gazza1988 wrote:Rob wrote:MTFCMusings wrote:I think the last player that became a semi regular for a season and a half was Jack Thomas.
I’ve not seen anything to suggest Smith is as good as Jack was for that first spell he had in the team.
Where is Jack now? What suggests Smith is better is the level he is currently playing. A lot of unsubstantiated rhetoric on here, plus point scoring from a sad old man, but the bottom line is all I want to see is our youth system bringing in players for the first team squad, not bringing them on for National League sides. I think it was worth keeping Smith on loan at Alty, given how well he has done there, and looking at him over the summer. If the Academy is not costing us money, then fine, if it is, then we need to see some sort of end product for the investment. JR is not going to bankroll the club forever and when he moves on we need a thriving youth set up to protect the future of our club.
Rob, how soon do you want this to happen?
We were category 4 and only achieved category 3 in the summer.
The main difference between the 2 is a category 4 model is late development, so u17 and over. Category 3 and above is from u9 onwards. Its players through these age groups who generally do better in the long run. Our youth teamers are cast offs from category 3, 2 or 1 Academies who are willing to commute here. Some are from lower down, like Jason Law but not many.
Well I think we need to have some sort of feed into the first team squad before JR leaves. When we no longer have his money to bankroll him many will lament the fact we did not encourage progress from within. I think NC is the sort of manager who will, once he has established himself here, look at the youth structure. Maybe broomo can confirm whether or not he did that at Burton and whether they had any players who came through their youth team?