Yet were happy to have CW/Batts on the bench who have no future at the club .. so much for forward thinking.. they are just blocking places and bring zero to the table except a drain on wages.

Zero point in building a great academy and your young talent leaving as there is no progress into Roy’s old boys club.

Surely the point of spending all this money on upgrading the academy is for the future and not today

West Germany....deutschmarks... I wonder if that pesky Berlin wall will be coming down any time soon?

Palace since 19 August 1972. Palace 1 (Tony Taylor) Liverpool 1 (Emlyn Hughes)

Can I just point out before we start on the Hodgson wont play youth thread again how well the 4 players out on loan are doing, the ones dinosaur Hodgson won’t play. Kirby started two matches at Tranmere and seems to have been taken off at half time in both, similar with Pierick who is been kept out of the Kilmarnock first team by the talent of Kyle Lafferty. Sam Woods has been a sub for Plymouth and Scott Banks seems to be doing ok in the Scottish championship . Hopefully ,they are all learning from the experience hopefully they will all come good but let’s not kid ourself these are premier league ready players. We have only just got the top grade academy and the young players are simple not there to play but hopefully they will come through over the next few years.
If the lad wants to go it is shame but lots of other youngster have made the same decision ,Yep he will get more first team opppotunities in Germany if he is good enough the Bundesliga is more forgiving on development. Jaydon Sancho has made it a promising story for youngster but it has not worked out well for Mandela Egbo has it.

One supporter of hacking argued that without it "you will do away with the courage and pluck of the game, and I will be bound to bring over a lot of Frenchmen who would beat you with a week's practice -Blackheath secretary at first meeting of the F.A

With Zaha playing as a striker now and Townsend getting on, there is only Eze which is hardly ‘fierce’ competition seeing as there are two wings. No idea who are our attacking midfielders are.

The article is a worry if this is how he feels. I’m sure he’s not the only one. Now is the perfect time to try out a youngster or two. If they’re not ready, it will be a good experience and help their development. It at least shows the others that it’s possible to get to the first team and will keep them motivated.

We know from previous seasons that Roy will stick with his usual lineup. Apart from about £2m in prize money which really is small fry, it makes no difference if we finish 9th or 15th. Blooding youngsters is a better long term investment.

Because it is not going to happen to every youth player, some will make the choice that their development is best served by going somewhere they are more likely to get first team experience, gutting for us but their decision. Going to Germany seems popular at the moment but not every player is going that way. To be honest if you are an up and coming star at Millwall or Charlton academy and you get an offer at the Cat 1 Palace you are likely to take it , but rising starlet seek future in Beckenham isn’t going to make a great story except for the South London Press, we will nick players as well and the cat 1 academy makes us more attractive.
The investment in the academy is so that we increase the chances of getting the next AWB or Zaha or so the likes of Emile Smith-Rowe joins Palace academy rather the Arsenal.
As has been said before considering how many good players have come from South London we have been missing out, if we can gain a reputation for playing youngster even better and having the academy makes that more likely but not guaranteed.

One supporter of hacking argued that without it "you will do away with the courage and pluck of the game, and I will be bound to bring over a lot of Frenchmen who would beat you with a week's practice -Blackheath secretary at first meeting of the F.A