snootyfenooty Of course, that is not only a fair question, but it's a great question. It calls my bluff a bit doesn't it - and correctly so. I'm aware that my blocked in a queue argument is a bit dodgy. It's very easy to list signing after signing after signing - who are really no better than what we've already got. Carruthers, Holmes - they're just the latest. But, it's much harder to make a claim for someone in the queue. I'm shooting at easy targets. I know that. And, I do feel uncomfortable doing that. I just want to be strident in explaining that some Academy players do get close - Slater, Norrington-Davies - but there really is a queue in front.
Now then - your question. Straight question. Straight answer. No.
No striker, who I thought good enough, was blocked. Dominic CL is a good case study though. Essentially, strikers are currency. Get one. Get him young. Get him some games. Some exposure. If the moneybags from the Premier League come calling. He's gone. They can afford to buy him, take a chance, see what happens. Very similar argument I feel for Jordan Slew. I'm usually careful about talking about an Academy Players longer term prospects. Predominantly because I essentially know Fuck All. What I do know is - he's had a blinder today, he's head and shoulders above the rest, he's doing that week in & week out. What he'll be like in two years - I know Fuck All.
Danny04 asked me about David Brooks for his Vox Pop piece for The Star. He said summat like - "would he be the best Academy Players you've seen?" No - that's Diego hands down. Week in. Week out. Putting the opponents on their arses. Running 'em ragged. Scoring for fun. Running the show. That's my bag - in the moment. (I never saw any with my own eyes evidence of any "attitude problem" by the way - never).
I'm going all over the place - because it's a good question - and I haven't got an answer. Dom I loved. He got to the fringes of the First Team, so he wasn't really blocked, we blocked him a bit after that. but if Everton come, he goes, blocked or not.
We're not unusual - we don't get many of our own youngsters to the First Team. And, those we do, are often so outstanding, they're off sharpish. Yet ALL our current First Team were Academy Players somewhere.