Some well known names touted for a first team spot have been released.

[Link]

One more point

Good luck to them all and hopefully they find new clubs.

I feel especially sorry for Luke Dreher who was on the verges of the first team at one stage but unfortunately injuries had ruined his chances to progress with us.

I know Sean Robertson was highly rated also at one point but again injuries curtailed his play time.

I’m sure Nya Kirby won’t be short of takers.

Also in the grand scheme of things the Academy is still a fledgling operation, for sure it will evolve as each season passes.

Was part of that England U17 World Cup winning squad along the likes of Sancho, Foden, Gallagher, Hudson-Odoi, Smith-Rowe, Guehi and a few others.

Just shows how quickly things can change for a youngster. I remember watching Kirby in one of last season's pre=season matches and thinking 'he hasn't got what it takes for the PL'. Clearly, the club have taken the same view.

At the risk of boring people by repeating a point I've made before, there simply isn't an amount of money, a set of facilities, a standard of staff or an organisational strategy any club can use that overcomes the bald facts of the profession: Very, very few youth prospects make it. Look at how many international youth tournament winners end up not even being professional footballers.

The numbers alone dictate constant rejection of youth players. You give your senior left back a five year deal. Meanwhile, you have a left back in each of your youth teams from u14 up to u18. At the end of each of the next five years you have to decide if the oldest youth team left back is likely to be better than the senior man. People talk about creating a 'pathway' but even if the club sell the senior left back and give the u18 player a chance, you'd end up either replacing that same player a year later with the next upcoming youth player, or releasing that next upcoming youth player. One way or another, there can never be enough job opportunities for the number of youth products, even if only because the lifespan of a professional contract covers the same period in which four or five youth players reach the end of the development process.

The vast majority of players on the list will have known for a long time that they weren't going to be professional footballers. They are kept on because the one or two that might have a chance need another twelve or thirteen blokes around them in order to play matches.

Today Manchester City signed a young Norwegian - his father Alfi Haaland signed for City 22 years ago. Alfie was part of an excellent youth team (the same for his son a few decades later) I remember one of Alfies trainers told me: When I looked at the group as 16 years old I would never have thought Alfie Haaland would make it - many in the team had much more talent than him. But he was the one who trained hardest and worked hardest - making him a pro in England for a decade. Nobody thought that was possible when he played for the youth teams.

My point is - too much talent who shines early often lack the hard work which make the really good players. And the Haalands are definitly among them.
So let us encourage the young Palace players to keep working hard!

Norway