Korey Smith

[Tim Dawson 0]

Cracking little midfielder, a regular under Lambert until injured, and then couldn`t get his place back, having a cracking game for Bristol City today.

One of our own and exactly showing the sort of spirit we are lacking at the moment, maybe a little too quick to offload him.

[0ridgemanddMMyyyy0Falseen-USTrue 0]

Just taken out at the ankles by Carroll - no booking yet Howson gets sent off for winning the ball and they refereeing is getting better.

[shefcanary 2,952]

He knows his limitations and does the simple things well whilst nailing centre midfield - oh how we could have done with him yesterday.

[Yellowbeagle 0]

I don''t currently see a way into the first team for McGeehan, Jacob Murphy, Toffolo, loza or McFadden. The club isn''t geared up to give young players a chance and hasn''t been for some time. It takes a brave manager to play some of the kids and I understand why as football is so short termist but if the route to the first team is always blocked why do we persist in having money invested into the youth set up? Shame as I think it would give the fans a boost to see one or two pushing on and i honestly don''t think they could do a lot worse and at least they''d be eager.

[STAN 30]

I wouldn''t say it takes a "brave manager" to field youth team players.

If you''re good enough you''re old enough. If they''re not showing their ability in either training, reserve games or first team appearances they''re not gonna get thrown into the first team on a regular basis. Why would they?

We''ve given countless youth players the chance to step up in recent years, Adeyemi, Eagle, Henderson, Ryan Jarvis, Rossi Jarvis, Crow, Daley, Spillane. The trouble being when the said players got their chances they didn''t take them. They still looked like school boys playing amongst men.

We''ve only had 3 players in recent years who have looked up to the job, Jason Shackell, Korey Smith and Chris Martin. 3 players who have gone on to forge a decent career at a similar level as Norwich.

Blame who/what you want, but the simple fact is the majority of the youth players we''ve produced simply aren''t/weren''t good enough.

[nutty nigel 7,902]

I''m quite pleased that young McGeehan was playing for Cambridge against Man Utd on Friday rather than facing boos at Carrow Road against Brentford yesterday. I feel sorry for Josh Murphy too. I fervantly hope the boo boys get peed off and don''t renew. It''s become ridiculous.

 

 

[Crabbycanary3 994]

Hear Hear Nutty

[Yellowbeagle 0]

[quote user="STAN"]I wouldn''t say it takes a "brave manager" to field youth team players.

If you''re good enough you''re old enough. If they''re not showing their ability in either training, reserve games or first team appearances they''re not gonna get thrown into the first team on a regular basis. Why would they?

We''ve given countless youth players the chance to step up in recent years, Adeyemi, Eagle, Henderson, Ryan Jarvis, Rossi Jarvis, Crow, Daley, Spillane. The trouble being when the said players got their chances they didn''t take them. They still looked like school boys playing amongst men.

We''ve only had 3 players in recent years who have looked up to the job, Jason Shackell, Korey Smith and Chris Martin. 3 players who have gone on to forge a decent career at a similar level as Norwich.

Blame who/what you want, but the simple fact is the majority of the youth players we''ve produced simply aren''t/weren''t good enough.[/quote]

Of course it takes a brave manager to give a 19 year old a chance, it''s much easier to stick with an experienced player than give a youngster a game knowing that they will make mistakes and have less consistent form. Maybe rightly our managers don''t think these kids are up to it, but if your not going to give players even the occasional chance from an FA youth cup winning team, when are we? if this is the case and there isn''t a route to the first team stop deluding ourselves and spending the money on the youth team, just to equip lower league teams with players.

I agree they do need to earn the right to play in the first team, it could just as easily be argued that some of the current senior first team members are not exactly showing huge fight for a place either. I just would like to see players like Toffolo who by all accounts is doing pretty well given at least a chance, in the future. Despite all the failures you list, if we stop giving youngsters chances in our first team, how do we expect to attract the best youngsters to the youth set up in the first place.