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Youth policy holding us back?

dontcallme

SC Supporter
Mar 18, 2005
33,988
81,937
First of all I know it is easy to point the finger when we are going through a difficult period. This whole season has been a difficult period. So many threads asking where thigns have gone wrong and who is to blame. Like anything in life it is not simply one persons fault or responsibilty. Levy hired Сomolli, Comolli undermined Jol, Ramos couldn't get the players to play how he wanted, the players are gutless and not putting in the hard work necessary.

So many individuals and groups can be blamed for our current problems. One big problem I believe we have is the very thing that excited me so much when Levy implemented the DOF system. We'd experienced for years our club buying slightly over the hill players with no sale on value and their best years supposedly behind them. Arnesen came in and bought some talented young players but more importantly some experienced leaders like Naybet and Davids. When he said he wanted to set up a youth policy system which should bring in 2 young players into the first team squad each season I thought we'd finally found a good way forward without relying on a sugar daddy to do everything for us. Then between Comolli and Levy we turned our transfer policy into almost exclusively young talented players.

We have no leaders, no experience and most importantly players lacking in footballing knowledge to pick up the right position to cover the necessary spaces when not in possession. We can talk about the potential of Lennon, Huddlestone, KPB, O'Hara and Bale all we like but right now having the likes of Malbranque, Tainio and LY Pyo is so much more appealing.
I also think our young players would progress much better if playing alongside more experienced players.

This is one reason I am happy with Harry as our manager. At Portsmouth he had the likes of Campbell, Distin and Kanu playing at the top of their game and not only for one season either.

So Harry please don't just buy one leader and think this is the problem solved we need 5 or 6 experienced, strong minded players. Remember Man Utd bringing through their golden boys. It was much easier to do playing alongside Bruce, Irwin, Keane and Cantona.
 

Lucky22

Active Member
Dec 11, 2006
710
160
Good post. I agree that we need a bit of quality experience in there, particularly if we are to bring on the young kids like Bostock etc. If you remember, many of the players used to say how much they learned from Davids who used to stay behind with some of the young players to offer tips and advice. That's what we need again.
You look around the team and we have no one with the experience to put their foot on the ball and say, this is how we're going to play it. Someone to give a player a good rollicking when they need it (Bentley, for example) or to put an arm round a shoulder and get them going again. Harry can only do so much off the pitch, but we need someone more responsible on it. I love Ledders as our captain, but I think we need someone a lot more vocal.
 

laneoflegends

Member
Jan 3, 2007
388
0
Good post. I agree that we need a bit of quality experience in there, particularly if we are to bring on the young kids like Bostock etc. If you remember, many of the players used to say how much they learned from Davids who used to stay behind with some of the young players to offer tips and advice. That's what we need again.
You look around the team and we have no one with the experience to put their foot on the ball and say, this is how we're going to play it. Someone to give a player a good rollicking when they need it (Bentley, for example) or to put an arm round a shoulder and get them going again. Harry can only do so much off the pitch, but we need someone more responsible on it. I love Ledders as our captain, but I think we need someone a lot more vocal.



He would als need to be on the pitch :wink:
 
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