Just watched a bit of the England U21's and also read the report of our reserve game against Mansfield earlier, and it made me think how few young players we have actually blooded in recent years.

Lots of those playing tonight are either fixtures in or at least have appearances for Premier League teams or have spent loan spells at Championship clubs or what have you.  First team action at a high standard.

I can't think of anyone except Yates who has come out of our youth set up in the last few years and made more than half a dozen league appearances. We either haven't produced anyone good enough, or we haven't had the confidence in them or inclination to give them a go. 

By the way, some of our so-called younger players are older than I thought.  Ihiekwe, Ajayi, Moore are all 24/25.  Inexperienced yes, but not young.

I think we are probably paying for years of neglecting our own youth set up and churning over lots of experienced pros during the revolving door era.  We have had to get younger players in from other clubs now, sometimes at a cost, to get younger legs into the first team squad.  It is something we need to address.