The 'youngsters' who "progressed" was Hazard/Oscar/Mikel, wasnt it? However we all knew that they are all not genuine local home-grown.
The last real home grown talent was JT. (Including other youngsters like Carton Cole/Glen Johnson/Robert Huth/Fabio Borini)
If we really want to nurture youngsters, we need a manager who has more faith into youngsters. David Moyes places alot of faith on Januzaj and I do see him as a decent talent. Quick pace and full of trickery.
However the same goes for some of our youngsters, but they had alot of hype but failed to develop because the club does not give them a chance. When they are farmed out to loan, the expectations stays and they fall short of it. Football game is a team game and not by individual talents, it is unfair for media or public to rate their talents or improvement due to the success of the team(some teams are just not as good as they are) they are in. Off course if you are a emerging striker and scoring goals, you get the credits e.g - Sturridge at Bolton.
Take if you are a defender or midfielder, it is difficult for you to impress on a mediocre team. McEachran is a great example, good player but failed to shine because of the medicore team members. I believe if we made him stay and blood him in the team, he might provide something different. The loans out to different clubs does not aid his development to play different philosophies of football.