- Oct 19, 2004
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There is one difference - all the above at some stage in their career have show they can perform at a consistently high level in a first eleven. I like what you're saying in theory but we all know how impatient fans are. If Poch has a couple of dodgy results after chucking in a few green youngsters his neck will soon be on the line and it could well also heap unwarranted pressures on the kids. Poch has to weigh up if he trusts the ability of an academy graduate to step against a player who has more experience and has proven he can perform at high level. With that dilemma I can see why Poch might not always take the riskier option. Although I will say out of all our recent managers I do believe Poch would chuck in a kid if he really felt they had the mentality and ability to make the transition.
We just have to trust Poch's judgement on this. He watches the youth teams more often than any of us and has performance stats readily available to make a more informed judgement than any of us.
This is what I meant when I said the mind set has to alter. The chairman has to instigate a policy that accepts the consequences of better integration but most of all the fans have to accept it, because it's them that ultimately pile pressure on chairman.
I don't expect or want everything to change completely, just alter. I fully support us buying quality footballers or quality young prospects with bags of potential. But we all know how difficult and rare those type of signings are. The rest we make are often OK, have some logic in them, but they really don't advance us much.
At the same time we have one of the best academies in the country, we have a philosophy that runs through it, overseen by John McDermott, they are taught to play an energetic, high tempo, pass, press and move game.
For me, even the players that aren't going to world beaters will often better fit the remit - certainly than the ordinary players we buy - because of this ethos that has been drummed into them, and this is even more applicable when they are the more talented players.
Why spend all these resources scouting the world and recruiting players when you have the raw material in your own back yard that - with the right top to bottom philosophy - you can mould to fit your requirements better.
We don't often buy super intelligent, super hard working, world class footballers, the majority of our purchases are decent pro's with flaws and a modicum of scope for improvement. The kids from our academy may also not be world class and super intelligent but they will at least know how we want to play, with a good work ethic and energy, and at the least the same scope for improvement.