Brain TraysersNewCorkSethBrain Traysers
True - the point is our academy has been producing players who will likely play the majority of their careers at Championship or below level, which in itself is an achievement, but a long way behind Dembele (22 and playing in CL with Lyon) and Sessegnon (a top Championship player while 17), who are both very likely future internationals.
We have a decent crop of youngsters, but Jokanovic inherited a team with those two (having just sold Patrick Roberts to Man City), which in today's money is probably >£40m in talent.
But you have the benefit of hindsight with those players.. you don't know what our crop will be like in 4 years. Dembeles breakout season was 4 years into his Fulham stint.
Patrick Roberts isn't exactly living up to his touted potential either.
I think its a fair comparison, and comparable generations - Dembele and Roberts were in the Fulham team that always seemed to beat our most promising generation of youngsters (Fosu, Kelly, Fosu, Kuhl, Stacey, Watson all played against them in the FA youth cup final back in 2014). Dembele has gone onto big things, and Roberts is being nurtured by Man City, with 1.5 very good seasons at Celtic on his CV, and he is currently a bit part player at 8th placed La Liga team Girona - this is a much higher level than any of our bunch. Only Gylfi is playing at a comparable level and at Robert/Dembele's age he was in his final season with us playing Championship football.
Sessegnon ins't comparable with any of our lot, and until we get a 16 year old good enough to play first team football, he never will be.
The point stands - Jokanovic inherited two incredibly talented players for this level, and we (and every other club at this level) are unlikely to be able to do the same any time soon. I don't place too much weight on him bringing them through either - there has been a lot of hype over them for a number of years. Novakovich (already 22) and Loader (only 18) look the most likely, but neither are seemingly near the starting line up
I completely understand what you are saying but the point I didn't make clear enough was that we have seen the Fulham players succeed so of course they were successful.
There is no evidence that a different manager than Stam could have come in, promoted someone like Loader to the first team and seen a meteoric rise. We have had managers who slowly blood the players. Teams like Fulham and Leeds have more recently (and Norwich now I guess?) Promoted players straight up and seen the benefit.
To the point about championship level players only coming from our academy I think it's too early to say. Trippier went from released by Man City to being England's best player at the world cup. Would he have been the same level of player had they kept him? Probably not.
I'm a bit tired so I'm probably not making my points well at all.. It makes sense in my head..
Kane for another, was behind another youth striker at Tottenham. Sometimes you just need the right manager to identify who can be promoted.
