Such a strange club - we sign so many young players (almost all rubbish), yet we rarely promote any of our academy players to the first team.
Watched Oxford (Lankshear, Donley) beat Preston North End 3-1. Lankshear scored his 9th for the season, he's their leading scorer. I really think he's going to be good - can hold the ball up better than Richy and Kolo Muani, always seems to get in good positions, make the smart pass. Donley and Devine looked pretty solid as well. If we go down, we have a number of decent players for that level. Ashley Philips has been starting just about every game at Stoke, Mikey Moore is starting to do well up north.
Funny, our scouts followed Phillips for 2 years at Blackburn and he has not gotten anywhere near the first team. At the same time Wharton was playing there...our scouts wouldn't be able to pick out a block of ice in the Arctic.
Remember the Tottenham youth movement that was going to take the PL by storm in 2025-26? Here are the 25-26 rankings of minutes played by academy graduates in the PL:
To be fair, the ' youth movement' schpiel, while admittedly a rationalization for not splashing out on established stars, was more a defense of singing young unproven prospects like Gray, Bergvall, and Vuskovic than a heralding of upcoming academy products. And, for better or for worse , a couple of those have featured plenty. I'm not saying it's wrong, of course, but considering how shit virtually everything* has gone at the club for the last couple years, lamenting the academy output is a bit like criticizing the Melania film for its subpar soundtrack. *one day in Bilbao excepted, of course
Club statement from 2023: We are excited by the young talents we have at the academy. We have always ensured a clear pathway for youth to progress to the First Team, along with a development system that includes strategic loans. In respect of new young players, Jude Soonsup-Bell is a great addition to our U21s. Just more Levy bullshit. Soonsup-Bell is now playing for Grimsby Town btw.