I think the pathway into the first team has just changed now.
When we were in the championship we could blood players in ourselves.
Now that we are in the prem, we need to blood them in through the loan system. Look at Rigg this year, and consider that he was a regular starter for us the last couple of years. And so instead of young players being thrown in at the deep end, they will get incrementally improving loans each year until they make it to the prem level.
I could be wrong, but I would imagine players like Finn will be getting lower league loans next year. And if we aren’t knocked out of the league cup in the first round next year there ought to be more opertunities next year for those that don’t secure a loan. We did try to get a loan for jenson jones, so it’s not like they have intentionally stifled his progress.
The match we were losing to port vale in the fa cup wasn’t a match to piss about bringing kids on. He picked the starting lineup he did because we were taking the cup seriously. And he didn’t bring the kids on because we weren’t winning comfortably. I’m sure if it had been 5-0 at half time we would have seen more playing time for the kids.