Investing in Youth

[Arsene Titman]

An absolute no from me to item 1 in the poll. The team should be picked on merit at the manager’s discretion. How many votes in this poll, particularly in item 2, are knee jerk reactions to the Burton performance? Presumably those people wanting academy products foisted on the first team know better than the manager and have wide experience of watching the academy team play.Personally  I would give Luke Thomas a full 90 minutes but that’s up to Gary Rowett. Nearly a third of the voters think it is reasonable for the manager to have nearly 20% of his match day team dictated to by someone else- that’s ludicrous. What if the output of the academy is dross?What should be under the spotlight is the performance of the academy and of the first team manager

[LesterRam]

3 hours ago, LesterRam said:

It's Man Utd's policy, why not ours?

Let me just expand on that statement, obviously it's not policy but it clearly works..

80 years of homegrown players at United

A homegrown player has been included in every Manchester United first-team squad since 30 October 1937, which was exactly 80 years ago today.

http://www.manutd.com/en/News-And-Features/Football-News/2017/Oct/Club-reaches-80-years-of-homegrown-players-in-every-senior-squad.aspx

[loweman2]

could do with investing in this little guy !!! might be another Albentosa though on a cold Tuesday January night !

 

[Jack Willow]

I voted 1) No and 2) Other

I am strongly disagreeing with any sort of "A SELF-IMPOSED POLICY" of having to start at least one DCFC Academy product in every league game.

Actually, I would like to see as many as possible DCFC Academy graduates in the first squad, but I think it should be based on a quality basis and the merits in the first place and not by some a self-imposed administrative bureaucratic rule.

In the last 20 years I've seen some promising talents (Gary Twigg, Lee Holmes, Miles Addison, Callum Ball, Farend Rawson etc.)

coming through DCFC Academy, but just a few of them (Tom Huddlestone, Giles Barnes, Will Hughes, Jeff Hendrick) finally made it through to the first team.

Mason Bennet and Jamie Hanson are both on the verge of being involved in the first team, as they are already members of the squad.

Are they good enough and will they ever become a regular starters, we'll see, I personally am not convinced.

I also like the way Real Sociedad and Athletic Bilbao are doing it in Spain, as they both are having the majority of homegrown players in the their squad.

That's a positive example for the Rams to follow.

[PodgeyRam]

41 minutes ago, Aries Sun said:

I voted 1) No and 2) Other

I am strongly disagreeing with any sort of "A SELF-IMPOSED POLICY" of having to start at least one DCFC Academy product in every league game.

Actually, I would like to see as many as possible DCFC Academy graduates in the first squad, but I think it should be based on a quality basis and the merits in the first place and not by some a self-imposed administrative bureaucratic rule.

In the last 20 years I've seen some promising talents (Gary Twigg, Lee Holmes, Miles Addison, Callum Ball, Farend Rawson etc.)

coming through DCFC Academy, but just a few of them (Tom Huddlestone, Giles Barnes, Will Hughes, Jeff Hendrick) finally made it through to the first team.

Mason Bennet and Jamie Hanson are both on the verge of being involved in the first team, as they are already members of the squad.

Are they good enough and will they ever become a regular starters, we'll see, I personally am not convinced.

I also like the way Real Sociedad and Athletic Bilbao are doing it in Spain, as they both are having the majority of homegrown players in the their squad.

That's a positive example for the Rams to follow.

Don't Bilbao have a self imposed policy of only using players from the Basque region? Seems similar to what's been suggested above?

[TigerTedd]

I voted yes. But I think it should be more of a guideline than a rule. The manager should have to make a good public excuse for not having an academy product. If he says it’s cos they’re just not good enough, then it is publicly admitting the academy isn’t doing its job, and that could be healthy to make clear. 

If it’s cos he’s being risk averse, then maybe he’s got some questions to answer. 

[Jack Willow]

32 minutes ago, PodgeyRam said:

Don't Bilbao have a self imposed policy of only using players from the Basque region? Seems similar to what's been suggested above?

Their self imposed rule is based on ethnicity by primarily using players from the Basque origin.

In fact, all football clubs in the Basque region have a sort of similar policy of growing and using exclusively Basque nationals in their teams, but exceptionally they also import/buy players from elsewhere.

I don't think there are enough good talents around Derbyshire or even if we include completely East Midlands region to be recruited for the Rams.

 

[NottsRam77]

I'd love to see such a policy at derby but if results didn't go our way have us as expectant fans got the patience to still get behind the team and not boo them off after each disappointing or abject performance?

some yes, some no I reckon 

[Parsnip]

Definite No.

Keep on heavily investing in the academy and hopefully we'll benefit from a huge amount of talent coming through to the first team - but organically, not forced.

[Comrade 86]

Voted 'no' but only because it needs to be merit-based. A fixed policy wouldn't allow this. That said, I'd really like to see some of the younger players given a run of games. Thomas, Eslnik and Lowe would be the ones I'd look at first. If we are not even going to look at these guys then we may as well do away with the academy.

[IlsonDerby]

I’d suggest a rule of 3 in the mathday 18. That leaves 15 experiences pros to choose a team out of whilst also integrating 3 younger players. 

This means the first 11 will be chosen on merit however we will be forced to blood youngsters. 

[rynny]

I voted yes, but thinking about it a bit more, maybe not in the starting 11 but in the match day squad.

Thinking out load with the thought of youth players and helping them develop, maybe a league wide rule where of you can use 4 substitutes if 1 of the players is 19 and under and has been at the club since before their 16th birthday and play more than 15-20 minutes or something like that.

[RamuelLJackson]

No, it's silly to tie your own hands like this. To have an aim to have 2 or 3 in the squad (not necessarily starting 11) is sensible.

[RamuelLJackson]

If all teams in the division had to do the same then it might be a different calculation, btw - much more in favour then

[Curtains]

Be very careful.

You reap what you sow  

 

[Ambitious]

Good idea in theory, but I'd perhaps invite 1 or 2 in the squad. If you have to start a player that's no the best in that position due to a club philosophy then we will suffer. At the moment, I see no issue in playing Thomas other than he's a technical footballer and we don't play the ball into feet. We'd be better off putting Zanzala and Bennett in the team (if they were here).