robbiez666
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Sep 18, 2009
- Messages
- 19,237
- Reaction score
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- Banned
- #1
There's a big caveat here as it's tricky to do when we've had a fairly unexpected assent, but there's nothing at the club between Premier League and League 1.
We have a bench full of unfancied loans, free Championship journeymen and transfer listed players.
We've been incredibly lucky (and I don't care how good you conditioning is, a lot of injuries are bad luck) with injuries up until now. I dread to think what would have happened if we'd lost a couple of key players last October. Ditto with suspensions. The ones we've had tended to not coincide with injuries in similar positions.
Something desperately has to be done in terms of investment in younger players who aren't ready for the first team yet. Players who may still cost a fair bit but should come good in a year or two. We've invested in young players who are thrown straight into the first team, which is good, but there's nothing to this squad after the first 15.
It's something this club has not done properly for a long time. If at all. Players like Brooks are a rarity. Most need to be treated like Hendo and brought up through the leagues. There's absolutely no pathway to the first team and no one to walk that path. We have limited fund and recruitment this year has shown that you can't just buy players to fit in. There needs to be much better planning and development. The Academy seems to have gone backwards. There U-23s doesn't really exist as it's full of U21s/U18s,
We have a bench full of unfancied loans, free Championship journeymen and transfer listed players.
We've been incredibly lucky (and I don't care how good you conditioning is, a lot of injuries are bad luck) with injuries up until now. I dread to think what would have happened if we'd lost a couple of key players last October. Ditto with suspensions. The ones we've had tended to not coincide with injuries in similar positions.
Something desperately has to be done in terms of investment in younger players who aren't ready for the first team yet. Players who may still cost a fair bit but should come good in a year or two. We've invested in young players who are thrown straight into the first team, which is good, but there's nothing to this squad after the first 15.
It's something this club has not done properly for a long time. If at all. Players like Brooks are a rarity. Most need to be treated like Hendo and brought up through the leagues. There's absolutely no pathway to the first team and no one to walk that path. We have limited fund and recruitment this year has shown that you can't just buy players to fit in. There needs to be much better planning and development. The Academy seems to have gone backwards. There U-23s doesn't really exist as it's full of U21s/U18s,
