I'd be interested to see some of these "copious examples of players breaking through at 16/17 at every other club".
Either way, I'd suggest it's the level the club play at, plus the level the reserves play at.
The upper end of L1 was perhaps a bit too high for Apter to play regularly this season, so sending him to Tranmere was a good move for his development, and we'll get him back next season when we know he is ready to be part of the team.
As far as the others are concerned, the reserves play in the Central League, which is essentially non-competitive practice matches, so for competitive men's football they're probably better off in NPL/NL.
I think we have to trust that Donnelly/Dobbie have a better handle on where the players are than we do.
I more or less agree with that, apart from the opening sentence, so it replies to
@SeasideKurt on my behalf as well.
There are lots of examples of 18 yr olds breaking through into EFL, quite a few 17yr olds and some 16s as well, I think we played against one of those this season.
Kyle Joseph was mentioned recently as, I think, the 2nd youngest player to play for in the EFL.
Teams like Accy, for obvious reasons, frequently play players from their u18 squad.
Despite watching the U18s regularly that's generally against players at Category 3 Academy so I have to bear that in mind.
Jake Daniels team did however compete very well against Cat 1 academies in their FA Youth Cup run and only lost at Chelsea in the quarter final.
So why don't we give any of our Academy a chance?
Is Critch too cautious or does he just know better than us?
He's keen enough to give youngsters from other Academies (3 more were on trial for the Ressies yesterday) a chance with some noticable diamonds but also a few duffers
Alternatively are our Academy staff advising that our crop of youngsters just aren't good enough?
Rob Apter his head and shoulders the best of the current bunch and Jack Moore has trained exclusively with the 1st team since his return from Chorley. We'll see next season if either or both get a chance.
It will be interesting to see the retained list from the u18s and the Development Squad because that's the clearest indication of those that we still think might have a future.
Finally from the limited knowledge I have the next generation looks promising.