Young players get less game time in the Premier League than in any of Europe’s other leading leagues, a new study has found. Footballers under 21 years of age played just 5.3 per cent of total minutes in the 2014/15 Premier League. In contrast, under-21s played in 12.1 per cent of total minutes in France’s Ligue 1. Bucking the trend are Liverpool and Tottenham, whose young players featured in 19.8 and 18.9 per cent of their total minutes this season, respectively. Sunderland and Stoke didn’t field a single player born on or after January 1, 1994. Worryingly for young players looking to make a breakthrough into first-team squads, the game time of players under 21 in the Premier League has been on the decline in the past 10 seasons, from 10 per cent in 2006/07 to this season's 5.3. While Europe’s top leagues saw more opportunities given to young players, the CIES Football Observatory study highlighted that Champions League finalists Barcelona and Juventus gave players under 21 under two per cent of their total playing time, while the figure was just 0.1 per cent at Real Madrid. Arsenal’s Champions League conquerors Monaco relied heavily on young players, though – 34.6 per cent of their total minutes featured under 21s, the most of any club across the Premier League, La Liga, Bundesliga, Ligue 1 and Serie A. Percentage of club minutes played by U21s in 14/15... Ligue 1 – 12.1 La Liga – 8.0 Bundesliga – 7.8 Serie A – 5.5 Premier League – 5.3 In the Premier League Liverpool – 19.8 Tottenham – 18.9 Arsenal – 12.4 Everton – 11.2 Man Utd – 10.7 WBA – 7.8 Newcastle – 7.2 Southampton – 5.9 Hull City – 4.1 Aston Villa – 2.2 Chelsea – 2.2 West Ham – 1.4 QPR – 1.0 Swansea – 0.4 Man City – 0.4 Leicester – 0.2 Burnley – 0.2 Crystal Palace – 0.1 Sunderland – 0.0 Stoke – 0.0 http://m.skysports.com/article/football//9865923
We only buck the trend because its FSG policy, if like at Utd we had a decent contingent of established players to go with our youth it would be good reading. But we have to rely on youth rather than just letting it flourish like at them ****s up the East Lancs Rd.
In this report, Monaco are proof that it can work. We are well above average yet Monaco still nearly double us!
Don't get me wrong I'm not knocking our youth system, its our necessity to have to play them due to need rather than through learning the trade in a team of proven successful players.
I wasn't knocking or praising it, just thought some of ours fans would appreciate us being top of something but I guess to doom and gloom is too powerful this time
