Quote Originally Posted by the other bob wilson View Post
Aaron Ramsey and John Toshack played for us as sixteen year olds with The latter becoming a regular selection at that age and the former at seventeen. Chris Gunter had a run of games in the first team as a seventeen year old, as did Adam Matthews and Darcy Blake made his debut at seventeen I believe. Going back further, Lindon Jones, Peter Sayer, and David Giles all debuted at seventeen, Simon Haworth did I think, Earnie did and James Collins may have been seventeen as well.

Think a lot of the praise Benjamin gets is for him being seen as a leader when you often hear talk about how few of those there are in the modern game. I’m not against him in any way, I just don’t think him getting the award reflects well on the Academy especially when you consider that his leadership qualities are hardly likely to have appeared in the past year while he’s been with us.

I always think of Theo Wharton (another who played in the first team at seventeen I think) and Tommy O’Sullivan as explanations as to why under 23 football was wrong - they were still playing age group football every week at twenty two and twenty three and the idea that they could still have been regarded as Academy players at that age is laughable - I think it’s laughable as well that twenty one year old Rubin Colwill could still be considered as a Academy player at City when he’s been to a Euros and A World Cup with his country.
Ramsey was when? Toshack was when? What level were we in when the people youve named made their debuts?

Talented players will make the breakthrough, but we've seen endless youngsters touted here that have gone on do very little. If you'd argued we've had managers unwilling to back youngsters, I'd tend to agree.

Theo Wharton, like Tom James, were named by Mackay as having "big futures ahead of them". O'Sullivan et al. File firmly in the "Where are they now?" category, can hardly claim the club have missed out.

Like it or not, Benjamin is an Academy player. You ay consider it laughable, c'est la vie.

What's more important is that the club need to have a manager willing to give youngsters runs. I don't care if they came fom another Academy or not, but in McGuinness, Denham, Rubin Colwill, Davies, Etete we've a useful young first team crop. If at least one from Benjamin, King, Ashford Leahy, Crole pan out, then great.