Quote Originally Posted by Pedro de la Rosa View Post
I don't think they're leaving for first team opportunities... They'll be on seriously good money for 17 year olds, and if they don't make it at Man United, they might fall down to us etc (like Denham and Sang), rather than not making it at us and ending up at a Torquay.
What I mean is that compared to Bristol City (and Swansea) we still have a poor reputation for converting academy players to first teamers, so its going to affect our ability to retain talent.
The evidence is out there: they regularly sell home grown players for big fees, we end up losing ours when they are 15 or 16.
The scalping from big clubs is (as usual) unfair, but those other clubs are in the same situation as us.