I have completely given up on our youth system.

[Bosnian Blue 2,471]

Bertrand should be getting much more playing time than he does. He is not 18 like McEachran, he's a good solid left back with a lot of games behind him and a lot of experience. Cole is the obvious first choice but I don't see why AVB rotates everybody (even JT) except him... :huh:

[Kojo 4,676]

Bertrand should be getting much more playing time than he does. He is not 18 like McEachran, he's a good solid left back with a lot of games behind him and a lot of experience. Cole is the obvious first choice but I don't see why AVB rotates everybody (even JT) except him... :huh:

Yes it's really stupid, if McEachran was at Man United, he would be on loan or ferguson would have him playing games now and again, we don't, i find it scary that we lack options in midfield, a midfield with 3 spaces, and with currently only 4 midfielders at the moment, McEachran has rarely played.

[Liquidator 5,176]

I think we need to be patient with the youth system. We may not have produced much since John Terry but we have only recently become a 'world class' academy when Abramovich rebuilt all of the facilities for the youth team. OK so our Youth team results have not been great so far this season but that is just 2 years worth of players aged 16-18. For all we know, we could have some incredible 11 year olds in our youth system.

Barcelona have had their La Masia academy for years and consequently they have been able to introduce their footballing culture to everyone who plays for them and find the best ways to teach and nurture players. This means that they are more successful, which means that more players break into the first team, which means that their academy system gains reputation and more players will end up joining. I imagine that Abramovich wants something similar to La Masia but that will not happen overnight. We will not produce a world class player or two every year because it is just not possible with an academy of our size at the moment. As Barcelona have grown they have been able to produce more world class players, all in one generation (Iniesta, Xavi, Valdes, Pique, Puyol, Pedro etc etc) because of the large pool of talent that they have at their disposal.

As for giving the youth players a chance, I dont think that giving them the odd 60 minutes in the FA and Carling Cup and 5 minutes at the end of a league game will do them much good. Josh and Bertrand have looked just as good as Lampard and Cole this season and they should be trusted. If they make mistakes on the pitch due to lack of experience then that is fine because they will learn from it. They will not learn not to do something if they are sitting on the subs bench.

And if Villas Boas is going to send McEachran and Bertrand out on loan, dont bring in Modric and a new left back because then the younger players will never get to prove themselves in the blue shirt