You need to have as wide and deep a talent base as you can afford to ensure you have a talented and effective management team (the 1st team in footie terms).
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JP-65, of course you can have too many kids. You even admitted the reason why in your first sentence, then went on to negate it. Key part of the sentence is
afford to, and I'm not talking about price.
Their are three important constraints (off the top of my head, there are of course more) when it comes to developing talent; available match time, available training time and the number of coaches. You need to look at these constraints, and compare the number of lads we have in our reserves to what the rest of the competition have. I've gone through the numbers previously a month or two ago, somewhere here on RAWK. Search around and you will find. Off the top of my head, we had about 15 more lads signed up for the reserves.
We do not have more matches scheduled than the likes of City and the Mancs. However, we have an extra 11 plus 4 extra reserves. We could literally field another squad.
We don't have 150% of the reserve team coaching staff of City or the Mancs. So if we have roughly the same amount of coaches, their time is being spread thinner over a larger number of lads. We're the only team I can think of with such a large reserve squad, yet we don't have a larger than normal coaching staff. Unless we're on to something everyone else isn't, dare I say it having too many lads could be detrimental to their progression.
Having too many lads cuts down on training time, which is somewhat related to the coaches point. The more lads you have in training, the less time they will have to train under supervision. It's similar to cutting an orange up into 22 pieces or 37. Although they're split when training, the logic is still similar.
I guess my point summed up is this; you can have too many kids in the system, because every system has limits and constraints. It's exactly the same as the classroom and the teacher, something all of us have been through. You throw 100 kids in the class with one teacher, you'll have a hard time teaching them anything as your resources will be stretched. Now if you try 20 kids, you'll be far more successful.
I understand there is more than one way to train young lads, and I'm not saying your way is wrong. I'm of a different train of thought, and wanted to throw these points out their. The real question is whether we're pushing the constraints. Every single problem has constraints, so the Reserve team size is no different. I believe we are pushing these constraints, others will certainly disagree.
As for your "pyramid" example, I agree. However I think the "pyramid" should start in the Academy, which is where it usually does. Our Reserve squad is very large though, the largest I've seen, and we certainly don't have a "pyramid" shape. Off the top of my head I think we have roughly 17 lads signed on in the Academy + the 3 older age lads. That's far less than the Reserves squad, so we basically have the shape of a snake after a nice big meal. Clogged in the middle. The kids not signed on and the younger age groups obviously push the Academy numbers above the Reserves.
By the way, the reserve numbers are something like 10 out on loan, 28 in the squad, 3 over-aged lads playing for the Academy, and the likes of N'Gog, Insua and El Zhar who don't train with the Reserves (so not adding to that constraint) but occasionally take away potential match time from the Reserves. Numbers could be off by one or two in places.
