Loan Players

Over the years Crewe's survival has depended on selling our youth players or recruiting well and developing those players. The latter hasn't happened for years so we must promote and sell our own. How can anyone justify 5 loan players in our first team? That's 5 youngsters who cant play. It might be argued that staying up is the be all and end all and our youth aren't good/strong enough. We might go down regardless and so many players have had wasted seasons. Two loanees max and only to nurture our own. We are going backwards and downwards.

Without two of our loan players, Tate and Ajose we would already be down !

You could quite legitimately add Jamie Ness to that statement, Supercrewe.

Supercrewe you miss my point entirely. We could, on another planet borrow Messi, Ronaldo, Rooney, Hart and Aguero. But would they advance our club one inch forward? We must play our youngsters and if we go down so be it. The present situation is we hang on by our fingernails get other loanees in and hang on again. How are we going to progress???

I completely miss your point, a policy of academy players only, simply isn't viable or possible.

We have always had a policy of promoting our Academy players when they are good enough and augmented them with purchases from lower league clubs or free transfers. As the use of loan players has grown throughout the League we have followed that trend for, I think, good reason - they are cheaper than signings, the risk is less (you get to send them back if they get injured like Bunn and Livermore or if they are rubbish like Park) and they are often better and younger, so likely to gel with our own youngsters.

Personally I feel that the loan system needs a complete overhaul, with fewer players allowed at each club and in each team (and big clubs allowed to loan out fewer, not to mention blocking them playing against you) so that clubs are forced to budget within their means and not save themselves (or earn promotion) on the back of what amounts to a cheap short term solution. If we didn't plan on using the loan system, for example, we could employ a few more players directly.

Howeve

What's more important? Clinging to League 1 (perhaps) with a half a team of other's players or playing 9 or 10 of ours...Saunders, Cooper, Baillee, Ray, Guthrie, Waters..et al. we live or die by the quality of our own.

We were, I believe, the first League club ever to field a starting 11 of Academy graduates - and I, along with thousands at the game, felt immensely proud. At 0-0 at half time we subbed a couple, replacing them with older heads, and ended up winning.

My point is that the Academy is wonderful and the bedrock of our club's philosophy. But it has always been a blend of loanees and bought-in players, alongside the Academy. Other clubs are forced into the loan market; we seem to have attracted clubs, over the years, who have players they want to 'blood' in a team at a lower level that plays 'proper football'.

This glut of negativity that has spread from the Mad site to the terraces is, I find, quite sickening. I'll be at Posh this evening: I fear for my safety as I might just have to say something if the booing starts near me.

What is the problem with loanees, especially the way we use them?
I'm starting to sound like a broken record but if they are good, we get them on season-long deals, (which is as good as a permanent signing for the Alex anyway), if they are useless, we send them back and save some money!
What's the problem with that?
People always say we should invest in the first team - but when we do, people still criticise!
I don't get it?!

It's all about balance - and balancing youth and experience is what we (try to) do!

Somerset, people just like to criticise. Everyone else is using the loan market and until the rules are changed, so should we. Our loan signings this season have been very good. Some took a while to happen, a couple took a while to actually click with the team. But they have all been pretty good. I am all for it, as much as anything, because it benefits our younger players. So, carry on Steve