If CP had had a larger squad to choose from, I doubt he would have given debuts to so many of the kids. I'm not slagging off CP, but it would appear that the likes of Poyet and Cousins were going to slip under his radar for this season. With regards to the stocking-fillers, I would send them all back, and that includes Reza and AA. I'd much rather depend on the likes of Lennon, Piggott, Fox, Phillips et al.
The debut came as a substitution in the Oxford League Cup game, and then we didn't see him again for some time. If other players had been available to CP, I don't think Poyet and Cousins would have become our midfield mainstays this season. But I am pleased they have come to the fore and impressed. One could say it was a case of fortunate happenstance. Just a shame about Diego's contract situation.
I see the point about Poyet, but wouldn't add Cousins. He was the star in the Forest home match in October and has been a mainstay since for both managers. And sure, if Powell was able to buy who he wanted, the homegrown players would have found it hard to break through, but that's the same with any manager/club and is one of the reasons why Chelsea haven't brought through any youth players since Terry.
He didn't watch the Under-21's and so didn't know how good Poyet was. Poyet said in the program that he was desperate to get noticed by the gaffer. Shortly after that Stephens was sold and Poyet was the only option left. CP only noticed Cousins because he was included in the pre-season tour. My main complaint against CP was always that he didn't watch the young players, Fox is another example, when Evina and Wiggins were injured he brought in a loanee at LB who was actually a CB.
It wasn't Chris's only option he had Gower, Hughes & Pritchard on the books My info is that Chris did not ignor the U21's but received regular reports from the U21 manager (and updates about the players) but did not want to put added pressure on the young players. Perhaps Chris's failing was that he wanted to bring in young players when he thought they were ready rather than when the players thought they were ready..... with Piggott he was right and perhaps listened to the player too much .... with Poyet he was obviously wrong and should have introduced him faster.
The head coach's assistant was an U-21's game recently, writing busily, while the assistant manager and first-team coach were in the crowd at the U-18's a couple of weeks ago. JR himself hasn't been seen to my knowledge.
The day Powell was sacked there was an U21 match going on. After Riga and his assistant had finished with the first team squad they watched the youngsters for a while.
CP used to receive DVD's of all the games, which he would watch over and over (as he did with all groups). One of the first thing hart did after he joined was ask for investment in the visual media department so they could study matches in more depth.
Poyet did travel with the first-team squad a couple of times but never made the bench until Stephens was sold, even though we get 7 subs. This must have been down to CP's judgement rather than negligence. You didn't need to be Bob Paisley to see his ability, so maybe this is even worse.
Sure - the thoughts of people like yourself who watch the youth was that Poyet should have been introduced much sooner. But I think there were some legitimate reasons why CP might have decided otherwise. Cousins had already progressed through, Stephens was our best player up until that point, and with the side not playing well, it is always risky to being youngsters through as you don't want their first exposure to be in a side losing which can dent confidence. It's been proven it wasn't the right decision as he has taken to league football with ease, but there is still an argument for why it didn't happen. Not to sound cliche, but hindsight and all that.
But at that time, we had Cousins who we were gushing about, and our potential POTY in the middle. I don't think at that point we would have wanted either to be dropped?
That's a tricky part of management, keeping everyone happy. The first step would be to put him on the bench, then bring him on as sub. One thing which made this difficult was that under CP almost all our games were either draws or only one goal in it, which meant he couldn't just bring him on for 15 minutes or so when the game was safe. But if it's possible to accommodate Astrid with Poyet and Cousins it might have been possible to accommodate Stephens. Playing the diamond worked quite well for a short time.
