KD exactly and actually I'd be wary if our set up have been there since the age of 7. Kids develop at different ages and speeds. Closing the door by the age of 11 is self defeating but actually is an attitude you hear a lot.

We can’t realistically play a team full of Academy products suckled on the Womble teat since the age of seven. We can’t realistically avoid journeymen.

Silk I agree but as per my last essay, we need the influences e.g. When a Fuller or Robinson comes in part of the deal is they work with the youth, I mean the 11-15 year olds, on a coaching basis and the academy train with the pros regularly. Which may or may not happen, but to happen you need good older pros.

One other thing, if you come through the structure with the same staff in place their experience is with working with lower levels of player, coaches, facilities etc. It isn't that they can't develop it is that they are less likely to do that and will take longer to do that without upgrades in everything around them, e.g. Bring in an Ardley who has been working with a top championship sides youth set up and you'll improve things. But that has to happen regularly or it goes stale, can stagnate etc. In that sense football is like any other business, you need rotation to freshen the place up. Hopefully bringing in experienced players does it but the chances of conference coaches developing youngsters into league 1 players are less without outside influences. Which by the way is why a lot of youth sections at pro clubs produce so few players, often the coaches are inexperienced youngsters, in their 20s who are paid peanuts.

Lurker - we do not have the money to buy the really decent L1 players. So we have to decide - do we continue to buy the mediocre journeymen like Soares or to try to develop the academy players? Maybe have a coach added to the team with the sole job of coaching them. Maybe on a Monday they get talked through their performances and where they could improve.

Wu - I said last night he is still under contract so like Appiah we see if he can get fit this season. There is also the hope with Nightingale that it is growing pains but whether that is true would need someone with more medical knowledge for that. Whether we renew his contract, and Appiah's, does also include his fitness in the short and long term.

Mackiemill - ha ha. This is the most relaxed Saturday morning I've had in months!

Silk the problem is the quality of kid coming into the academy and the quality of e academy set up. Most of our club is still operating on conference and league 2 basis. It isn't as dimple as saying let's use them more. Nightingale came through 4 years ago along with Sweeney. Egan and Kaja were best of their batch and possibly aren't up to league 1 yet. Hartigan and Sibbick best of theirs and only Hartigan is ready now. That 2 per batch result isn't going to provide the players BUT that is actually a good rate of production.

Silk - so you don’t want us signing injured players but you’d persist with Nightingale?

KT6 Mike: thank goodness...

Bogle was loaned to a league 1 side for last half this season so if they see him as a potential championship player they might loan him to a league 1 side for first half next season

Although I do Appiah gets fit and becomes the Lyle replacement we need for next season.

Wu - which is why I bang the drum of getting the academy players thing sorted out. For all the gnashing of teeth and wailing from some on here the likes of Kaja, Hartigan and Nightingale (when fit) don't stink the joint out when they play. And we can get some money if they do progress. Even at NPL we won't have a massive budget so we have to get better at pushing through our own. I personally think that gambling with them is more productive than gambling with ageing journeymen.

More chance of signing Omar Sharif

With regard to Omar Bogle, I would expect a club higher up the food chain to pick him up if Cardiff were to make him available. He cost Cardiff £700k in August and he has a 3 year contract. If Cardiff want rid then they will want a fee higher than we could pay. If they want to loan him out then they'd want him at a Championship club. A nice rumour, but not one that holds up to much scrutiny IMO.

Silk - a record of being injury prone reduces a player’s value and wage demands, allowing clubs with a smaller budget a chance of getting a better quality of player. It’s a gamble. The smaller the budget, the more one has to gamble with unproven/ageing/injury prone players. Completely reasonable to say you don’t want to recruit anyone with an injury record, but it does limit options.

Something is missing today

Silk we'd get money for him if his contract expired in June and someone signed him in the summer. Benefit of home grown.

Har don he wasn't the reserve keeper when he negotiated that contract.

OI (from 19:43 post) as my mum used to say if all your mates were going to jump to their death from a tall building would you do the same? Or in other words why offer a contract to a player we know is injury prone? I don't care what other clubs do I want us to be a bit more discerning.

I thought I heard from a fairly reliable source that Long was on £8k a week and we were paying 25%

He would be a great signing

Hardon- Sunderland are getting a £33m parachute payment next season, and are paying a player £40,000 a week (in his contract that his wages would drop to that from £70,000 if relegated), and he wasn’t played this season.

Omar Bogle from cardiff rumoured

If Sheffield United's reserve keeper is on 6k - 10k then football truly is fucked