Quote Originally Posted by slack_pie View Post
The problem is, if we started playing a load of youngsters who aren't quite ready, our results would get worse. LW (and every head coach or manager before him) is under pressure to get results NOW, not in a few years. We've got fans booing at half time, four games into the season with us still unbeaten. If you were in that position, would you be willing to send an 18-year-old with virtually no experience into the first team, even if they showed a lot of promise?

Players like Colby Bishop did their developing elsewhere because when they were at Notts, they almost certainly weren't as good as the older pros we had. The manager at the time needed to get results, just like LW does now.

So it's a tricky situation. We don't have the money to invest in a top-tier academy, and our managers/head coaches don't have the time or space to develop youngsters in the first team. So it makes a lot more sense at this stage to scout young talent that's already first-team ready, like Cal Roberts, and then sell them on, or take other clubs' youngsters on loan.
No one is saying we play a load of kids.

But other clubs at our level seem to manage to include some of their own and compete with bigger clubs around them.

We seem to have literally none. Even with tin pot trophy competitions they could appear in.

It’s clearly a philosophy issue (from multiple owners). In which case, why not close the academy?

I honestly don’t think it should be a white flag waving exercise. There is funding towards academies, and not all players come from league academies. We just need to take a punt occasionally, we seem to have had no issue with taking a punt on players we sign, nor a manager who is far from proven.