see Tom James (who I always thought was good enough to get by in quite easily in League Two) nailing down a place in the Yeovil team - the Man United game should represent a great opportunity for all of the young Yeovil players.