Quote Originally Posted by Tuerto View Post
Agree, and u23 football. Whenever I have watched it it looks like an exercise in showing how an individual has been coached to death, a bit like those shit courses you have to go on with work that are carried out in safe and forgiving environments without the obvious Panic factor of a real life situation. Maybe that's harsh, but it's noticeable when young players make the step up.

Thing is, and without sounding like an old Twat ( which I sort of am) there doesn't seem to be the urgency with young players coming through at the club, and I don't think it's their fault, it's got to be the way they're coached and nurtured. Look at the players we have produced pre academy. Gunter, Lesley, Earnshaw, Ginge, Ramsey, Mathews etc They all had their faults, but they all had that character to succeed, take control of situations, prepared to make mistakes. That type of attitude seems to have gone with this ultra level of coaching. Might be wrong as it's only anecdotal, although I'm only speaking about our club.
We've been really poor at sorting loans for ages. I get EFL clubs may not want a teenager but I don't get why we don't send 17 year olds to the Cymru Premier more often so they experience mens football. That experience will stand them in better stead to get loans in the EFL than playing u21s will.

What's baffling is that we regularly perform well at age group level, often beating Swansea and Bristol City yet they're the ones chucking youngsters into the first team. 17 year old Parker at Swansea's played a few games recently, I find it hard to believe he's streets ahead of each of our academy players given our results against Swansea in recent years

On the pre-academy players I also think we had managers more willing to put in a younger player