In Ronnie's first stint we had a decent amount of lads making the first team,some very successfully, so either, he was more prepared to give them a chance, or we just had a better youth set up then.
Over the past 50 years and especially the past 20 years the chances of a 'local lad' making it as a professional footballer let alone at Championship level have diminished immeasurably simply due to the fact that players from all corners of the globe are now integral in the leagues, especially at the top levels. It's basically Darwin's survival of the fittest exhibiting itself on the English footballing stage.
my point about a good youth system is that you can sell some of them on as a revenue source wasn't saying Rotherham do that, it was highlighting a trend that exists in wider football and by us not have a secondary/support system within the club that can produce players at the right level we are missing out on an opportunity that a number of managers have highlighted.
But when you look at who we have produced over the past 20 years is ot worth it?.
How much would it cost per season?
How many young players would we produce to get the benefit?
TS is a very good business man. I'm guessing if there was money to be made going down the academy route he would have taken it. Don't you think so?
In the UK I think there's about 50 plus academys.
Outside the prem league clubs and private academys (Beckham/Glynn hoddle ect) theres about 15 lower league teams.
Most TBF are struggling derby, sheff wed, Charlton, reading ect
.
TS is relying on others having good academy's, top flight clubs invest millions into youth systems, and have tens to hundreds of players across U23 and down. Very few make it all the way to the first team, that is where we need to be sharp at picking up players that they have developed and then released. The only issue we have for the 25 man squad is that we need to pick from the best u19 players so that they can be registered as club developed and not count to the 25man squad, though everyone else is also looking for those players.