Quote Originally Posted by Chicken Balti Pie View Post
We released him when he was 19. He'd been on the fringes of the first team. We're happy to sign 21 year old academy graduates and have them on the periphery. The academy is only going to work if we hold on to them until they're in their early to mid 20s
Can we afford to do that, though? I’d argue that the academy is only going to work if we’re able to attract a better quality of youngster from the start of the process, then train them in “the Notts County way” of playing. Along the way we’ll lose the best ones to Premier League sides, but that might help pay for the academy.

The bottom line is that we’ve never had a reputation for being a club that produces players (with the odd exception over the decades), so it’s going to take a major commitment to try to turn that around.