Because a majority of the players in the U18s and U23s aren't gonna make it - that's a fact and practically every academy is the same. Realistically there will be 1 or 2 players that have a chance, however football is a team game. You need 11 players on the pitch, you need a bench and a squad to field a team. So a squad is built, the hierarchy and the coaches etc know that most of the kids won't make it, but you need a minimum of 18 players, so most of the squad is simply squad filler to give the best prospects a chance to develop.
Are the squad fillers aware that they are squad fillers, and that their only purpose is to help the careers of other people?
Potentially deep down they are, but ultimately it's up to them to try and persuade the staff that they're deserving of a contract at the end. It's a rotten system.
It's good to see that the club ownership has finally found a conscience. We are now only ruining the careers of players who don't yet have a football career and never had a realistic prospect of having such a career. A step in the right direction.
If the U23’s are that bad, but the set-up is so poor that we have to sign 22yr olds of this nature to pad them out...surely it’s high-time they reform the youth setup? There’s no route to regular first team football via the setup presently and we haven’t produced a player in years.
Unless you're a City or Chelsea who have their pick of youngsters across the world then that's sadly the reality for pretty much every other club.
Money laundering?* *This is obviously a joke before someone gets worried about defamation and reports this post to the admin.
This chap has caused a rather odd surge in support from Kenya. The club's Facebook page has a lot of Kenyans now posting on it.
