ronk wrote:LookMumImOnMCF.net wrote:Why would it take time to get it right? Didn't we have it right for years? Pretty sure I remember loads of articles praising the MCFC youth set up and all the players we had coming though.
No I don't is the short answer.
Some of that was just hype, we had to produce players because we couldn't buy them. There's the guts of a decent team bouncing around but a fair few guys were just not that good, certainly not in the context of where we are now.
It might be a fun exercise to speculate on what sort of team we'd have if we used ex or present academy lads, but in reality it's history. That bunch of players was broken up and scattered.
The academy was great for a lower mid table side. Seriously, how many of those graduates would get near a top 4 team? SWP did and failed. Richards possibly when he first came through, then he fell away, maybe now he'd come close. Most of the rest have moved on and I can only think of Etuhu, Barton and Ireland in the PL and none of them are top class.
I suspect going forwards, the Academy will produce a lot more squad players - look at the rags with the likes of gibson, o'shea, brown etc. You wouldn't want them in the first 11 for any period, but they're decent back up and are happy to sit on the bench. They got lucky with a group of top players who came through all at once, but their system has dried up since then. West Ham produced the likes of Lampard and Cole in quick succession, but who since? The Chelsea youth team we beat in the final was the most expensive ever put together, as they raided all the top foreign academies and yet I can't think of many of them who've made it.
If you want top 4 quality players, there will only be a handful coming through every year. The chance of one of them being at a top 4 club before breaking through is remote and I think a lot of the top clubs are happy to let others do all the difficult bit of weeding out the chaff and then taking the cream (to mix metaphors). Barca do it to other clubs in Spain at a younger age and then Arsenal do it to Barca when they reach 16. I can't imagine any one club ever managing to have a production line of youth players coming through, good enough to keep you at the top without having to invest in proven quality to supplement the occasional one you find.
For City, I suspect we'll keep looking, hoping we find a 12 year old Messi, but we'll also buy more 16/17 year olds, where you're more certain they will make it, but even then, a huge proportion won't be good enough.
