Originally Posted by DoctorMuff:
“But then the objective becomes playing them if they're good enough, not playing them because of their age or development route.”
The objective if the players are deemed by the management and staff at each level to be good enough, should be to aid their development as much as possible, as surely that is the whole point of having a youth set-up in the first place, is so that eventually one or two (and if we are extremely lucky) maybe more than that coming into the first team.
If it was solely about the first team, we wouldn't need a youth team, we would just buy in all of the players from elsewhere.
Yes of course, not all of the young players will make it with us, and the vast majority, will leave us, but that shouldn't mean we stop trying to aid the development of the ones that are perceived to be of a sufficient enough quality to warrant inclusion at a higher level.
Originally Posted by Eddie hunter:
“I didn't forget, you are totally missing the point, that's what I'm trying to say. At the start of the season there are two options to weigh up - sign established players or play the youngsters. That's it.”
There should be a happy medium between the two, as you need the experienced players to aid the younger ones in their developmental phase.
Young players will be inconsistent as they get used to playing at a higher level.
So you can sign players, but you should also have in mind what is best for the development of our more talented younger players.
We wouldn't for example want a say Pogba to leave us, only for us to in the future wish to re-sign them, only to have to pay waaaayyyyy over the top in order to do so, when we could keep a player of a sufficient quality, if we just aided their development more.
It is a very tough balance, and there is no short cut, or easy way to make this a success, however we should be looking at doing what is best for our more talented youngsters, if the management team feel that they are worthy of continuing to do so with.