wco81 wrote:Thing about PL clubs with any ambition is that they're not going to develop young players, so even if a team isn't going to win or finish in the top 4, you can look for growth in young players, as you can in the NBA.
Instead teams will just buy players or poorer clubs which do have promising young players will sell them.
I heard on BBC Football Daily podcast that Everton may be in dire financial straits, looking for a new owner. They're heavily in debt and are moving into a new stadium but wasn't able to acquire any players over the summer.
I guess it would have to be some billionaire who'd buy it for vanity, assume all that debt. Everton has history and must have good supporters so potentially a turnaround story, if a new owner is willing to clean up the financial mess.
See your points, but disagree about top clubs not developing young players. Lots of top clubs have developed young players and for aspiring top teams, developing youth talent into top line players is the BEST way to compete financially and competitively.
Aston Villa have made a concerted effort since Emery arrived, to bring the collective age of our squad down (7 players that finished game against West Ham were 23 and under) and are focused on our Youth academy as well. In previous years, we were topping up our squad with 27-30 yr old players to remain competitive, but then losing money on those players as they leave or are pushed out. If you bring a young player in, under say 23/24, they still have time to further develop and either become the level your after , or improve enough to be a profitable sale to another club.
Making sure that our existing academy players and those that are bought into it, are developed to either be part of the first team squad or sold for profit is also important. This is part of the model that Man City have done so well over the last 10 years or so.
Yes, the bigger clubs may buy up academy talent from lower league teams, but they are still getting them in whilst there are teenagers. And the lower league teams still make some $$ of the sale.
The off field squad management and player sales/buys are as important as the onfield performance. It's more of a business than ever before and trying to abide by both PSR and FFP is a huge task.
Sometimes a player's greatest challenge is coming to grips with his role on the team
