Three Sign Pro Deals

Good luck to the three young lads. The start of a long journey with a lot to prove. Just because they’ve signed Professional doesn’t mean they’ve made it.
I’ve also seen these 3 lads play quite a few times. There’s certainly potential there let’s hope the club can develop them fully and maybe make us a profit some time in the future.
 
CleanSweeper said:
They’ve all tasted first team action already and not looked out of place. It’s strange that we are happy to take young players released by other clubs and give them a chance, but our own get game time as a last resort. If they are ready, play them.
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I know what you are saying Clean and we've been saying it for ages - our own players are farmed out (OK to get experience) and we replace them with lads of their same age. Does that mean our 'reserve' coaches aren't good enough?
 
herringthorpe said:
I know what you are saying Clean and we've been saying it for ages - our own players are farmed out (OK to get experience) and we replace them with lads of their same age. Does that mean our 'reserve' coaches aren't good enough?
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That's one way of looking at it. The other way is to consider that we have two, much bigger clubs on our doorstep with better academies and a wider reaching scouting network for youth. So they're much better placed to unearth that 'gem' than we are.

You may or may not know this but when Brentford were in the Championship (before they made it to the Premier League) they abandoned their youth system altogether because the more promising kids were going to the bigger London clubs. So instead of producing talent from their youth set up, what they tried to do was to sign rejected academy graduates from Premier League clubs or pick up emerging talent from undervalued markets across Europe. To an extent, we did that last season by signing Ar'jany Martha and Denzel Hall. And what fantastic business it would be for the football club if we could sell a full-back for a 7 figure sum, something which was rumoured not so long ago.

Obviously no one likes to see the better players leave but recycling players for a profit is one method a club progresses on and off the field - that's obvious. So whilst it's disappointing to see our home grown talent farmed out to non league and replaced by young lads from elsewhere, then this is what we need to do if our academy isn't producing the right quality. It's nothing new to be fair.

As Head Of Football, the academy is very much Steve McClaren's baby so whether he can change something for the better in that regard will be interesting to see, it's what he's paid for after all.
 
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