Your last sentence sums it up. Many are saying the academy is everything, our future, whereas in reality it might not produce anyone that we will actually play because we have a plethora of 30 year olds who are a ‘safe pair of hands’ and we can’t risk playing youngsters. It’s a sad indictment of the mindset the club are in where they must, at all costs, stay in the PL which inevitably dictates the line up of the team.

Having a first class academy is all well and good but if there is no clearly visible pathway from youth to the first team or if the player simply refuses to sign a professional contract, then they will be free to leave and the most Palace will get is a training compensation fee of I think around £150,000/£175,000. So these players will only start to create decent income for us if we can filter them into the team and start to showcase them.

Just having a first class Academy is a step in the right direction.
We are a club, who at present appear to be all about scraping their way to safety where relegation would devastate their business plans.
There is little point in playing youngsters for the sake of it if it threatens this. The Manager must have confidence that he can blood these youngsters safely. For whatever reason, RH does not have this. The current performances of our 'Out On loan' players, mentioned previously, are not a good look. and would suggest that simply they are not up to Prem standards.
What I would like to see, however, is when a youngster gets on the bench, to give him 10 mins here and there where possible. This never seems to happen, which also paints RH in a bad light.

It's better to have an academy and not use it - selling on the prospects if there's no way through here. at Some point we'll use it, and they'll be there. If it pays for itself, whats the harm?

"It was a Team effort, I guess it took all players working together to lose this one"

Perhaps he should have chat with a certain Mr Bostock about what can happen.

He is not the first youngster to do this or will be the last. I am sure and would hope that we have learnt from the Bostock situation where as we get decent compensation at least. Some youngsters develop later, ie Ian Wright and some don't improve as much as they should.So would not lose any sleep over it.

I don't hold to the myth that if Bostock had stayed with us he would have become a regular first team player and possibly even a great player.

It didn't work out at Spurs but he had plenty of opportunities elsewhere and has never been more than a 2nd or 3rd tier player.

Yes maybe he would have knuckled down we will never know. Patrick Bamford is a good example of a player who failed at Palace and Norwich but he found his way at boro and Leeds and has proved his point. Bostock could have done that but didn't.

Edited by Badger11 (17 Mar 2021 10.08am)

One more point

Of course it is not guaranteed, not much in football can be guaranteed. You could spend £50m and get Rhian Brewster and Aaron Ramsdale and the sack.
Since promotion our model has been to sign largely overlooked older players with a bit of nous and experience, the simple fact is that type of player is cheaper then a youngster that has a good couple of season in the championship. We could have spent £20m on Maupay or picked up Ayew for £5m, £20m on Webster at Brighton or Cahill on a free. As I have said before we don’t have the money to throw at it so if we spend money for us it is better to do that on known products with high wages then lesser-known quantities with lower wages but high transfer fees.
Where there has been players of enough quality they have been given their chance, that has been AWB and Mitchell, if we were overlooking players that were premier league ready then where are they? Where are the ex Palace players the ones we have overlooked tearing up trees in the championship? Boateng, Innes Lokilo Sullay Kai Kai and bless him Johnny Williams
Are they Sitting on the bench at Tranmere and Plymouth, being kept out of the team by Kyle Lafferty? When I say this and I hope that Kirby, Woods, etc come good but they are not premier league ready.
It is not guaranteed, and it is not a silver bullet for all our problems, but it is going towards ensuring that we can compete and become sustainable as a bigger club. At times we will be gutted that are youngest hasn’t signed a contract even more so if he goes to Germany and comes back a £40m player but others times we will laugh as we pick apart Charlton’s academy and pay a pittance in compensation for a good prospect.

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