Finley Gorman

[90s blue brother]

Seems to be a pattern developing in the last few seasons spending big on youth players, where previously the club seemed to rely on a model developing their own.

Lots of seven figure kids Midwood, Parker, Mukasa, Fletcher, Brits, Gorman & linked to others. Next years U18 starting 11 could well end up 50% bought in looking at current pattern.

 

[Xhavenjoe]

Lots of seven figure kids Midwood, Parker, Mukasa, Fletcher, Brits, Gorman & linked to others. Next years U18 starting 11 could well end up 50% bought in looking at current pattern.

I suppose as we can't get them from Europe anymore the UK market is now more competitive.
Much smaller pool of youth playes now available

 

[90s blue brother]

I suppose as we can't get them from Europe anymore the UK market is now more competitive.
Much smaller pool of youth playes now available

Yet it appears we will be less homegrown going forward compared to last 3/4 years. I remember Paul Power rightly talking about the importance of home grown local lads, and looking at Foden, Lewis, Palmer, McAtee, Doyle, THB etc he was right. How many of those signed in recently for big money at 14/15/16 have gone on to succeed at PL or Championship level. Beyond Oscar Bobb I’m struggling for real positive examples?

Hope they don’t change focus, if it’s not broken don’t try to fix it as they say

 

[Xhavenjoe]

Yet it appears we will be less homegrown going forward compared to last 3/4 years. I remember Paul Power rightly talking about the importance of home grown local lads, and looking at Foden, Lewis, Palmer, McAtee, Doyle, THB etc he was right. How many of those signed in recently for big money at 14/15/16 have gone on to succeed at PL or Championship level. Beyond Oscar Bobb I’m struggling for real positive examples?

Hope they don’t change focus, if it’s not broken don’t try to fix it as they say

You may be right.
Not sure if we will be less homegrown.
What I see is the local players being supplemented with UK players signed from other clubs.
These are just taking the place of players that came from Europe.

Not sure what ages the likes of Lavia, Borges, Larios etc. signed for us but that option is now gone until they are at least 18.

 

[Cobra]

To be fair, 9 of the 11 who started the recent youth cup game against Watford have been at City long term, plus 2 of the subs who came on. And that squad didn’t contain the likes of Ndala, Oboawvduo, Dada-Mascoll and Jacob Wright who were all unavailable. I think there will always be a strong core of local, homegrown players in the academy set up.

 

[Centurions]

Yet it appears we will be less homegrown going forward compared to last 3/4 years. I remember Paul Power rightly talking about the importance of home grown local lads, and looking at Foden, Lewis, Palmer, McAtee, Doyle, THB etc he was right. How many of those signed in recently for big money at 14/15/16 have gone on to succeed at PL or Championship level. Beyond Oscar Bobb I’m struggling for real positive examples?

Hope they don’t change focus, if it’s not broken don’t try to fix it as they say

Depends on your definition of "homegrown", all of those named are or will be association trained and eventually, if they stay and make it with us, will be club trained. If you mean born locally then we're way past that, as only the best of the best will do.

 

[Phil1]

Depends on your definition of "homegrown", all of those named are or will be association trained and eventually, if they stay and make it with us, will be club trained. If you mean born locally then we're way past that, as only the best of the best will do.

People wanting a team made up of Mancunian lads are living in cloud cuckoo land.

 

[90s blue brother]

People wanting a team made up of Mancunian lads are living in cloud cuckoo land.

Agree highly unlikely, I was more questioning why a pattern is now emerging to buy in wonderkids? What has changed? If the model was not broken why try and fix it? As somebody posted here, last weeks FA youth cup team had only 2 or 3 bought in lads, previous year similar, which suggest the club felt they had sufficient quality in house, next year I suspect will be very different given all the 15/16 year old signings.

 

[TonyColemansbagofapples]

This years U-21 squad is very young so many of them will probably play next year with only a few going out on loan. The likelihood is that these will be supplemented with the "superkids".

 

[Oystercatcher28]

Football is a highly dynamic landscape at youth level. Southampton, Chelsea, The Bottlers and even that Red Lot from Swampland are spending big to attract a huge pool of youth players. The Barcodes and Liverpool have stepped up their movements too.

The EDS, U18s, U18s etc have always had a fairly fluid catchment of players and as the squad transits from success to developing talent, having more depth is key. Grabbing well-scouted options fits the bill for acquisition of future potential players and homegrown rosters that meet the registration requirements. They'll always be a hungry and able core of Mancunian-raised kids and moreover that'll grow under the CFA's presence, which is still only in its infancy [8th December 2014].

Good luck to the lad. About time we had someone born in Leeds do well...