claretspice wrote:Well, the first point is that it's not always a reflection of the ability of our youngsters that we can't get them out to Championship clubs. Clearly, had McNeil gone to Fleetwood at the beginning of last season, say, it wouldn't have been because he wasn't good enough for the Championship - he's now good enough for the Premier League. That's a marketing/perception thing and it takes time to change and to build the relationships at that level which enable us to get players out on loan to those clubs.
But secondly, even if you leave that aside, as I said, footballers develop at different rates. Some are physically ready for the Championship at 18/19 - some aren't. Rodriguez wasn't - at that age he was on loan at Stirling Albion. But by 21/22 he was clearly too good for the Championship and by the summer he turned 23 he got the big move to the Premier League and immediately became a regular - even allowing for the fact he missed quite a lot of one season owing to an ankle injury that severely hampered his development. Ashley Westwood broke into league 2 at 18, spent a year in league 1 at 21 and then got his move to the Premier League, when he immediately became a regular. They just happen to be the first two examples I've looked up so I I'm sure others follow a similar development path.
Is waiting till their 21/22 too long? I'd argue not. It's about the age at which Tammy Abraham has got his big chance at Chelsea, for example (he's 22 in a month). We kept Kevin Long at the club into his mid 20s and he's proved an excellent squad member. Even if you tot up his wages for the last decade there's no doubt holding onto him and bringing him through patiently has saved us money.
So - even if you accept that we can't wait as long as Barnes did to mature, the fact is there's plenty of examples to look at right there of players who started further down, but were first team, Premier League ready by the sort of age we'd be targeting for players to establish themselves at this level.
Its true that they develop at different rates but its kind of irrelevant in our case, as you'll know if you follow our youth football if they aren't good enough when they get to the age of 20-23 they are quickly shipped out and we've had some pretty promising players we've signed from other clubs bought at a young(ish) age follow the same pattern. There's more but Ginnelly and Agyei are good examples.
If we kept our players that got to 23 and gave them time to develop maybe it would work for some, but we don't. So why don't we? Probably because the statistics at that point speak for themselves, most players if not good enough by 19 will never be good enough and its probably at that point in our own interest and theirs to ship them out. If they do turn out to be good enough it could be as late as 29 (Kevin Long, Ashley Barnes) until they are and that's a lot of wages, time and money spent on a player who either is continuously loaned out or rotting their development in our underdevelopment squad.
If McNeil went to Fleetwood who knows what would have happened? Its not good saying that he would have gone to Fleetwood when he's an example of someone stepping in to our team when he didn't go there to begin with. Perhaps if he did he would have got injured and never made it like the rest of them?
Fact is, he didn't go and he turned out to be good enough, whether Dyche is giving enough chances to our young players to make an impact like he did is a discussion for another day.
I don't think Kevin Long can really be used as an example because he wasn't a player that ever featured in our youth development. He was already 19 when he signed for us and was quickly deemed not good enough and shipped out to other clubs on loan. Perhaps if the manager was different then both Long and Rodriguez would be playing in 2009 when we were first promoted in the premier league...but again that is all ifs and maybes, fact is, it didn't happen.