Quote ="Colin_Fishwick"I wouldnt be dropping anyone per say.
When injurys occur or when players need a break then what harm would it do throwing one of these young lads in.
Monas being a case in point, why not give Brad Dwyer ago. Apparantly he has been going very well in the under 20's. Smith has decided to put Higham back in who has been out injured for a few weeks himself and may very well be rusty. Surely Dwyer is the future whilst Higham may not be here much longer.
No point in producing your own talent if they arent given an opportunity. My concern is that all this talent may end up elsewhere simply due to lack of opportunity.
On the otherhand maybe Tony doesnt think these boys are good enough for SL just yet. Maybe people who report on the under 20's are over egging their quality. Given the results they are churning out though I wouldnt have thought this would be the case.'"
So far this season we have used 23 of our 25 man first team squad (the two not used so far are O'Brien and Solomona). Of the 23, 12 are either full products of our Academy or were signed as teenagers. Pretty good balance there I would say of bringing through young players topped up with experienced signings from elsewhere. That is just over 50% - a ratio that has hugely increased over the past few years and I expect will continue to increase in the next few years.
Of course, a highly successful youth development programme inevitably means for every one player that makes it there will be several that don't but as long as the best ones are allowed to come through (as they have been) then great.
