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If it was us in Palace's position - would you be saying "hold on to them all, this is our golden chance to push on", "cash in our chips, a must do to survive - just reinvest wisely", or "sell 1, maybe 2 of the crown jewels but don't rip the team to pieces"?
The way I've seen it work through deep involvement in grass roots kids football for 20+ years, where I've seen dozens of kids I've coached as 5-7 year olds whisked away into the academies (plus one of my own kids having two academy spells at 7-9 and 12-14):
- from age 6 (and sadly now in some extreme cases even younger), the academies hoover up as many kids as possible to 'have a look' (usually in 6 week blocks), so paranoid are they about missing a kid 'on their patch' and a rival nabbing them
- they are officially allowed to sign them at u9 (= year 4 at school), by which point dozens, maybe even hundreds, have had a little taste, but been discarded. Somewhere between 12-15 get the golden ticket. Some of those who miss out aren't discarded completely, but kept on in 'shadow squads', 'development groups' etc
- at least 50% of that initial dozen will have been discarded by 12-14, replaced by shinier new models who developed a bit later
- by 16, make that figure 80%
- by 18, when the first pro contracts are handed out, make that 95%. You've been barged out of the way by an Eze or a Chair...there's a kid in the year above or below who plays the same position but better, they're only looking for one per position across, say, a three year age band...they realistically only expect 2 or 3 per age group max to get contracts at 18, but hey, football is 11-a-side so they need to keep enough kids on til 18 to play fixtures
I'm in Nottingham, so this is based on Forest being top of the tree, Derby & Leicester sneaking in and picking up the odd Nottingham-based kid, and Notts Co, Mansfield, Burton & Lincoln sweeping up anyone that's left who's half decent. Treble that in London in terms of competition for the best players.
What cannot be stressed enough is that 2-3 year age band factor, they're only looking for one player per position across that band...and he has to be better than the 24 year old 'finished article' they can sign from the division below, Norway, Belarus, whatever.
Looked at in that light, I'd argue Drewe and Kakay have both done pretty well - especially as they actually share a position.
Forest, whatever we think of their transfer policy, haven't done badly with academy graduates over the last few years. Sold Johnson for 47 million, Cash for 28 million, Brereton for 7 million, Lascelles for 7 million, Bamford for 5 million, Osborn for one million, Darlow for 300k. Worrall a first team regular for several years and if they offload him this summer will command a decent fee, Yates a first team squad mainstay.
Put that up against our efforts over a similar period, and it's something to crow about, and arguably one of the better track records out there. However, now look at the birth years of those players:
1990 x 1 (Darlow) 1993 x 2 (Lascelles, Bamford) 1994 x 1 (Osborn) 1997 x 3 (the bumper year: Worrall, Cash, Yates) 1999 x 1 (Brereton, not signed til 16) 2001 x 1 (Johnson)
9 players over an 11 year period. I guess most on here would have been happy with Rangers producing that many / getting those fees etc...so one coming through per year on average I'd argue is a not unreasonable aspiration. Anything above and beyond that is dreamland.
Personally, I feel picking up players at the age we did with Eze, Chair, Dieng can be more lucrative.
That kid who tore everyone a new one in your u12s team is most likely in National League South at best.
My mum sang this to me in the bath, also Try A Little Tenderness - but she didn't have many records, so it was years before I knew who they were by and managed to buy them...falling in love big time with both Louis Jordan and Otis Redding's catalogues.
Haha I remember being on holiday with my Dublin-born mother in Donegal - my first 'gig', as a 6 year old, was a guy with his acoustic guitar in the hotel bar.
I absolutely lapped up the likes of Whisky in the Jar and the number below...but mum made a point of packing us little English-accented kids off to bed "when the rebel songs started".
Albert, then playing for the oppo, is serenaded with "Albert is a Ranger!" by the travelling...well it wasn't hordes, to be fair, but we sang it loud enough for him to turn round and beam on a couple of occasions.
There is so much to dislike about how football runs itself...it is morally bankrupt on pretty much every level imaginable...but the fact that "JT", with his playing track record, has been unable to forge any kind of meaningful career as either coach or pundit is a rare tick in the box for football folk thinking "we just can't go there."
Eze sale or no Eze sale, I can't see us spending an awful lot, but the sheer number of out of contract players will still mean a very different squad come August.
Particularly interesting will be whether he reverts to the 433 he said on arrival that he favoured; or sticks with the 4231 we've used for some time now.
He's been quietly very ruthless too...from the binning of Dozell at the first opportunity via the sidelining of the likes of Kakay and Adomah as soon as the late window bodies came in to seemingly deciding Hodge wasn't what was required after all and hooking players at half time when they're not performing / coping (most recently two of his favourites Dunne and Andersen at Hull).
Be fascinated to see how that translates into the summer - who we keep / who goes / who comes in.
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