Just wondering...

We have been owned by rich owners about five years now. How many young talent we have bought from championship, league one and league two since then? I believe just one and he is Jamie Mackie. All the other younger players have been outcast from either Arsenal, Manchester United, Spurs etc. I know we have brought some young talent like Hoilett, Taarabt and Traore but they are from prem. It must be something about our scouting system or even lack of it. Hope thats going for better with new scouting group. It would be nice to find some sort of hot prospect from lower leagues, instead of continious signings of over 30 years free transfers with big wages and endless list of "undisclosed fee"- players. Just feel bit envy towards clubs like Norwich and Swansea for example.

 

We have only had a scouting system for about 3 weeks, give it a chance Igor.

Championship players making it in the prem are a pretty rare breed. When did you last see a top 6 team buying from the lower English leagues? Clubs that do, do because they have no choice.

Swansea's exciting new signings come from Spain.

If you feel jealous of Norwich I suggest a bottle of single malt Scotch (I like the peaty ones like Talisker)

 

Good post Igor. I would add to that the question of when we last brought a first-team regular up through the youth system. Getting to be the way of things these days, alas.

 

I believe we had somekind of scouting system before didn't we? Im just saying we cant go on forever with +30yrs players who are dawn of their career. Anyway sb, i prefer 18yrs old chivas regal but normally im a gin tonic, red wine and beer drinker.

 

I agree with you Igor, and definitely with Über about the homegrown talent. As far as I know we had a very ropey scouting system, which was essentially Warnock relying on his old mates, and agents coming to us with their wares. Could be wrong about this.
I would love us to have a couple of our players from the youth system getting regular games next season.

 

Raheem Sterling was one of ours and I for one was surprised when we sold him. Was it the fact he wanted to go or was it the goons getting some money in before they left.

 

Indeed he was and, like you've said, we didn't hold onto him. We were also sadly denied the opportunity to say this about Ray Jones.

Does anybody actually know who the last homegrown first-teamer was... Gallen?

 

Gallen could be the last young homegrown star. If it so then it would be a shame. So was Raheem Sterling move to Liverpool when he was about 15 and club didnt do much to keep him at LR. It has been 5 yrs with wealthy owners and club methods of bringing promising young players in havent change a bit. I havent heard once, that we would have been after Jordan Rhoades etc.

 

Not sure if he was home-grown or whether we acquired him elsewhere but would Bircham qualify?

 

Tony and the board are trying to build the club from the ground up, this can't be done over night. I believe we are getting decent, experienced, Premiership players in to ensure we stay up. A training ground is being built, a new ground in the pipeline, new fans in Asia and, most importantly, stability.

I have no doubt that in the next few years our youth set-up will be improved and our scouting network a lot stronger. TF has been in charge 12 months and look what he's achieved, give him a few more years and I have no doubt you'll see a totally different looking club, with a totally different transfer policy.

In saying all that, name one top class, young, Premiership player that has come up from the lower leagues in the past 10 years??? I can't think of any but am happy to be proven wrong.

 

Sterling was under 16, therefore we couldn't offer him a professional contract and thus he was free to go where he wanted.

We were given some money as a good will gesture but at the time we had no chance of persuading him to stay.

The youth academy is coming and so will the home grown talent again.

 

Thats good to hear. It wont come one second too early either........

 

Good post guys .................. I'm thinking that we have been too busy trying to survive our current status ( get to and stay in the PL ) to worry too much about the future, however, we do certainly do need to build for the future.
Cheers.

 

We need a bigger and better stadium.

 

Were too busy buying old players that will need to be replaced as we stumble from 1 season to the next. We should have got Rhodes instead of Johnson for example. We should have got Ki.

Signing good older players like Park makes sense but signing the likes of Johnson and Nelson who cant make the bench makes no sense at all, especially when our CBs are awful.

 

I keep referring to the interview on qpr player with TF, prior to the signing of hoilett, when he said we've done 'incredible business' and early. That tells me when it comes to onfield matters, he doesn't know s*** from shoe polish and he believes whatever MH tells him. Which raises the question, should an owner at least know something about football?

 

What has Rhodes ever done in the Premiership?? It would be great to be in a position to be able to take a gamble on a young player like him but we're not......yet. Johnson is a much better option for us right now, he's a proven goalscorer at Premiership level and didn't cost a penny.

I'm sure Huddersfield will be wanting £6m plus for Rhodes and then there's no guarantee he'll cut it at the top. United have just signed Powell, he looks like a great young player from the lower leagues but they can afford for him not to play for a couple of seasons and evaluate his progress with no danger of it costing them. Maybe, in a season or two's time we'll be an established Premiership team and be able to take a risk like that.

 

Johnson is not a proven goalscorer, hes got 13 goals in 80 apps for Fulham and 3 of those were against us, hes useless and only going to get worse. Rhodes would have to turn into Hulse overnight to do worse than that.