den

Explain that a bit more Theno?

Can't imagine rovers paying anywhere near £2m for Dunny. They would be so foolish to pay more than 500K.

The link to Stuwilkys' post.

To show that rating each part of a players talents seperately proves nothing.

Tell you what Theno, do the same with the Beckham of 5 years ago - and be fair.

Matt Derbyshire: Born: 14/04/1986 That makes him 21 in four months time. At that age, strikers should be showing a bit more IMO.

Cut the insults please. Anyone got any more views on Gally?

Rover6, two points: This thread is about the success or otherwise of academies. You're simply arguing for youngsters to be given a chance. What are your views on the academy system? You mention Gray, Gamst, Mokoena and Traore. Could it just be, although these players have bad days, they are more suited to Prem football than anything else rovers currently have? Yes, even Mokoena, or do you have another name that you can pluck from the list of academy lads?

On SSN, Dunny's saying it's up to Brum if they sell him in Jan. He said he's got 5 months left on his contract and that everyone knows he's a Blackburn fan, - always has been and always will.

Yes, no McCarthy for that one.

Pathetic showing from Rovers.

Neill gets told off by Poll, for getting annoyed for a bad tackle against him by a Reading player.. No booking!

Jay booked

Charlton losing at home to Liverpool 0-3. Good news.

I would guess McCarthy up front with Ped just behind him.

Ped up front, with Gray in midfield? Or maybe 5 in midfield and Benni on his own up front. I dunno.

ROVERS: Friedel, Neill, Todd, Tugay, Savage, McCarthy, Bentley, Gamst, Ooijer, McEveley, Gray. Subs: Brown (GK), Nonda, Matteo, Derbyshire, Peter.

Don't think you've been reading my posts W.

That is interesting. I have wondered how the changes would affect the youngsters. It's fair to say that those changes aren't responsible for the present situation though. You reckon that it's to the detriment of the future of the club as a whole then?

In a nutshell Le Chuck, - in a nutshell.

I'm not calling for the academy to be scrapped, far from it. The question is though - would the money be better spent directly on the "proven player"? As far as I can see, the answer over the past eight years would have been "yes". Simple maths 8x£2.5m = £20m extra spent on players, over and above what has already been spent. Not that things are so black and white as that, I know. You mention west ham bringing academy players through and ask would they still have come through without an academy? Well who knows, but west ham always did bring through great young players. So is it the academy responsible, or is it the scouting system, or something else responsible for that?

Of course it has. That isn't to say kids don't play football though. There are more football pitches across the country and more youngsters playing organised football, than ever before. Don't know what you mean there. Hope you don't include me in that FLB. They DO have a hell of a long way to go though, to become Prem standard. Maybe that's part of the problem. If we were a first div. club, the academy would be working well for us. What evidence is there, that they do work?

I reckon it's flawed idea. Yes - you can improve kids by taking them as youngsters and giving them expert coaching. However, I don't believe that you can identify the youngster that is going to make the grade, until they reach the age of 16/17 at the earliest. There is far too much that can go wrong with a kid before that age. We've seen that time and time again. You can take the best youngsters from the area and give them the best coaching possible, but the vast majority fall by the wayside. So, for me, the whole concept of an academy is basically flawed. Kids need to develop of their own accord until the talent can really be seen, - then the coaches should move in to get the best out of those that have a real chance.

He was asking to hear the boos, from the morons who would be better off actually encouraging the team, after he'd scored the winner. Good on yer Lucas.