One thing i do think is a myth about Darren Moore is he wont use the young players, he will, Harvey Barnes and Tosin play pretty much every game and i am pretty sure Holgate will play most games too, they are all young players, so if your good enough, you will play.
I think that probably suggests that he doesnt think our own crop of youngsters are good enough or not better than the current first teams which is fair enough.
Moore would want our own youngsters in more than anybody, he is a local bloke, knows what it means to fans to have 'one of our own', he has worked with them at youth level, managed them into the senior setup, gave them preseason and has come to the conclusion that they arent upto standard (yet)
As fans we are desperate for our own youngsters to come through, but there is a big difference between signing your first couple of contracts to becoming a fully fledged footballer, its okay doing it in front of 50 people for the under 23's or now and again at Cradley Town in the Birmingham senior cup, the real challenge when you sign pro is in training everyday, competing with somebody for your shirt, having thousands of people pay hard earned money and giving their often unpleasant opinions on matchdays at you.
Joey Barton said when he was at QPR and they had a decent youth team, he went into them, asked who the centre midfielder was, he went upto him and said me and you are now competing for a shirt and that the lad had better be prepared to work harder, train harder and fight harder to get it off him because this was his living, the lad went on to do nothing in the game along with most of that highly rated youth team.
I was lucky enough many moons ago to be an apprentice footballer, i didnt ever really get that close to the first team (only by default on the odd occasion) but there were lads loads better than me, who you thought were guarenteed to 'make it', who did sign pro, who were in and around the first team but when push come to shove they just didnt have the mentality to go on and force their way in, the biggest step is from signing a professional contract to becoming a professional footballer. Through work i see plenty of young pro's at clubs all over the country and there are many who are just happy to say they are pro footballers without ever playing any games (not saying Albions youngsters are like that as i havent had anything to do with them)
Its ok saying give them a chance but if they arent upto standard then you can ruin their future careers and cost the team, as stated the reasons above, Moore knows more about our youngsters than anybody, I am sure he would rather of saved the wages on the likes of squad players like Hoolahan, Sako and Mears and used the funds elsewhere but he sees our youngsters everyday and has decided that right now they arent good enough.
I hope if nothing else they are loaned out this month, i will be critical of Moore if they arent as judging by his squad selections (Harper gets in but how much of that is he is highly rated or how much he fills the academy player quota we dont know, the fact he never gets on suggests its quota thing) Moore doesnt think they are good enough so dont keep them at the club with no intention of playing them.
I am not sure Leko will make it with us at all, he made his debut three seasons ago and hasnt kicked on, at the time he was exciting as he was tricky and skilful but had no end product, the fact he hasnt got near the team often since and also had his loan away cancelled early suggests he still hasnt added that end product.
Burke is similar, he burst onto the scene 3 or 4 years but has still yet to start more than 20 games in his whole career. I think like many youngsters over the years he burst on the scene and took everyone by surprise and did well and got a big money move. The germans are very much into tapping into British talent at the moment, the worry would be they cut their losses and gave up on him in less than a year. Since three Albion managers have chose not to use him, from what i have seen in his brief appearances there is nothing that has made me think he deserves a chance, he is quick and strong but not really seen much else. I think he needs to go on loan to a club where the team is setup to suit him, maybe even drop to league one, play reguarly, learn to play a role, get his confidence back, and see what happens.
Field i think could come into our team now and wouldnt look out of place but also wouldnt standout, i think he will have a good steady career as a championship player, maybe lower league premier at the best, i think with Livermore now banned for 4 games if Field cannot get any minutes then he needs to ask to leave for his own good.
I havent really seen enough of Harper, Fitzwater or Wilson to comment, but Edwards is the one who has stood out to me. I think all our younger players will have careers in football, they obviously are talented to get to where they are now but i have a feeling only one maybe two will have it at the Albion. Not many of our youngsters have gone onto better things, most have had to take a step or two down to come back and i think that will be the case with most of ours (would love to be proved wrong and they all become Albion legends!)
