Pollock

Hope he carries on and is successful so that in a couple of years the big boys start sniffing round, then he would be a big fish in a little pond.

His Dad was a no-nonsense sort of player who also had a good amount of ability. If he can offer similar attributes he'll have a good career. Good to hear a young player so excited and enthusiastic about a debut where he was rather thrown in at the deep end.

We seem to be getting plenty of youth coming through his season .
Was our youth set up under Hurdt so bad? Or was he just too cautious to risk playing an inexperienced player ?

Quoted from grimps

We seem to be getting plenty of youth coming through his season .
Was our youth set up under Hurdt so bad? Or was he just too cautious to risk playing an inexperienced player ?

I always think it is much easier to blood youth when you are in midtable where there is less pressure.

Quoted from jamesgtfc

I always think it is much easier to blood youth when you are in midtable where there is less pressure.

True but we haven't been midtable and Jolley has been including young players all season in match day squads. I don't think Hurst was either brave enough to back them or didn't think they were good enough.

It takes years for a youth system to pay dividends if it ever does, bare in mind ours was reduced somewhat by being in non league for six years and you can maybe understand that Hurst probably didn’t have players of a high enough quality to blood two or three years ago.

With players being in the system for a while and qualify coaches at youth level, maybe the kids are only just becoming ready in the last year or so.

Quoted from grimps

We seem to be getting plenty of youth coming through his season .
Was our youth set up under Hurdt so bad? Or was he just too cautious to risk playing an inexperienced player ?

The youth set off was virtually self funding during the Conferences years in that the players & parents ‘action group’ covered a lot of the costs. It was almost entirely local based lads- you wouldn’t have got a Pollock for instance as he was from away and required digs and subsistence allowances.
Now we are back in the FL we get a significant amount to fund the set up

Quoted from Paris Mariner

True but we haven't been midtable and Jolley has been including young players all season in match day squads. I don't think Hurst was either brave enough to back them or didn't think they were good enough.

Don’t the rules now state that you have to have a minimum number of ‘home grown’ players in every match day squad? Could be wrong but I know there was talk of it. 1 this season and then 2 next season onwards rings a bell otherwise you can’t have 7 subs.

The youth academy seems to prospering for the first time in a while, Clifton Wright Rose Battersby Pollock Buckley and a few others who apparently are highly rated like Burrell and Curran, I wonder how many more there are who I haven't named, potentially exciting times ahead.

Quoted from grimps

We seem to be getting plenty of youth coming through his season .
Was our youth set up under Hurdt so bad? Or was he just too cautious to risk playing an inexperienced player ?

Bit of both i think.

Yes, I do think Hurst was too cautious to play players still relatively early in their development.

But also, as other replies have already pointed out, the Academy was running on skeleton staff during the 6 years in the abyss. The real basic minimum number of people you could get away with being able to actually still run an Academy.

Since being back on the FL it's been boosted by the funding that League Clubs have access too, with the EPPP and all that brings with it, including the need to match it with a certain level of investment of our own, as well as putting in place the coaching and support structure required by the EPPP.

Arguably it'll be another few years before we truly see the benefits of the Academy in its current form. And hopefully Jolley or another Manager happy to develop young players will be in charge of the first team.