Other than a short cameo for Obafemi he hasn't used anyone puel hasn't and Puel used a lot of youth in the cups due to his rotation policy. Puel obviously had a bit more freedom to use them but Pellegrino really should work out some way to include Hesketh who is in cracking form though.
Yeah, total league minutes for Saints 21 or younger: nine, in two sub appearances (for each for Obafemi and Sims). One can argue why that's the case, but I don't think there's any argument to be made in the affirmative that Pellegrino has been handing out chances to the kids.
I’ve said this before, but something went badly wrong in the Koeman years that broke the pathway from the Academy to the first team. It hasn’t been mended yet, and I would bet that it isn’t solely down to Pellegrino.
We have a real gap in talent between the ages of 18 and 22. I think we have sims and Hesketh and maybe alfie jones in that bracket and that's about it. For a few years its felt like the u18's have been losing every week so that makes sense. We have some talented youngers now in the u18's now though and the likes of Obafemi and Valary (who turns 19 today, happy birthday) are coming through. I've personally put it down to a poor crop from our lower league days but there could be more to it.
There is definitely more to it than that. Parents have taken their kids out of the Academy because of bullying, so it’s not just as simple as a “poor crop”. But going back to Sims, Hesketh, and co., if they had come through in the years before Koeman arrived, they would definitely have become first team regulars by now. As I say, something went badly wrong during the Lying Dutchman’s tenure that the board haven’t addressed yet.
Let's not forget as well, and it's something I've mentioned before, the age group for the U18s now would have been recruited during our administration years ... that would have an impact as well, in my opinion.
And that we padded out the squad before our first Europa campaign which meant we have a lot of experienced players to give game time to. We went out of one cup at the first hurdle so we haven't had loads of games to be giving youth a chance. There may have been some rift that occurred during the Koeman years but that isn't the only factor, we have at least 2 experienced pros for every position now (well until VVD went anyway) this blocks chances for minutes for youngsters.
Yeah, i'd sell Long and Redmond spend the wages on somebody like Promes then have Sims and Hesketh on the bench.
That was a young team, definate aim of giving some of the u18's a chance so fiesty draw is a decent result. Hesketh has been key to our u23's season and since he's been back it feels like they've been scoring 3+ nearly every match he's been in. He's got a good incisive pass, a bit of skill and can score goals from outside the box. He's clearly a step above the u23's and is in good form and so I think deserves a shot at the first team again. Sims is a true talent. Two footed, has pace, has acceleration, can dribble, can shoot, can cross. Only weakness really is he's small and has an awful beard but you can't have everything eh. barring injury Sims will be a premier league footballer, I don't think you'll find much disagreement there. With both of them it's mostly about proving they can deal with the pace and physicality of the PL.
Would Sims and Hesketh deliver more to results than Redmand, Boufal and at the moment Tadic? My view is probably as they are hungry to make their mark as well as talented and will work their socks off to deliver, the same can't be said for those playing instead at the moment. I would like to see them get a chance in these desperate times
