There's a very good feature in today's Sunday Times written by Jonathan Northcroft about the large number of young English footballers playing in Europe.

It's titled The Sancho Effect and describes how he decided to join Dortmund because he believed it would fast track his career. Their philosophy, he said, was, age didn't matter, if you're good enough they'll play you.

Apparently 7% of minutes in Bundesliga were played by Under 21 year olds in 2020/21, but even this low number is almost double the figure in the PL which has the lowest % of minutes played by Under 21s in any of the world's top 15 leagues, except China and Mexico.

For whatever reason it seems that English clubs consider that young players with experience in Foreign clubs have better potential than those from, say, the Championship.

Although we are making progress in developing our Academy players and bringing them into the first team, I can't help thinking we could give more game time to the likes of Omilabu, Rak-Sakyi and Kirby. Why even consider the likes of Nketiah when we have our own, home grown talent available?

Am I alone in this or are others of you keen to see us 'play our youngsters if they're good enough'?

Dad and I watched games standing on the muddy slope of the Holmesdale Road end. He cheered and I rattled.

I agree. We have a top talent as well called Daniel Quick a defender who can play full back and centre back, and is wanted by Dortmund, Liverpool and Southampton. I am a bit disappointed that Vieira has not integrated some more into the team. We did have Wells-Morrison and Rak-Sakyi on the bench against Millwall, but I feel they could have been on the bench more instead of Jairo and Kelly

Hartlepool is an obvious game if any are good enough. Maybe not starting but to come on at least.

Red and Blue Army!

The Premier League is probably the toughest league to play in. Every opponent tends to be a tough team to beat. In our previous eight seasons we have failed to reach 50 points. In other words most of each season has been spent trying to ensure we survive. Bringing through youngsters, therefore, has been and continues to be difficult for clubs like Palace whose primary aim has been and remains to stay in the league. Yes, we could give a promising youngster a few minutes off the bench in a game that is comfortably being won by us (a rare event) or where a game is already a lost cause (as happened for Rak-Sakyi first up against Chelsea), but most of the time we're trying to either hold on to what we've got in a game or pushing for an equalizer/winner.

What PV has done well this season is give the better Academy players regular opportunities to train with the first team, thereby enabling:
1) him and his coaching team to see where those youngsters are at and what they need to work on and
2) the youngsters to experience first hand what it's like to come up against and play alongside first team players.

The last Academy player to come through, of course, is Mitchell. He got his chance because of injuries BUT he was clearly still very raw and struggled for quite a few games before fans started thinking that he might be up to scratch. How many chances would he have had, had PvA not been out for as long as he was?

I would hope to see several youngsters on the bench on Saturday and, assuming we score several goals and are well in control, hope one or two of them will get some minutes.

I also hope that we'll reach the 40 point mark soonest so as to enable PV to consider giving one or two youngsters opportunities in the final games of the season.

What ones do you suggest we play and instead of who? None are bossing it at u23 level to suggest they deserve a jump up to Premier league football and that is a massive jump.

I think Wells-Morrison and Rak-Sakyi are the obvious two for a few minutes

“That’s a joke son, I say, that’s a joke.” “Nice boy, but he’s sharp as a throw pillow.” “He’s so dumb he thinks a Mexican border pays rent” “ “Son… I say, son, some people are so narrow minded they can look through a keyhole with both eyes.”__ Forhorn Leghorn