Fear and Loathing in SW London

There's a blog piece about Southampton having the country's top Academy. http://metro.co.uk/2013/08/30/mauricios-minors-saints-academy-is-the-best-in-the-league-3941415/ What does it point to as the barometer? Match appearances and success at the next level. Yet, as much as we hear about the successes of our Academy, we haven't seen players get a sniff.

I've been watching some more Bundesliga this year and have seen a couple of Schalke's matches. They have this young wunderkind named Max Meyer who is 17. They've subbed him into every match with 10-15 min to go, regardless of result/scoreline. He even got a start in the first leg of their UCL match (played 70 min). Now, I'm not saying we have anyone on par with Meyer, I really don't know, but I doubt it. But regardless, are we really to believe we can't take one of our most promising young prospects and give him 10' most matches. Say Mesca or David or Grimmer for example? What's the worst that could happen?

Back to the blog I referenced. It remains to be seen how Soton finish compared to us this season but to the eye they look the better side, even if only marginally. If they can throw so many young players into the squad, why can't we try one...or two? It's not like our over 30 crew are playing at such a high level that they can't come off the pitch. Utlizing the players from their Academy is what enabled Soton to splash the cash on an Osvaldo. Of course, if you listen to a number of our supporters, that signing was a QPR move.

Excellent title by Hammyend.

 

Couldn't agree more with Matt, have never understood why over the years we haven't thrown some kids into the fire, and find out what they are made of. Smalling is the one exception and his sale has probably paid for a few years of the Academy's budget. Maybe it's an indictment against the British footballing system as a whole because it seems that when any young player gets an opportunity with the first team he better impress or he gets labeled as 'not Prem quality'.