There seems to be a new trend for clubs to announce early which youngsters will not be retained at the end of the season, to give them a chance to find a new club before the market gets flooded. I think our position is different in that so many of our u21s are in fact u19s, so any who have been less than stellar may be given a further year to impress. Some of them may already be contracted for a further year? I would like the views of those who watch the u21s frequently as to whom we should let go, bearing in mind that we must make room for a promising new crop being promoted from the u18s in the summer. Even this season some of our youngsters have lacked games because of the need to utilise up to three spots for triallists, senior players recovering from injury, and to give a run-out to senior players rarely included in the match-day 18 (Cook and Smith are examples). We heard a lot about Cousins, Azeez, Ajayi, Osborne, Poyet and Sho-Silva last season and I assumed that the likes of Fox, Jordan and Pigott were only here to fill out the XI. It seems I was totally wrong. Fox has beaten all but Harriott into the first-team squad and Jordan has been made captain. I suppose Osborne may leave as Ajayi and Feely are preferred at CB. But even there he is still coming back from a bad injury and may improve further. Plus he fills our vacant RB spot at that level. From what has been posted, I cannot see that we should get rid of any of our u21s, but it will be awfully crowded in the Development Squad next season. Some may go out on loans, but there still won't be enough games for all the rest. Ashton I presume has left us. I am not sure about Harris?
I make a point of not criticising our youngsters online. I did say recently that Jordan Cousins gave me the impression of not enjoying his football, and received a robust response from DickP, but I prefer to talk about the ones who I think should be promoted, like Harriott, Fox and Poyet. In fact about a year ago I didn't rate Fox and was surprised he got a contract, so he proved me wrong, which I'm pleased about. When you start dismissing youngsters, you end up having to defend your position against anyone who disagrees with your assessment. Losing Casey Palmer, especially to Chelsea, is a real blow.
