He's not the only one as there have been several more "next big things" that didn't turn out to be so including a Norwegian lad called Breymar (or similar) who arrrived in a blaze of publicity only to disappear soon afterwards and Reise Allassani who it was only a matter of time before he ran our midfield but is now at Dulwich Hamlet

Might he be referring to our nicking Ferguson off the Baggies?

There are several posters on here who would still be picking Gareth Barry, and letting Foden go on a free. How do you think young players start a successful career? Perhaps McArthur and Co can play into their forties and we can get some more past their sell by date players on frees. In the meantime our rated youngsters can just go on frees because they're kids.

Red and Blue Army!

Not the first time it's been said, but has it not occurred to anyone that the reason we stuck with older players is that the youth team aren't good enough to replace them?

When it came to playing first team football they used to say that if you were good enough you were old enough, but some on here seem to think that if you're young enough then you're good enough.

It doesn't work that way. Never has. Look at every England youth team to win a youth tournament - half of them don't even become professional footballers. A youth team isn't some gold mine of under appreciated assets - its a highly speculative venture which has always been understood to fail far, far more often than it succeeds.

And please don't say we'll never know if we don't give them a chance. They get the chance every single day at training, and in u23 games. The club is painfully aware of the standard of the youth teams relative to the required standard, hence all the expenditure.

Even if this kid Zion is exceptional for his age, the chances of him ever being an improvement on our first team options are, by their very nature, slim at best. The idea that we create pathways for kids who are good enough makes perfect sense, but to create pathways simply so we don't lose every kid who threatens to explore alternative options is all wrong. Every half decent kid at the club would have us over a barrel in no time.

Edited by TheBigToePunt (25 Jan 2021 1.33pm)

Didn't James Vaughan score against us when he was 16? Something like that anyway. I agree that 99% don't make it. Some do though. I could name a few but why bother as we can have solid professionals forever.

Red and Blue Army!