Quote Originally Posted by the other bob wilson View Post
I despair, if the under 21s are still considered Academy players that goes some way to explaining why we’re so crap at developing young full time professional players into first teamers. Cosseting them in Academys until twenty one only gives staff more of an excuse to say they’re not ready yet.

It’s not that long ago that a City team without a home grown youngster in it was considered unusual - having seventeen year olds in the first team was fairly commonplace and you’d occasionally see a sixteen year old. Now we’re in a position where our manager considers twenty one year olds not ready yet because we’re in a relegation scrap - if I were. a member of the Academy’s staff I’d being seeing the fact that someone like Benjamin won the award for Academy Player of the Year as an admission of failure.
So what were u23s then? No longer Academy kids, but not really senior players so an underclass?

What about u21s playing for he u23s? Would an 18 year old be an academy player or not? Are Crole and Ashford not really Academy players either?

I would be interesting to see analysis if possible because I can't recall seeing 17 yr olds and occasionally 16 yr olds in City sides. Maybe, just maybe at lower levels or in meaningless cup games. That isn't even something particular to us, I cant recall ay Championship side that would be the same. The odd player here and there, maybe.

Again, I refer to to criticism of Benjamin winning the award as being churlish. Like it or not, he's part of the Academy setup and if he breaks into the first team, I'll be cheering him on, not worrying he hasn't been at the club for a decade.