[Mister AT]

Tyler has signed a pre contract already with us for 2 years. Same as Leko.

Ive seen him play for years, hes a very talented young man, can hold the ball up well and always scores goals.

He is a very level headed lad, hes very close friends with my best mates brother who went through academy football with him from the age of 5 until this season.

[Morany]

Just joined Oxford on loan until January. Decent move but would like to see these players sent to the Championship, just depends on demand I guess

[Baggies]

He is only 17 though Morany so he would probably be swallowed up at that level. At 17, a loan move to league 1 is actually very good.

[WorcsWBA]

He is only 17 though Morany so he would probably be swallowed up at that level. At 17, a loan move to league 1 is actually very good.

Indeed. Unfortunately, for whatever reason we currently seem to have an almost total dearth of players in the 20-22 bracket who would be better suited to the rigours of Championship football.

[Adder]

Indeed. Unfortunately, for whatever reason we currently seem to have an almost total dearth of players in the 20-22 bracket who would be better suited to the rigours of Championship football.

I think by the age of 20-22 they have to be good enough to be strong contenders for a place in our 1st team squad and if they are not, they are released as a few have been.

[Baggies]

Indeed. Unfortunately, for whatever reason we currently seem to have an almost total dearth of players in the 20-22 bracket who would be better suited to the rigours of Championship football.

We do have a couple of players in that age bracket, Tahvon Campbell and Shaun Donnellan are nearly 20, Jack Rose is 21, Alex Palmer is 20, Callum Jones is 20 and Kyle Howkins is 20.

The thing is, players in that 21-22 age bracket who haven't already tasted first team football are usually allowed to further their careers elsewhere, rather than being held back. Think Keemar Roofe and Chris Wood at Leeds, Donervan Daniels at Wigan, Bradley Garmston at Gillingham, Josh Ezewele at Yeovil, Adil Nabi at Peterborough, Liam O'Neil at Chesterfield, Wes Atkinson at Notts County, Alex Jones at Birmingham, George Thorne at Derby, Romaine Sawyers at Brentford, Sam Mantom at Walsall, Paul Downing at MK Dons and James Hurst at Torquay, not to forget last season's top under 21 scorer Samir Nabi, who will no doubt sign for a football league team soon.

The other factor is that our most promising players from those particular squads, players like Isaiah Brown and Jerome Sinclair, were snatched form us at 15/16, cutting down on the success of those particular year groups.

Still, the above list is impressive for a production rate in recent years.

[divinewind]

I can't see the point of keep loaning out young players to lower league clubs. They aren't going to learn much playing in cloggers leagues, surely their development would be quicker if they had premeirship time?

[LongBridge Baggie1]

I can't see the point of keep loaning out young players to lower league clubs. They aren't going to learn much playing in cloggers leagues, surely their development would be quicker if they had premeirship time?

I agree, I think its more like helping appleton like we did at Portsmouth

[WorcsWBA]

We do have a couple of players in that age bracket, Tahvon Campbell and Shaun Donnellan are nearly 20, Jack Rose is 21, Alex Palmer is 20, Callum Jones is 20 and Kyle Howkins is 20.

The thing is, players in that 21-22 age bracket who haven't already tasted first team football are usually allowed to further their careers elsewhere, rather than being held back. Think Keemar Roofe and Chris Wood at Leeds, Donervan Daniels at Wigan, Bradley Garmston at Gillingham, Josh Ezewele at Yeovil, Adil Nabi at Peterborough, Liam O'Neil at Chesterfield, Wes Atkinson at Notts County, Alex Jones at Birmingham, George Thorne at Derby, Romaine Sawyers at Brentford, Sam Mantom at Walsall, Paul Downing at MK Dons and James Hurst at Torquay, not to forget last season's top under 21 scorer Samir Nabi, who will no doubt sign for a football league team soon.

The other factor is that our most promising players from those particular squads, players like Isaiah Brown and Jerome Sinclair, were snatched form us at 15/16, cutting down on the success of those particular year groups.

Still, the above list is impressive for a production rate in recent years.

I take your points but, to my mind, our young players should have a grounding at Championship level as part of establishing whether or not they're likely to be good enough at Prem level. AFAIK, none of the 20+ year-olds you've mentioned that are still at the club have even had the remotest sniff of playing at Championship level yet so, if decisions are going to be made on them, and no-one has regarded them as being good enough for the Championship at that age, there seems to be little hope of them ever being Prem quality.

The list of released players that you posted just seems to show that our academy is almost exclusively churning out players who are only good enough for League 1 level or below, which is useless for our purposes.

[OldburyWBA]

I take your points but, to my mind, our young players should have a grounding at Championship level as part of establishing whether or not they're likely to be good enough at Prem level. AFAIK, none of the 20+ year-olds you've mentioned that are still at the club have even had the remotest sniff of playing at Championship level yet so, if decisions are going to be made on them, and no-one has regarded them as being good enough for the Championship at that age, there seems to be little hope of them ever being Prem quality.

The list of released players that you posted just seems to show that our academy is almost exclusively churning out players who are only good enough for League 1 level or below, which is useless for our purposes.

Depends how its looked at by the club, pays for itself when it keeps the pennies rolling in due to player sales, sell on fees etc.

Would be nice to see a few regulars coming through admittedly but these days instant success is demanded and players don't get enough time.

[SmethDan]

It will be interesting to see if/how many of those on loan in the lower tiers impress enough between now and January to either be played from the bench with us, or earn loan moves at Championship level for the remainder of the campaign.

[Atomic]

Depends how its looked at by the club, pays for itself when it keeps the pennies rolling in due to player sales, sell on fees etc.

Would be nice to see a few regulars coming through admittedly but these days instant success is demanded and players don't get enough time.

This is the problem. If clubs field anything more than the odd youngster on anything like a regular basis it requires a lot of bravery. Southampton do it but that seems to be a club policy.

The problem with loaning kids out to Championship or lower teams is that they get used to playing a different type of football in general and that is not going to help them become Premier League players.

[Adder]

I still think it's early days in seeing full benefits of the academy.
Already we've sold Thorne for about £3m (would have been more but for the injuries), Wood for £1m, various like Roofe for undisclosed etc.
Saido is worth £20m. Leko could easily be worth the same in a year or two.

Pulis is clearly impressed with Leko, Field, Wilson ...one or two others.... Roberts..., the centre backs.
We could get one genuine 1st teamer coming through each year with a bit of luck (which is good going in this day and age).

[wba_1996]

It's a relatively new academy as well, massively upgraded since JP has been at the club and now rated as one of the best in the country.

Its steadily improving year on year and the as you go down the age groups the level of the prospects increases. Our under 16s and 15s are some of the best in the country. The age groups between 16-19 includes Leko and Roberts, and also included Izzy Brown, Sinclair and Dhanda. Our new wage policy for academy graduates should help us to keep these players from being poached.