Who in your opinion will make the first 16 soon?
none of them
Rafa doesn't trust young players, you've only got to look at Babel to see that and he's one of the most exciting prospects in World football and cost £10m
so what chance has some half-arsed kid from the academy got of making a 16 ?
might as well freeze this thread and re-open it in 3 years time, maybe 5, or more likely when we've got another manager
Anderson's the nearest and I can't see him even getting a game in the next 2 years
the worry is that most if not all of these lads will simply not wait until they are 22 or 23 to get a game and will move on, after all who wants to join a club at 15 or 16 (earlier for the local kids) and not play for 7 or 8 years ?
the lad at Palace, Bostock, is reported today as not wanting to go to Arsenal or Chelsea, and who can blame him, he'll probably not get a first team game for 6 or 7 years whereas at Palace he could be playing regularly in a couple of years