2010 - The year of the youth?

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StDomingosGringo

Player Valuation: £10m
As summer looms most Blues thoughts start to turn towards a the possiblities of the upcoming transfer window. Sure there's all that World Cup nonsense to come but speaking purely personally I'll still be supporting the Blues really...just a bit more spread out.

We're going to have bugger all to spend so the biggest show on Earth is not an excerise in window shopping like it will be for certain other clubs. In fact some Blues would welcome early exits for Pienaar and Donovan so more attention isn't drawn to their talents.

When you're skint you look closely at what you've already got. In our case the 2010/11 season is a big one for some of our young players. Jack Rodwell, Victor Anichebe, James Vaughan and Seamus Coleman. If we are going to continue our much vaunted progress under Moyes then some of these players are going to need to play a much more prominant role in the next 12 months.

The red tops are saying Rodwell is ready to sign a new 4 year deal and while his exact role in the team for the next 12 months might be subject to debate his quality certainly isn't. We know about the Ajax philosophy of being comfortable in the positions around your own, so whether he ends up a progressive box to box midfielder, a deeper lying destructor or (less likely at the moment) a ball playing centre back he'll get plenty of games and the opportunity to make himself undroppable.

Another who it is rumoured is due to sign a new deal this summer is Coleman and his loan to Blackpool is certainly drawing the plaudits. The always entertaining Ian Holloway seems completely smitten. Talk from Tangerines fans about extending the loan linked with a possible move for Charlie Adam is surely wishful thinking promotion or not. Coleman has a huge role to play next season in most Blues opinion although I wouldn't be surprised to see him initially playing second fiddle to some older heads. The example he must take is from Leighton Baines, be patient, train hard, take your chance when it comes.

Victor divides opinion more than any other home grown player I can remember. He deserves a thread all of his own but I'll throw my personal view in here... I like Vic. Worse than that I've always liked Vic and now I like him more. He's been described as everything from a poor mans Heskey (you know who you are!) to recently being called unplayable by Moyes himself.

On the right of a 451 Vic adds a totally different dimension to our play. For me he's developing a greater knowledge of how to use his physical stature, little tricks like using his strength to roll the defender and create an opening, knowing when to push into a more orthodox 442 position or when to drag defenders out wide. Victor will be a very useful player in a number of ways and should be well worthy of a new contract before his current one ends in 2011.

Sadly a player who might not get his opportunity to shine for us again is Vaughan. His loan to Leicester stalling due to niggling injuries and illness. Not what he needs to prove to Moyes that he is worth an extension and I'm sad to say I can only see us wishing him luck in the near future. We should be looking at a longer loan for him next season ideally with a promoted team like West Brom in need of boosting their goal scoring options.

So is next season the biggest one for a while for "ones for the future"? If they can take that final step and consistantly show their quality they can play a huge part in what could be a huge season for the mighty Blues.

The future is certainly bright, but in Seamus' case only temporarily Orange.

COYB
 
Too big to quote , but Seamus will be fine .
Most of the TOP sides over the years utilise absolutely their own youth systems , supplemented each year with at least 1 quality signing .
Poss' the best example of this would be R.S. circa 1970-80's , though also we ourselves , HK Mk #1 .
WE DO though , currently stand in our most advantageous position for a generation . Make the right moves now , and we can at least trouble the Big Boys .
The wrong ones , - selling best kids / players - and we'll drift on for the forseeable future .
Me , I'm quite optimistic .

Come on the 'ton !!!
 
I'm very optimistic LCAB. We're going to see the fruition of plans laid down over the course of Moyes' reign I'm sure of it. The best thing is we already have the players we need. A great mixture of experienced quality and young hungry talent who have already proved they can do well at this level.

Yes there will be additions required, the squad can always be improved but unless we sell someone unexpectedly it should (like you say) just be a case of one or two quality signings for the next few years and possibly no big outlays this summer without overly hurting our chances of progressing.
 
Too big to quote , but Seamus will be fine .
Most of the TOP sides over the years utilise absolutely their own youth systems , supplemented each year with at least 1 quality signing .
Poss' the best example of this would be R.S. circa 1970-80's , though also we ourselves , HK Mk #1 .
WE DO though , currently stand in our most advantageous position for a generation . Make the right moves now , and we can at least trouble the Big Boys .
The wrong ones , - selling best kids / players - and we'll drift on for the forseeable future .
Me , I'm quite optimistic .

Come on the 'ton !!!


This

It's an exciting time to be a blue - the futures ours for the taking. I can see us competing on an equal footing with Arsenal, Chelsea and Utd and coming out on top in some of those games. They'll be close though, these matches; 1-0 or 2-1.
 
I think we are hitting a stage in our youth development were you have to be top notch to get into the team ala Rodders. No doubt we would have been playing Baxter etc all this season 6 years ago.

For all our y=success bringing players through very few have gone on to become regular internationals etc compared to say West Ham, Arsenal or Utd.
 

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