"Actually I'm not going there, the defence of youngsters is far too vociferous on here, but let me say this, its a fact of football that only a very select one or two make it through at top clubs, a lot of the youngsters being drooled over are not going to make it here."
Defence ??
I have been accused by some of "glory hunter" tendencies because I lamented the 2nd half
performance by the Nextgencibles against Anderlecht. And slapped down some who had
Coulibaly down as the next best thing since sliced bread while seeing nothing more than the
SpursOfficial clip of the Inter Milan mauling.
Yes, those that will fall by the wayside is high.
But having taken the opportunity to watch the kids, you can see that something very
fundamental is happening in the coaching setup. From how the kids are playing the
basic game, to the fact that there is no "big kids" mentality (Pritchard, Munns etc) .
This does not mean that the Academy is now a Messi-making machine.
But I'll wager I'll soon see more kids coming thru into the seniors in twos and threes, and
more regularly, since for me what would be the days of Falco, Hazard etc in the early 80s.