With our so called fabled academy why are we not getting youngsters through who can cement a first team place in woeful squad. Granted O'Shea has done so this season but where are the others?
For an academy with our level of investment (at the lower end compared to most Cat A academies), our output isn’t too bad.
Chris Wood, Tyler Roberts and Nathan Ferguson all at other premier league clubs, Kemar Roofe playing for Rangers, Berahino and Adil Nabi playing in decent European top flight leagues.
Add to that the likes of Leko, Yan Dhanda, Izzy Brown, Ryan Allsop, Jerome Sinclair and Marcus Forss all attached to championship clubs as well as a number of players in league 1 and league 2.
We have lost our most exciting academy youngsters as a frightening rate before they make their mark on the first team - Louie Barry is being talked about as a first team option for Villa the second half of this season while Morgan Rodgers will likely have a breakthrough on loan next season. Add to them Matt Smith, Dhanda, Sinclair, Brown, Ferguson and Roberts, all taken/sold/requesting to leave after refusing to sign new contracts as teenagers in the space of 6 or 7 years.
Despite that, we have 4 academy graduates in the first team frame this season (O’Shea, Sawyers, Edwards & Field), plus a host of kids out on loan who with any luck will either continue their good form (Palmer, Griffiths, Azaz) or get back to fitness and have big second halves of the season (Morton, Tulloch).
There are question marks over our ability as a “finishing school†as I’d argue players do seem to have ground to a halt after being quite promising at 16, but in the space of a decade we have produced a solid list of academy graduates plying football both domestically and abroad.