Well at that level fair enough, you might as well be playing for anybody to be fair.
I think it’s important to differentiate between an Academy Scholar which is the age you are talking about and the system that brought the likes of Liam Roberts through, and a Youth/Academy Team player that I’m talking about.
And really did we treat Liam Roberts any differently to the way Chelsea (an easy target for criticism of their youngsters to be fair) treat theirs? Signed and resigned? Farmed out on loan to numerous clubs? (Rushall Olympic, Romulus, Rainworth, Southport, Gresley (x 2), Rugby and Chester). Personally I think, like anybody who crack into a premier league side, he’s the exception to this method of bringing through a youngster, not an example of why it works. For every Liam Roberts we will have sacked off 10.
I just think there has to be a more efficient way for the country as a whole to produce. I liked the suggestion above about capping the number of academy players, thereby filtering down the quality through the leagues and giving more quality players a chance to progress.
And in terms of wages there’s no cap at the youth level at all and at the higher end of the table the wages are definitely around the mark I suggested. These are players that are being farmed out to other European premier league and championship clubs.
Can’t argue with that though, to be fair 