by hector » 25 Oct 2014, 09:13
I understand what you mean, but if you up the level of youth team, to discuss say, Liverpool or Manchester United, take a year and look for an FA Youth Cup winning squad, only a handful of those players would have made the Premiership grade. Others, who drop down to say, League 1, 2 or Conference, are only doing the equivalent of ours dropping to Southern/Western Leagues etc. The ratios are probably similar. A local player, who was part of youth teams at Manchester United and Liverpool (and indeed Liverpool's FA Youth Cup winning squad) is Michael Nardiello, who was recently plying his trade at Tiverton Town. A good young player, who, partly because of injury, never made the professional grade but look at his peers in that squad and there aren't really any first-team regulars at Anfield.
It shows how successful Exeter City's scheme is, that they have a squad full of youth graduates, while others they got rid of, like Elliot Freer at FGR and Jake Gosling at Bristol Rovers, have all done well elsewhere.
The point I am making, is that even at the top clubs, the youth team graduates don't always translate to play at the level the club is at, so it figures that the same would be true lower down. Only the cream rise to the top and so for the likes of Sullivan, Yeoman & Halpin pulling up trees at youth team level, is probably because they were up against players who weren't as good and also never made the grade. In the those opposition teams they met, I suspect only a tiny handful of players rose high enough to play at a reasonable level, so Sullivan et al were bound to look good if they had a modicum of talent more.
Like you say, it could be seen as a waste of £200 per week but I guess the feeling is perhaps they need time to develop and maybe do a job as a squad player but I suspect they will be released when contracts finish.
I understand what you mean, but if you up the level of youth team, to discuss say, Liverpool or Manchester United, take a year and look for an FA Youth Cup winning squad, only a handful of those players would have made the Premiership grade. Others, who drop down to say, League 1, 2 or Conference, are only doing the equivalent of ours dropping to Southern/Western Leagues etc. The ratios are probably similar. A local player, who was part of youth teams at Manchester United and Liverpool (and indeed Liverpool's FA Youth Cup winning squad) is Michael Nardiello, who was recently plying his trade at Tiverton Town. A good young player, who, partly because of injury, never made the professional grade but look at his peers in that squad and there aren't really any first-team regulars at Anfield.
It shows how successful Exeter City's scheme is, that they have a squad full of youth graduates, while others they got rid of, like Elliot Freer at FGR and Jake Gosling at Bristol Rovers, have all done well elsewhere.
The point I am making, is that even at the top clubs, the youth team graduates don't always translate to play at the level the club is at, so it figures that the same would be true lower down. Only the cream rise to the top and so for the likes of Sullivan, Yeoman & Halpin pulling up trees at youth team level, is probably because they were up against players who weren't as good and also never made the grade. In the those opposition teams they met, I suspect only a tiny handful of players rose high enough to play at a reasonable level, so Sullivan et al were bound to look good if they had a modicum of talent more.
Like you say, it could be seen as a waste of £200 per week but I guess the feeling is perhaps they need time to develop and maybe do a job as a squad player but I suspect they will be released when contracts finish.
