….posters over the years have suggested we have young stars who are held up at U23 level and that Unsworth methods are sdverse to individual development but I don’t get that.
i can understand it more if we were having great success at younger levels, but we haven’t had a team get to the latter stages of the FA Youth Cup (U18s) for many years. For me, the FA Youth Cup remains the best indicator of real talent. Osman, Hibbert, Jeffers, Dunne et Al were all successful. I can remember watching Jimmy Husband and John Hurst winning it in ‘65 and even Rooney‘s team got to the final.
it suggests to me the outstanding individuals are not getting held up by Unsworth, they are more difficult to find. There’s not many young professionals we release who come back to haunt us. I watched the U23s in the week & they displayed terrific attitude and fair quality.
I’d be more inclined to think it’s recruitment rather than coaching and even then there’s plenty of reasons for that. Kids don’t spend their time with a football at their feet like we did in the 60s and 70s, you rarely see kids playing footy in the street like we did & schools football isn’t organised as it once was.
it’s a lot more complex than blaming Unsworth, although buying the best young professionals (Stones, DCL, Holgate, Lookman etc) looks a wise strategy.
