The youth policy was totally derailed last year by stupidity. Sadly too many people preferred short term glory and were blind to the consequences of handing out 2 year contracts to people past their best. In current circumstances, ironically, the best chance of staying up might be with a couple of old hands who have played at a higher level and who could be "one season wonders". Next year might be the time to promote youth but any successful team needs a blend of youth and experience and you must have both.
Surely it depends on the quality of the youth? The hype around some of youth players over the last few seasons has been over the top, Davies and Essam are good players along with Dack, but the likes or Evans, et al. I didn't rate. I agree that clubs need to develop youth but with a small budget the club is limited to the number of inexperienced, youth players it can support. You need seasoned pros to play alongside the kids to develop them, too many and you sacrifice a portion of your chance to succeed. Case in point is the Port Vales game when Hess picked a back four of Evans, Davies, King and Esaam, we were all over the place.
We wouldn't much better last Saturday at Vale, with an experienced back line of Harriman,Legge, Barrett and Martin.
We would...drop Barrett for Davies. Also the eventual changes at Vale was so much more refreshing to see...Dack, German...
Yawn..............blah blah youth policy can we change the record. We've never won anything playing kids, we all accept you need a blend of the two. We wouldn't be in this league this season if it wasn't for a few seasoned pro's!!!
