"You'll never win anything with kids"

OCs policy of investing in young talent runs the risk of relegation whilst the changes take place, but TBF we potentially have a very exciting team in season's to come. Players under 25 include Holden, Bogdan, Ream, Muamba, Sordell, CY Lee, Mavies, Wylde, Ngog, Riley, Alonso and hopefully those who will step up from the reserves.
The club's wage bill will be cut even further in the summer but despite that we could still put out a half-decent team. If we can stay in the prem as well it will be a very well-managed transition and OC will have done well to have resisted splashing the cash on tried and tested players to keep us up.
Very risky, but if it comes off he could have played a blinder.
So do you think that OC should have spent the money on proven (but more expensive) players to keep us up at the expense of not building up a younger squad?

Thing is this.
Coyle takes out loan players, quite often young and untested. He pays their wages for a year - knowing we have no chance of signing them permanently. Yes sometimes they work out brilliantly, sometimes not.
He seems to think the future is young.
However he tends to steer away from free transfers of older players on the assumption that it is not worth taking on an older player who only has one or two years left - yet it is effectively just what he does when he gets a 6 or 12 month loan of a youngster.
Why not take on a free transfer, experienced pass master or captain, pay his wages for 12 months- and maybe even get another year out of him too?

That's worked for us before e.g. with Youri - but it's apparently not OC's style. We don't have a lot of dosh so he'd prefer to invest what we have in youngsters with potentially a long-term future. I just question whether it has to be done at the expense of PL status.
BTW have you read those articles yet plonker?

If your'e good enough your'e old enough.

It's a fair point, but I think that some of the young kids like Sordell need to get themselves into the gym and mature a bit before they are ready. If they'd been ready they would probably have cost more as they'd have slotted straight into the team so I don't think they are "good enough" - yet.
I don't see them as signings for this season - hence the question I asked.

wanderlust wrote:That's worked for us before e.g. with Youri - but it's apparently not OC's style. We don't have a lot of dosh so he'd prefer to invest what we have in youngsters with potentially a long-term future. I just question whether it has to be done at the expense of PL status.
BTW have you read those articles yet plonker?

Yes I know he would rather invest in youth - but loaning a youngster for 12 months is no different to taking an experienced player for 12 months. Either way we only get them for one season.

Articles. No sorry.

If Lee and Mears hadn't broken their respective legs I'm not sure OC would have gone in for Boyata and Ryo who are as much stopgaps as anything. The question however is not about buying v borrowing, it's about buying experienced to keep us up this year v buying youth that will hopefully pay off down the road.

Re: Articles:
'kinell J!
I could have written 'em myself by now. Fair enough though - they are long-winded but there are some gems in there.