Stuck between two plans

[Bagster 101]

The problem as I see it is that we seem to be in a period where we are stuck between two plans.

We are developing youngsters from the academy and also buying promising youngsters in. This I feel is the right plan for our future.

This will probably also leave us in this division for a few years.

Then we have the other plan which is to secure a return to the premiership at the first attempt, this is the plan we have seemed to have taken by loaning out some of our young players and retaining the likes of klose,olsen,naismith and brady.

Now this causes us problems as we have now split our budget between the two plans and ended up incomplete and out of balance.

Surely we have to choose between one or the other. If we sold the four players previously mentioned that would bring in between 25 to 30 mil, we could then invest that in players for our future. The fans would understand the plan and therefor expectations would be lower.

Just my observation could be wrong

[Van wink 2,994]

I have been in favour of our approach to bringing in promising youngsters, it''s a more expensive option than developing our own academy lads but if there is insufficient numbers of quality prospects there then what else are we to do. For a club of our size it is good sence to adopt this approach and we are reaping the reward this season with the Murphy boys and Thompson.

I take your point but IMO we have the right strategy. The problem is around recruitment and the individuals we get in rather than the philosophy.

[Paul Spector 0]

Broadly agree with your point there Bagster.

I think that if there was a clear plan to develop youth then fans would understand this is a longer term project and as such be more forgiving to the manager in the short term.

As it stands, with players like the aforementioned on the books taking huge salaries, we simply need to return to the big money table. And we are simply not heading that way at the moment with the current manager.

If there was a clear emphasis on playing the likes of Murphy x 2, Maddison, Thompson etc - mixed with a few experienced heads (not necessarily the star players/top earners) then I, for one, would be more appreciative of the end game.

[Van wink 2,994]

Isn''t the Thompson has come in and played a vindication of the strategy.

[Paul Spector 0]

Thompson has come in and played one match, and only due to the poor disciplinary record of Tettey combined with injuries to Mulumbu and Howson. I would hardly say that this is a strategy to promote youth this season.

Jacob Murphy the only one that''s really been given a chance.

I think a real desire to promote youth would have seen the likes of Tettey, Naismith, Mulumbu, Klose, Brady moved on - and the likes of Maddison, Josh Murphy, Toffolo, Godfrey, Thompson getting more game time.

[Van wink 2,994]

Thompson also played well in the cup game and earned his place IMO.

[Paul Spector 0]

I agree he earned his place, and I hope he keeps it.

But I don''t think he would have been given that chance save for the injuries/suspensions to JH/YM/AT.

[Bagster 101]

What if in the unlikely event that we actually get promoted this year VW how likely is it that any of the youth would get a game in the premiership. With so many of our squad knocking on in years or underperforming maybe its time we start giving them a go. Also I think if we started building a young side and actually played them we would become an attractive proposition for other promising youngsters from top clubs who are not getting any game time.

Its a risk I know but so is sticking with the established players.

[Van wink 2,994]

We don''t know yet how good the youngsters are going to be, particularly those that we haven''t even had the opertunity to see😀

My hope was that this season AN would have shown himself to be a good enough manager to be able to bring the younger players into a winning side. It''s unfortunately not worked out that way.

Young guys are far more likely to flourish coming into a winning side, it seems to me that we do have the required blend of age and experience but the older players have let themselves down making it so much harder to bring in the youngsters.

[Bagster 101]

I agree with a lot you are saying VW but my point is in the last year we have bought maddison,godfrey,canos and pritchard. Out of those pritchard is the only one getting any game time. At the same time we needed a striker, a new centre back maybe another def midfield player but had no money left to buy any. We have an unbalanced squad and my point is we cant afford to do it this way. If we are going to buy youth then we need to be able to play them otherwise we just end up with a squad of thirty players but we are only going to use 15.

After the brighton game alex said he was going to change things but the only change he made was thompson for tettey but that was enforced anyway.

And maddison must of been told that he probably wasnt going to get much game time otherwise he woudnt of gone to aberdeen.

[Van wink 2,994]

I take your point and there''s a very good argument for putting all our resources into buying established pro''s.

When you have a small budget it''s impossible to do everything you want to, we could have spent all the money we had available for young players on one Pro who turned out to be a dud, on the evidence of our recent recruitment that''s not an unlikely scenario.

For me we have struck the right balance.

Ideally we would have a bigger budget of course but that''s another story.

[djc 0]

"You cant win anything with kids" said Alan Hansen