- Oct 19, 2004
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Fuck sake lads, half our squad made their debut for us at 21 or under, including six who came through the youth team (if you include Rose, who was signed as a youth). That's before you consider the significant opportunities given to youth team players who have since left like Bentaleb, Mason, Carroll, Livermore. That sort of output from a youth system is more or less unheard of at the top end of modern football. And still people are questioning whether our youngsters will be given the opportunities?
I'm not sure what dream you're chasing...Pochettino has shown time and again that he is willing to give young players a chance if he thinks they are good enough - his anti-loan policy shows that he wants them in his sights, so he can judge how able they are, how ready they are, on a daily basis. Has he not earned the right to be trusted that if he Carter-Vickers isn't being given a go, it's because he's not ready or - say it quietly - simply isn't judged to be good enough? Let alone people assuming that our youth team will be completely squeezed out completely in the next few years
I'm as delighted as anyone when a youngster is given a chance and succeeds, but we're currently in a delicate situation where A) our chances of winning major trophies in the short term are higher than any time in decades, and B) our success or failure over the next couple of years could directly affect our ability to challenge in the medium and long term, with regard to holding onto our best players. We're not a mid-table team treading water who can blood a youngster whenever we feel like it safe i the knowledge that winning or losing is likely to make little difference other than whether we finish 12th or 13th - if a youth team player is going to get a chance, there needs to be a very low risk of failure. I know the romance of a kid like Edwards or Oakley-Boothe coming through and smashing it is attractive, but we have to be realistic, and it has to be done slowly. If and when they are ready, they will get their chances.
That's like saying because we've continually made great signings over the last 10 or so years we shouldn't criticise bad ones or criticise ones we could/should have made and didn't.
I don't want Onomah or KWP (or Edwards) to get chances because they are from our academy, I want them to get chances because I believe they will be exceptional players and I don't want us to lose out. Because I also am aware that we are a club that has to maximise limited resources and I know that finding exceptional players is difficult for a team with our fiscal constraints.
In the past even the next rung down we could have used our academy to better maximise our resources, signing players like Stambouli, Fazio, Chiriches when we had a player like Veljkovic, signing Njie when his squad place could have gone to Pritchard. It's got fuck all to do with them being academy players, it's more to with the fact that I think there was better options that could have cost us nothing.