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Josh Low was in the Division 3 team of the season in 2000/01, one that Earnshaw failed to make. He played in the Championship for Leicester City and provided 2 assists in 16 games. He was still a relative youngster when he was with us, I think he was 20 when he signed in 1999. Sadly the boo-boys hardly helped and encouraged him and I used to hear fans get on his back quite often. Sad.
I'm talking about not having a single player in the senior Welsh squad, youth development is related to that, but is far from the only reason we find ourselves in this situation. Being without representation in the Welsh senior squad is far from a unique situation in the time Vincent Tan has been in charge - City's first team is getting worse and the amount of Welshman involved (whether home grown or brought in from other teams) is declining. The general consensus is that money is tight at the club and, anyway, we have an embargo which prevents us paying transfer and loan fees. When other clubs find themselves in similar positions, there is often a tendency to turn to youth as a way of saving money and then, hopefully, making some as these young players prosper in the senior team and other clubs want to sign them.
I used the word embarrassing because the lack of representation in the Welsh squad is the latest in a long line of embarrassments for
the modern day Cardiff City - I just sent someone an e-mail in which I asked he question name a worse run team than Cardiff City? I honestly can't think of one off the top of my head when you factor in the advantages that having a multi millionaire/billionaire owner should have given us.
Not good enough for bigger clubs to want to sign them. Was just thinking through about what is happening and why. Maybe they were offered other opportunities and turned them down, I have no idea. This is absolutely nothing specific against the players. Good luck to them and I wish them all the best.
The Elite Player Performance Plan is an absolute joke. It essentially lets top clubs take academy talent from lesser clubs and pay a pittance in return. Have a look at Man Citys youngsters on Wikipedia and see just how many theyve robbed from other clubs.
And the bad news is its only going to get worse. Before Brexit, it was common for top Premier League clubs to cream off the best European academy talent (think Fabregas, Anelka, Pogba etc). Now those players will not qualify for work permits so they are restricted to purely British academy players.
Id propose a mandatory 50% sell on fee for all players poached in such a manner. Then at least if you had a repeat of the Matondo situation where he goes to City, the never play him but then sell him to Schalke for £8 million, we'd get a decent cut.
I've said before that, eventually, something will have to give. Academies will no longer be cost effective, as the best players will continue to be poached for peanuts and the remainder won't be good enough to cut it at first team level.
As a result, clubs will eventually just close their academies. Meaning that talent will go undiscovered and unnurtured, and the wider game will suffer massively in the long term.
The frustrating thing is that there are so many simple fixes to this issue. Restrict teams to the number of U18 players they can sign each year (unless they are unattached). Put a proper compensation plan in place; say, 1 million for every year in the academy (not the peanuts you get now). It still might not put the likes of Man City off, but at least we'd get something worthwhile that could be reinvested. As someone else said, 50% mandatory sell on fees too.
There should be massive incentives for investing in and developing young players, as it's essentially safeguarding the future of the game. But at the moment, the system is structured in a way where a lot of clubs are going to wonder why they should bother.
It's not going anywhere. I was merely trying to understand what you're talking about as your replies are vague.
From what I can gather, you think the three Swansea players in the Wales squad might have remained in the Jacks' youth set-up because they're 'not good enough'.
It's an interesting angle for sure.
It is working as intended. The big clubs have convinced everyone they’re the best to handle and develop talent, they’ll stockpile and nothing will change.
Kids will have to go to the big clubs, they’ll get even more talent and it will go from there. Nothing will change.
Whew. Yes, you could argue that there are no equivalent CCFC players in the Welsh squad as the CCFC system has done so well in developing talent and subsequently not being able to keep it. So with the same end result, you could say that the CCFC system is really poor or that it's really good. And yes, I do have some time on my hands.
Wales could be about to lose one of them as they have an English father
I'm also surprised Harris hasn't been capped yet