Your point raised a question for me. Most clubs loan out their promising youngsters to get them used to playing before putting them in the 1st team. Do we really do that or do we loan players we think won't make it? Most making it to the 1st team, though I could be wrong, seem to be getting promoted straight from the U23, think Clarke, Edmonson, Shackleton, Pearce. While Lewis Coyle is out at Fleetwood wasn't it Shackleton that came on and played at right back?
Nothing, its the people who come out of them, Stephen Fry, Graham Norton, Peter Mandleson to name a few