As I said on the other thread, there comes a point where a player stops being "promising" and has to deliver. If you count those who have been on the fringes of the first-team squad, 10 of our Under-23 cohort are 20 or over.
That is excellent from the point-of-view of continued success at that level, but I wonder how many of them are going to progress any further with us. Travis and Fisher, almost certainly; Tomlinson: 50/50; Nuttall and Wharton: 40/60?
Some of the others are running out of time. Jack Doyle, for example. Apparently, he did well in Ireland, but he's 21 now and wasn't even included in the Austria trip.
And we've heard very little recently about Hardcastle, Rankin-Costello, Platt, etc.
This is not a criticism. It just proves that most youngsters don't make it.
I wonder if anyone keeps statistics about how many players from PL and Championship Development-Squads go on to pursue full-time careers in the game.