One of our own

[Warnocks Legends]

Clubs that rely on youngsters may fail even harder though.

Academies make sense for top clubs, who can pick the absolute best young talent and have the facilities to nurture them. But for clubs of our size, it just seems too big a risk to throw money at something that probably won't work.

The chances of a youth-team player becoming an established first-team player for a lower-league club are pretty slim. If they aren't good enough or ready enough (the vast majority), they'll go - or the club will play them and be weaker on the field. If they are genuinely talented (and we've had a few), they'll go.

Sorry I cannot agree with this, under Warnock we had a blend of youth players and experience and made it to the premier. I wholly agree with Don it's the ideology running through the club and has been for many a year, we simply put our youth on the scrap heap and it's both sad and annoying at the same time.

[Notts78]

Sorry I cannot agree with this, under Warnock we had a blend of youth players and experience and made it to the premier. I wholly agree with Don it's the ideology running through the club and has been for many a year, we simply put our youth on the scrap heap and it's both sad and annoying at the same time.

But how many of those youth who are put on the scrap heap go on to make it?
The other issue we as a small, non-league club have is that even if we have a fabulous talent who is 11/12, they will soon be poached, for no money.
I would love nothing more than Notts to have 2 or 3 lads who come through our system make it to regular first team football. However, we simply have nothing in our favour to compete and certainly not the resources or facilities. Let’s also not forget that in the not to distant past we sacked off youth football completely.