There’s something not quite right at the academy for me.
This years 18s are a poor group, I knew they were going in to the season. Next years scholars aren’t much better either.
We do have a couple of good individuals who are too good for that level now but none have these have been produced by us, they’ve all been bought in quite late and “made” elsewhere.
For all the resources we have, we have a huge turnover of players and we’re either not identifying the right talent in the early age groups or we’re unable to develop it when we do.
Ultimately we haven't got the talent pool of somewhere like London, or the endless resources of a City or Chelsea. What tends to work for us is aggressively targeting the best talent in their mid teen years and while we get 1 or 2 a year we should make it 4 or 5. No doubt we could improve the coaching and recruitment in the younger years as well. Coaching wise i'd like to see Critchley back now he's out of work.
We do usually tend to have a lot of players of the same profile as well. The goal poacher who doesn't have the all round game, the slight number 10 who doesn't have the physique. The speed merchant. The technically sound CM who is too small/slight to realistically make it. Bajcetic was an exception in terms of a midfielder with a profile the first team needed but he was signed as a CB.
We seem to have been battered by injuries as well this season, which is perhaps not helped by the Academy medical staff having to fill in for the first team. The amount of times our best prospects are out for an endless amount of time with an injury is ridiculous as well. Stewart back now from a very long lay off, Gordon hasn't kicked a ball for over a year.
