It is a concern that we don't have anyone and I mean anyone even remotely close to competing for even a place on the bench in the FA Cup for example.
Our speed of ascension at 1st team level up through the leagues has meant the academy/youth team has not been a priority, not been able to keep up or is failing to match the standards it set previously. Maybe the changes to the academy system and is being cat 2 means we cannot attract talent like the more highly ranked academies can.
The departure of Binnion and a few others suggests that the club know this is an area of concern. There is none coming through at all.
We seem to have a scattergun approach to the u23s and u18s with triallists coming in aplenty and new signings from Man Utd, Leeds etc. Even Sheppeard and York came from other clubs in the last few years. Both of these are 20 this year too so not sure they are exactly kids.
They seem to be more inclined to snaffle released players from other academies than bring our own through. Maybe this is a resignation ours are not good enough in comparison to some others. Worrying we believe even released players from others are better than many of those at our u18s.
The more senior u23s seem to have been around ages and time will be up for many at the end of this season.
The likes of Parkhouse, Mallon snd Doherty will depart for certain. Non are even close to consideration for us and have had several loans of varying success at poor standards of football. Slater too and Greaves also will have to find new clubs. Slater has really gone backwards and has rarely played at Scunny. Greaves was publically panned by the Barrow manager for his work ethic.
We have a lot of lads on loan Eastwood, Tyler Smith and Slater/Eastwood
Non are regulars or have convinced at clubs they are with. We have had others in non league like Greaves and Graham who have also struggled even at that level.
I am surprised Smith and Graham got new deals with us. They are not even regulars in League One/National League and I think they will just be loaned out again next season. Maybe United see a chance but Smith is 21 now? Graham could not get in a struggling Notts County team.
I am painting a bleak picture and granted there are years when no-one comes through for a period but we literally have noone even that close. Only Norrington Davies could be deemed a success and he is only at Rochdale. Most other Prem teams have young players on loan at even Champ level.
Our Academy has been superb and produced a plethora of stars but recent times the production has been insufficient. The new owners will have to address this as we cannot expect the club to enter the transfer market for huge fees and rely on CWs brilliance. Every PL club bar none has players coming through or youth options from the academy. We do not.
In a tremendous few years for the club where the first team has rightly been the priority; this area of the club needs addressing. Whether by looking at utilising the international youth market (like some of the bigger clubs do) or improving how we recruit domestically even at a younger level; they will need to make changes in my
opinion.
Will take Lester and Hughes time I am sure as both relatively new. Staying in the PL may buy them a bit of time initially as Wilder will want ready made talent who can push the first teamers now but over 2-3 years I feel we need to see some improvements in the recruitment / development of our academy players.
