Wondering how the two (although there may be more) basic return on investment channels have fared over the years. Rather than get all unnecessarily dead accurate is there a feeling that we make more by buying cheap and selling on (a la Conor) or via home grown (Stones, Holgate etc.) Leaning to the latter, but not sure.
Unearthing our own talent would be the most profitable option really. Unfortunately whilst we do have talent in our Academy, not too many of comparable class to Holgate and Stones seem to be ready to sell on, so we will need to stick to our current policy for the immediate future you would think.
I think we've been scared to utilise to academy in the past. You could argue that Holgate and Stones were safe bets as they were full backs when they started out for the first team. As were George Smith and Ben Williams and Luke Potter, David Mulligan before them. You have to go back a long time for a player that worked their way through the academy with that bit of wow factor. Butterfield perhaps? Only midfielders I can think of that made it are Butterfield and Kay. Jordan Clark, Danny Rose, John Parkin, Gryff Jones all got rave reviews as did Reuben Noble Lazarus. They didn't amount to anything.
