Id love to know in the last 5 years how many players have been brought into the club at development stage, under 23 and below and how many have come through to the first team. I doubt I would be wrong if I said over 70 players have come and some gone. If we are bringing that many players in and none are lets face it anywhere near the first team, then there is a major issue behind the scenes at the club for the future, I think it were Huddersfield that closed there under 23s and development down as it were deemed surplus. If its the same team that recruit the development players as the first team players then we need a change and quick.

That’s a great posts well said

Op most sensible post for a while.The players first team ready is non existent

Theres a lot of change required when it comes to recruitment. But this approach is a good one, and a necessary one while our own facilities improve.

If Dunne plays a full season at Hearts and has a good one he could be worth 5m or more. Which would pay for him and many other under 23s many times over.

It also means that at least we can compete at some level at under 23s as we aim to improve our grading and appeal to future players. Rome wasnt built in a day nor will our youth set up.

We have bigger recruitment issues than this. Namely how late we do business, how few players we bring in first team ready and how narrow our search pool is.

I don't mind our development team recruitment strategy, it's the first team recruitment that is an issue, so slooooooooooow and we are basically the same team as last year that couldn't pick up points after Christmas.

I would wager that given our geography there are far more attractive prostpects for youth players in the North West of England.
Hudderfield closing thier under 23s gives creadance to this.

As a club we need short term result and cannot afford have a large numbert of younth players on the books, loaning some out and giving a rare few of the top prospects a run out (see Phil Foden, City).

On late transfers we have to do late deals because we are the poorest team in the league, only an idiot would sell an asset to the league pauper before waiting to see who else come in.

I've not been a fan of youth systems for a while. The likes of Chelsea, Utd, City & Arsenal mop up the best and then when a club of our size finds a gem they steal them for peanuts.
The money spent on Gawthorpe to upgrade our age group rankings should be a good thing but I’ll be very surprised if it pays off.

piston broke wrote:I've not been a fan of youth systems for a while. The likes of Chelsea, Utd, City & Arsenal mop up the best and then when a club of our size finds a gem they steal them for peanuts.
The money spent on Gawthorpe to upgrade our age group rankings should be a good thing but I’ll be very surprised if it pays off.

To be fair, the upgrades should be helping the first team and squad too.

piston broke wrote:I've not been a fan of youth systems for a while. The likes of Chelsea, Utd, City & Arsenal mop up the best and then when a club of our size finds a gem they steal them for peanuts.
The money spent on Gawthorpe to upgrade our age group rankings should be a good thing but I’ll be very surprised if it pays off.

Surely better youth development comes part and parcel with improving our facilities, remaining a premier league team and thus attracting young players be it finishing 7th or 17th.