Congratulations to him, our former Academy GK who is now at Man Utd has been called up to first team by Ten Haag for the first time and is on the Bench today for there Friendly
Personally I think each age group (1st team/reserves or u21/youth etc) shoul have a maximum squad size. These days the top flight hoover up kids who have no chance of making it into their respective teams, but are used as cash cows for extra income in loans fees etc. It needs to change somehow
Not sure if I'm 100% correct or if solidarity payments have changed, but the better his career goes, the better for us financially i think. Whether that be constant transfers or trophies won etc
And then they just let them go without any consideration for their mental health. Brighton for example have just let about 15 mainly academy players go. Some have gone to other league clubs, many won't. They're left to deal with the rejection, and for some, that's easier said than done.
I totally agree something needs to be done but I would go much further. The premier league is over 30yrs old if a club has never been out of it I ban them from having Academy's at all. The chances of them further down the pyramid of unearthing talented players would greatly increase and they could be nurtured in a smaller environment. The chances of the young lads playing 1st team games would increase and if they are good enough they can be sold to the so called big boys and this is a way of money filtering down the system. Don't think for one minute the Citys and Chelsea of this world would allow this but its obscene the size of these Academy's and the amount of players these big clubs have out on loan is just plain wrong.
Seems a strange qualifying criteria. Especially as you then use Man City as an example who would be exempt under your rules, and they haven’t been in the premier league continuously since the start.
If I was his parents I’d be telling him to stay at Barnsley instead of going to one of the biggest clubs in the world and playing with Elite players, I’d say to him “it’s not exactly worked out for Stones has it?”
Might be a bit harsh but considering he didn’t stick around long enough to even play for us I’ve no interest in how he does. He won’t feel like one of our own even if he makes it in my opinion
Fair do's but you know where I'm coming from the City from the 90s bears no resemblance to the city of today.
It's frustrating up until the late nineties Chelsea and Man City weren't even also rans. Man City eventually did get relegated and Chelsea were just a mediocre mid table team. Money changes everything. That said, when everyone is rich it becomes a level playing field again.
Strange when I have conversations with my 10yrs Grandson and say the same he just looks at me with the look what are you talking about. Gets worse when he talks about Beckhams era as the olden days god I feel old.