Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain has done fantastically for us since coming into the first team. Lallana we all know about. Ben Reeves has now joined the likes of Ryan Doble with time on the bench. Oscar Gobern has had a few minutes on the pitch. To me it looks good for our prospects that we have these youngsters coming through. Ryan Tafazolli is well thought of as well, and did brilliantly at Salisbury when loaned out to them. We have a few players reaching the age where they will soon need to be more involved. How many of them do we feel can make the grade before we have to let them go?
Unfortunately with the academy system, there will be a lot of players that don't make the grade for every Lallana, Walcott, Bale or Chamberlain that comes out. Some of the academy fundng got cut when Saints went down from the PL, so that may result in a decline in the quality of players coming out. Great credit to the scouts and coaches if it hasn't. From what I've read, the kids are going as strong as ever, even though most of them are relatively local.
