Mikey O’Neill

Quoted from diehardmariner

Couldn't agree more.

It needs to go hand in hand with a stop to the hoovering up and stockpiling of talent by the bigger clubs too, which is clearly just trickling down the leagues.

Premier League 2, Academy football, whatever you want to call it simply isn't enough for players to develop suitably in.  You only need to look at the EFL Cup to see that these supposed elite youngsters get smashed about in a way they're just not used to.  3 or 4 games a  season against seasoned pros isn't going to be enough to aid the much needed wake up calls needed.  

We're no longer in a reserve league because the club said there wasn't enough teams in it and it became a glorified youth team fixture anyway.  I do understand the clubs reluctance to play players in these reserve fixtures because they don't to pick up injuries but I suspect it's also because there's little value in experienced fringe players running the risk of a knock by playing against kids.  If the fixtures weren't dominated by Academy kids, would managers be more prepared to run the risk of knocks to keep players ticking over?

The more we loan lads like O'Neill the more I think I favour more of a limit on the loan lads you can have in a season.  It's too easy to loan someone from the Academy of Preston, Derby, Stoke, Birmingham to fill a place on the bench.  They don't get much from it, we don't get anything and it's pretty much a waste of time.  I'd rather have Essel or Braithwaite getting the odd appearance from the bench than O'Neill or Dickson-Peters.  I've nothing against the loan market and it can and has worked for us with the likes of Smith, Lloyd et al.  But it's the loaning of lads just to fill a slot on the bench I don't like and I think that comes because the option is there to do so, almost a bit of a lazy option.

Quoted from OddShapedBalls

RE the youngsters I agree, if we're filling up slots on the bench lets use our own youth players - that will also make our academy look more attractive as prospective young players will see that we give in-house players a chance.

Quoted from Maringer

He was OK tonight. Retained possession reasonably well when it came to him and didn't do much wrong. The previous occasions I've seen him play, he's not done anything right at all, so that's an improvement.

Much too early for him for men's football at the moment, but give him a year or two and he might turn out OK.

Quoted from FishOutOfWater

That's how I see it too

I recall us having Liam Trotter on loan in 2008-9 season and thinking he was a bit lightweight ( Trotter by name, trotter by nature ) but he went on to have quite a good career and when I next saw him ( playing for Bolton against Town and scoring the only goal of the game ) you can appreciate that from late teens to mid-twenties raw talent is honed along with physicality to deliver a totally different & experienced player

Quoted from forza ivano

He had a great start at swindon but has been ineffective ever since.his cameo at Northampton is already the stuff of legend.15 minutes when he didnt do anything successfully , air shots, shanks, completely missed headers, he was brilliantly awful. Completely ineffective again tonight

Quoted from Gainsbro_Mariner

Agree with this.

Seem to remember Josh Magennis and Malik Wilks both being with us on loan and both looked as plain as O'Neill but both have gone on to have fairly decent careers.

Quoted from nightrider

For every Malik Wilks there's a Luke Cornwall

Quoted from Wedidntdidwe

Kayden Jackson didn't pull up any trees while he was here but his 2nd season down here saw the goals start to flow.