Quote Originally Posted by Mansfield_Blade View Post
It just shows how crazy the system is. It would appear that the only way that a boy who is in one of the big 5 clubs academies can succeed if they “fail” and are released and are taken in by a smaller club. Then when the smaller club has developed them into good footballers, a big clubs then rebuys them. It is hard to think of one player who has remained at the club and has made it through to the first team in the last 5 years. There must be loads of players who are seen as a lot better than the ones released, but are lost within their academies, whilst the “rejects” in the same year are now playing for England.
There's certainly some rejects playing for England!

On the other hand, it's possibly a good way of some of the smaller clubs earning extra revenue from developing these forgotten players?