I don't think it's a lack of effort, I think a lot of parents of these kids are pushing them to college. Around me, a lot of clubs promote how many of their kids play on D1 teams. Parents like hearing that kind of stuff.
Well, Beasley went to PSV at 22 and made a serious go of it for awhile. I'm guessing the couple of years before that he would have handled pretty much anyone who was showing up in MLS. Donovan was so freaking good right away. He lead San Jose to two MLS cups! Talent like his isn't kept off the field regardless of how incompetent a coach is.
Agree. This is the most simplest way to put it and hands down, the biggest issue we face as a landscape IMO, that being: We don't have a single club in a nation of 320M which survives on the scout, develop and sell upward model. All the whys and why nots branching off that lead down many paths, but that's the biggest problem in a single sentence. Once one starts outlining the reasons for why that is, the problems with the bigger picture come into focus.