Funnily enough, for a video I made today for BMRTV I decided to do the research on how Pep compares with Pellers this time last season in terms of youth development - thought that was the fairest way to do it.
Last season by this date:
Kelechi (119 minutes),
Evans (1),
M.Garcia (21).
That equates to 141 minutes. If you wanted to (VERY generously) add Patrick Roberts there would be another 55 minutes. That'd be generous simply because we signed him for about £11m.
There was also around 20 unused substitute appearances for people like Maffeo (3 times), Denayer, Manu Garcia, Barker (eight times!), George Evans, Glendon and a few for Roberts too.
This season by this date:
Maffeo (180minutes)
Angelino (90)
Garcia (180)
Adarabioyo (30)
Brahim (13)
That equates to 493 minutes. There has then only been 3 or 4 (I can't be arsed going to check back again, but it's defo 3 or 4) unused sub appearances with Gunn being two of them and Adarabioyo one, possibly Maffeo the other.
That minute count absolutely batters Pellegrini's already. The most stark thing about is the amount of unused sub appearances our kids made last season too at this stage. We were in the middle of a huge crisis so loads of them were getting on the bench, but laughably none of them were ever used and it became a running joke. We'd have a bench that looked something like this: Caballero, Maffeo, Demichelis, Fernando, Evans, Barker, Navas....and you could joke beforehand that the three subs would be Demichelis, Fernando and Navas and it happened EVERY SINGLE TIME. It was depressing. Whereas compare this with Pep - if the kid is there, he treats them as a first teamer and has actually more or less used them each time they've been there. There is a CLEAR difference in mentality towards them and this is just the tip of the iceberg under Pep.
493 minutes to 141, when Pep didn't even have the injury crisis that MP had. Last season MP chose to run our already thin squad into the ground every weak, despite the injuries, instead of just giving a Bryan, a Barker, an Evans, a Celina or whoever a go during the Sep/Oct/Nov months to see if he could stretch the squad out more and perhaps unearth an option. He refused because 1) he doesn't trust them or youth 2) he's stubborn and has his favourites 3) he's a coward or 4) isn't very good and got it drastically wrong. There is no way that any of them would have been SO bad that it wouldn't have been worth the risk. Evans is doing well in the Championship, Celina is one of the Eredivise's standout players for example. Maybe not world stars, but good, solid, eager players.
They're the facts, can't argue with them.