Once again it appears Blues are down to the bare bones of their squad again with injuries to central midfielders Guirane N’Daw, Keith Fahey and Jordon Mutch leaving Chris Hughton with the age-old selection headache of going with out-of-position experienced players or chancing it with a rookie. It’s something that gets talked a lot about on forums and I thought I’d jot down my thoughts on it.

It’s not the first time we’ve been in this position; barely a month or so ago it appeared everyone who was a full-back was out with injury and Hughton had the choice of playing Ramage (who really is a centre-half) and N’Daw (who really isn’t a full back) or calling up someone like Mitch Hancox, Luke Hubbins or even his son Cian. As we all know, he went with the experienced option – some games it worked, some games Blues looked hideously unbalanced. Doesn’t it always seem like managers won’t put their faith in the kids though?

I mean, take a look back at our former managers Alex McLeish and Steve Bruce. Neither were well-known for bringing in kids into the team; even in one-0ff games against poor opposition it was rare to see kids coming on bar for the odd game. During injury crises both manager made the best they could do with the players they had and as a consequence, very few players actually made the transition from academy to first team. From the time Darren Carter scored that pen that took us up ten years ago up to the start of this season I can think of only two players who have come in and played a decent number of games – Colin Doyle and Mat Sadler. In ten years, that’s not really good enough.

Of course, a lot of the blame rests with the disbanding of the Blues Academy for a period by the former board. Good academies don’t spring up overnight and that action caused no end of damage to the long-term infrastructure of the club for the benefit of some small short-term gains. It’s my belief that the academy is only just now at the point where it’s recovered from that closure – and Blues have been left behind. You only have to look at our neighbours across the expressway, the Baggies and Wolves to see how far Blues have let things slip; all of them are churning out players on a season by season basis that have a chance of making it – and of course, Blues are competing with those clubs for the youngsters to bring through themselves.

Unfortunately, this is where the crux of the problem has been; it’s not just been a case of Blues not playing the youngsters – it’s a case that the majority haven’t been anywhere near good enough. Take a look at the released players over the last few years, and think about how many of them are playing at least Championship level – it isn’t many. If the kids aren’t good enough, managers can’t risk playing them in first team games, which means not many break through – which discourages kids from joining the academy, which means future intakes aren’t good enough… it’s a vicious circle.

Have things changed in the here and now? Well, the problem is that Blues can’t afford to slip up. It’s interesting to note tonight’s opponents Ipswich are looking to blood a schoolboy midfielder that they think has prodigious talent this season; with nothing to play for there isn’t much stopping them doing that and I suspect that they may well give a couple of other players a go as they think about moving on some of the older heads. As much as I’d like to see Blues give Brice Ntambwe a debut tonight, I don’t think it will happen because of the pressure Blues are under. The fact is it’s more likely that an unexperienced rookie player will make a mistake and cost Blues the game than they will win it for the team; Hughton will feel he has to play the percentages and whilst Wade Elliott for example isn’t the most robust of midfielders he has been around long enough to know what is expected of him.

If Blues don’t go up the one good thing that might come out of further player sales is that Blues will be forced to bring through more younger players. I’m a bit of a cynic when it comes to the line “experienced pros” – I think it’s a euphemism for “mercenary journeymen” at times and I’d rather see Blues save their money and see what they can do bringing through players. I read Watford have blooded fifty youngsters into their first team in the last ten years – it doesn’t seem to have done them much harm. With Blues advertising for new academy staff to bulk up what they have, and doing fairly well in tournaments like the recent one out in Dubai, I hope the tide is changing and we’ll see more locally produced talent over the next few years.

Tags: Blues Academy, Brice Ntambwe, Chris Hughton