Totally agree, any younger signings should be top quality ones on loan like the goalie, other than that we want players to directly replace those that left and give opportunities to our own young/fringe players around that.
You are probably right, but that is not reason to scrap it just because a few like Marsh have come through and are not good enough.
How do you know this lad we are linked to isn't quality? He is probably coming in to replace Marsh who has been given chance after chance and isn't good enough. Shall we just keep playing him on the hope he might score a goal?
That’s a daft bit of reductive thinking. Someone like stones paid for many years of academy spend. Some will succeed. Some will fail. I don’t see a L1 attacker in Marsh. Be ecstatic if he proves me wrong
We had 10th biggest budget, thats including how much money Iseka was sucking out the club. So we've finished above every club we had a higher budget than and plenty with a bigger budget than ours
Think this would be a decent signing if it's permanent. Good age, big lad, hopefully can only get better. We've a lot of midfielders who like to break and attack the box - hopefully he could link very well with Phillips/Connell etc. And he'd be very good at set pieces.
Maybe the academy is a white elephant because a percentage of fans will not tolerate a youngster being bedded into the team for six months but insist instead in us buying proven players from elsewhere. Players like Ian Banks, Joe Joyce, Nicky Eaden etc would never have made it as footballers at Barnsley in the current climate.
Jacob Butterfield is an example I always cite as to the failure of our fans to tolerate young players coming through. The abuse he used to get week in week out when he was coming through and over the years it took him to establish himself. Then they wonder why he has no loyalty when he's proven his quality and the option to move on is there.
So if "matey boy from West Brom" turns out to be just a bit better than we already have - he meets your stated expectation.
It worries me that some fans seem to judge everything by the cost and not the intrinsic value. The worth of the academy goes far beyond how many players it develops for first team football and should be an aspiration for all youngster with footballing ambitions within the metropolitan borough.
I am pleased that we are talking of further strikers, if the Faal rumour is right. We will still need a 'fox in the box' type player. Faal would be a good signing, for sure, and would be similar to Cosgrove in terms of style. I would have Faal, but we need another different style player as well. Wouldn't mind Dike on loan just to make up the USA contingent, but that's unlikely, I would have thought. We still need a Keiller-Dunn type nicker of goals.
Football has completely changed to what it used to be like even 10 years ago. Everything is geared to the elite. They hoover up all the young talent within a 40 mile radius and then buy the other young players that they missed. The chances of creating another John Stones is so low these days! also, transfers are all dependent upon the elite making their moves. That’s slower than ever due to the Euros and clubs worrying about the spending caps. I’m not defending or attacking the club. I lost a lot of interest a few years ago. The system is so aligned to elitism and money and the power of social media just leads everyone on the same path. there’s judgement of players on here that I’m fairly sure no one has seen play maybe more than a few full games versus Barnsley but yet seem to push views on how good or bad they are based on stats or other fans opinions. All quite frustrating really.
We've got to trust the clubs judgement on wether he's quality or not, I just think that we're in need of players to come straight into our attack that can improve it and if this is what the plans are for this lad then great. As for Marsh I don't see the point of giving him a new contract and then writing him off in the first week of the season.
I've just had a look at his record since his loan with us lapsed. Really has been plagued with injuries over the last 3 years.