Nothing to play for - Blood some youngsters

[prowl]

Stick the best of the kids from the development squad on the subs bench and give them 15 minutes at the end of the game if we are sitting on a comfortable lead.

 

No, what am I saying? We never get into the position of having a comfortable lead.

[London Owl]

Forget Corry/McCabe. They're fuucked.

I wanna see what the development squad is doing, what it brings to the table.

Who can we bring in?

Bollllocks they're not good enough. If not, we'll find out and nudge them on their way.

 

totally agree, get Lavery back

[camffiti]

For some reason, the culture around this club (the fan base at least), is one of fear towards promoting youth 

[gurujuan]

Info I was told in December from someone who should be in know.

Only Betra And Stobbs anywhere near at beginning of season. Betra out injured and Stobbs had injury hit year.

Was told Stacini, Duffy and one other 9can not remember name) of this years intake had most promise.

Also Preston and Hirst who are in next years intake are very promising. Further down age range you go more hopeful it gets.

Isn't that always the case, 4 years ago our U16s were supposed to be the best group ever, but what happened to them? It's a long and winding road to become a professional footballer, and sadly, often that early promise remains unfulfilled.

Edited March 9, 2015 by gurujuan

[just visiting]

You'll get plenty of people saying "They're not ready yet", "Nowhere near first team quality" etc.

But the truth is a player can look not ready yet in a development game but then get put in the first team and grow into the position within a few games and start to look a top player.

So many players are labelled not good enough until they get a proper chance. Just look at Harry Kane this season..

United do this a lot and look at the success they've had with their academy.

Can't agree with that.

 

I've watched plenty of players at U 21 level and academy level whom the management have thought are ready but not quite achieved the levels expected of them in first team straight away but I've yet to see a player not look ready for U 21 football but gets selected for the first team and then starts to look a proper player.

 

I'm sure the U 21 staff, along with the first team management look long and hard at all the youngsters not just in matches but in training and their attitude around the place and as such I'd leave it to their professional judgement as to when they will be blooded.

 

As I said I watch plenty of academy/PDL games and IMO, the lads that are close to being ready stand out like a sore thumb, 8/9 out of 10 performances every game. Now that might not mean ready for Championship football but maybe ready for a loan to Conference or League 2 football.

[Rogers]

For some reason, the culture around this club (the fan base at least), is one of fear towards promoting youth

Do you think it's this culture that has stopped us from having one top player come through in the past 25 years or the fact that our scouting network and youth development has been so poor that we haven't had a decent youth player in 25 years.

[camffiti]

Do you think it's this culture that has stopped us from having one top player come through in the past 25 years or the fact that our scouting network and youth development has been so poor that we haven't had a decent youth player in 25 years.

 

Both

[Owling Wolfe]

For some reason, the culture around this club (the fan base at least), is one of fear towards promoting youth 

 

For me it's not about the promoting youth, more like trying to achieve our best finish for a good number of years. If they were good enough they would have been on the bench before now.

[Blue n White Rampage]

ive still not given up on the play offs. its not likely but we've got an interesting fixture set coming up and teams ahead of us have some hard fixtures. when its impossible for us to make the playoffs, then we can chuck a couple in but it would be harsh on the players playing for their contracts if we fielded loads of inexperienced lads and also not the best for the young-uns confidence. so if just a couple of sub appearances for the cream of the crop

[Captain Sl-OWL-ly]

Stu said as long as its mathematically possible he wants to go for it. So doubt he will throw any young ens in until last couple of games maybe.

Yep but he has finished his own self imposed "mini league", 3 wins out of 5 don't seem bad but we still aint going to make the play offs, playing young kids now could be what he needs to sell himself to the new management and give himself reasoned rational for not finishing where we would have liked...

It's all about managing your manager...

[SallyCinnamon]

Gray isn't a fool, if we have a player from the academy who is good enough to play Championship football he will play him. In fact he said this to me at the start of the season when I asked him the question at a Q & A evening.

Personally it seems to me we don't have a player ready for the step up. It's alright saying yeah put some youngsters in, but who? Stobbs and Betra seemed the most likely but Betra is out for the season and Stobbs is coming back from a bad injury.

The aim for me is to finish the best we can. But yeah let's break up our solid defence by putting 18 year old kids in and let's answer our striking problems with that amazing young striker we have in the development squad, what was his name again?

[Guest AbbeyOwl]

So you would send McGugan back. Makes a lot of sense that. Perfect.

Maybe? Does that say all? Hopefully we will sign McGugan to be honest we ought to get pen to paper now, him having stormers for us will achieve one thing

[jonesy87shef]

Some of the comments on here are a bit baffling. When exactly if ever will youngster get played in the first team. Right now it's the perfect opportunity to put 1 or 2 on the bench for a number of games coming towards the end of the season. Great experience for them and will do them the world of good. Give em the odd 20 minutes here and they, our options from the bench haven't been game changing all season and I'm pretty sure in an example of a player like Stobbs a right winger isn't going to cost you a game late on when he's just come on.

I suppose if they aren't good enough or going to be good enough then don't bother putting em in the squad but if they potentially are this has to be the best time to get in the squad and maybe get a few minutes here and there.

[SallyCinnamon]

I just think that adds to the culture of giving up because the season is over. We don't want that mentality in the squad.

If a youngster is good enough they will play. If not they won't. Or they will go out on loan.

[themaskedowl]

I don't think that was an experiment 

Yes, it was. The experiment was to see just how much he could destroy the opposition. Think the hypothesis was in the positive and was rightly proven.

[themaskedowl]

Stick the best of the kids from the development squad on the subs bench and give them 15 minutes at the end of the game if we are sitting on a nightmare lead.

Fixed. 

[Tudders]

It's not the time to be blooding youth players.This is one of the most pivotal summer transfer windows of the last 15 years.

Players we are competing for will be weighing up their options. Deciding whether to join a 15th place Sheffield Wednesday or a 9th place Sheffield Wednesday could have a big impact into their final decisions.

From a development point of view,blooding youth players is not always positive. Playing them in the first team before theyre ready can be detrimental. If they're ready for the first team,they'll be excelling in the development side. Gray will know whether they are or not.

[torryowl]

It's not the time to be blooding youth players.This is one of the most pivotal summer transfer windows of the last 15 years.

Players we are competing for will be weighing up their options. Deciding whether to join a 15th place Sheffield Wednesday or a 9th place Sheffield Wednesday could have a big impact into their final decisions.

From a development point of view,blooding youth players is not always positive. Playing them in the first team before theyre ready can be detrimental. If they're ready for the first team,they'll be excelling in the development side. Gray will know whether they are or not.

how much money we offer them will be the deciding factor on players signing for us .......

[Tudders]

how much money we offer them will be the deciding factor on players signing for us .......

Yes if we are going to break the bank throwing daft money at players.

If that's the case then what's the point in trying to blood youngsters when we'll be paying top dollar for proven pro's.

If we aren't going to break the bank and aren't going to offer considerably more wages than other clubs,then league position would surely have some sway. I know it would for me.

Edited March 10, 2015 by Tudders

[PhilKingIsAGod]

No youngsters will be playing in the squad until its mathematically impossible for us not to do anything. Assuming you have nothing to play for is when it generally bites you on the backside. As Gray said we are aiming for the play offs! We all know we are probably miles off but cant the scenes if we started playing kids and missed out on catching teams when they mess up.