Season turning point?

[eastie]

IMO the future isn't Bannan or Albrighton etc. We should be looking to get more from Gardner and Carruthers etc.  Fonzies probably gonna get moved on too.

I had high hopes for Bannan when he first broke through, but this is the sad truth of it now.

Indeed it is.

[Monty]

Agreed. I think that generation of youth prospects may well have been ruined by a combination of MON's intransigent distrust, the turmoil of the GH year and the bucolic ineptitude of McLeish. Their most crucial years of development - the semi-legendary 18-22 figure Wenger speaks of - have been nothing short of disastrous. Bannan especially needs a change of scene, I think. Now is the time of Gardner, Carruthers etc.

[Concrete John]

Not too sure about that.  If they are good enough they'll show it once they leave and, managerial turmoil aside, they mainly still had the same youth coaches like K-Mac teaching the the same basic skills.

[Monty]

There's only so much you can learn in training. They didn't get match experience in the right way at all - it was either thrown in at the deep end or never played at all. Also our dressing room sounded absolutely poisonous, a terrible environment for young players, and with most of the damage done McLeish comes in to compound it with a football style built on fear and misery and spends most of his time blaming the young players for our problems.

I think they will come good in the long run, but they need a change of scene. There are so many variables in youth development, and if a few small things go wrong that could be the line between success and failure. They need to rebuild their careers Steven Davis style, I think, and I think a few can certainly do it.