Posted July 18, 201410 yr Hendrick, Hughes, Bennett, all home grown players, Hughes and Thorne are future England players IMO. We have Jamie Hanson and Max Lowe coming through too. I don't think we've ever had so much young talent, especially home grown. One thing Clough can take credit for is giving these players a chance. And Wassall is doing a fine job.
July 18, 201410 yr Hughes Thorne Hendrick Bennett Santos Bunjaku Lowe Hanson Christie Calero McDonald Roos Mitchell Exciting times
July 18, 201410 yr Stevie Mac is doing of those Football manager careers where you just go round signing 18-21 year olds so you have an amazing youth team with loads of potential. You normally get sacked in January so you can't see the job through.
July 18, 201410 yr ''You can't win anything with kids.'' We are building a very good young side. Investing in young talent that for me will not only improve us but at the point they decide to leave net us a small fortune combined.
July 18, 201410 yr I think there's a key difference between Clough's youth policy and McClaren's. Under Clough we would tend to sign decent young players capable of doing a job for a few games. Under McClaren we seem to be going for players that might not be quite good enough, but they all share one outstanding attribute. They're all (supposedly) technically gifted. The weaknesses in their game can be solved through coaching.
July 18, 201410 yr O'Brien surely? You're right I forgot about him. Although he's not been up to much recently.
July 18, 201410 yr You're right I forgot about him. Although he's not been up to much recently. Just needs to get going again without being injured in fairness. He looked physically bigger at Matlock.
July 18, 201410 yr I think we probably did back in 92-94 when Lionel's money bought us Tommy Johnson, Kitson, Pembridge, Craig Short and Gabbiadini. All talented young lads and were highly rated in our division and the one above. Of course that team never fufilled its potential...a combination of complacency, a lot of pressure and maybe the fact they were thrown together in a short space of time. The lessons from that side for Steve Mac are; to master the art of winning ugly as well as the 24 carat performances, be able to deal with the pressure of being pre-season favourites & to keep the young lads focused and humble. To be fair, the likes of Hughes and Thorne look to be made of the right stuff mentally as well as being damn good players. You always got the impression from Pembridge & Kitson that they felt they were doing us a favour by playing for us.
July 18, 201410 yr I think the most impressive thing for me is that the talented young players in our squad are buying into what Steve and the club are doing and signing new long term contracts. We are not a shop window for the Premiership clubs!
July 19, 201410 yr A decade ago, we had a lot of young talent highly thought of some went on to bigger things (Huddlestone), some have turned into good Champ players (Grant, Camp, Tudgay), some have established them selves in the lower leagues (Mills, Holmes, Murray, McLeod) and some never made it. The club is in a much better place than it was a decade ago but what will happen to these players in the future? Nobody knows but I'm looking forward to it.
July 23, 201410 yr Heard Roos was very good. He was immense against Zenit. Could have been 5 or 6 without him. Nothing he could do about either of Zenit's two goals and he saved a pen.
July 24, 201410 yr I love the whole setup of the squad.I think our youth system rivals those of 'bigger' teams as well.
July 24, 201410 yr I just find it great how we can attract players who other teams would be intrested in. Gone are the days where you see 'Derby were amongst them intrested in X but chosen X as his choice' It seems were highly favoured atm. This is due to our policy i think of nice easy passing on the eye and getting players to play the 'right way' and giving them a chance. I think this is due to giving youngsters a try and not going for journeymen have nothing against them they do help, but i used to think we have younger players who are better! At least we have a lot of quality young players instead of just one player we can rave about e.g Huddlestone, Barnes.
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