Adrian Flaque, Oliver Crankshaw, Leif Davis

[tim-sanchez]

3 players to have played for our development squad recently, all having signed for a second-tier club. I know we got some compensation for Leif, does anyone know if we got anything for the other two? It surely is an attractive prospect for other youngsters that we've got a proven track record as a path to success, but it would be great if it could provide a bit of income as well.

How many of you saw them play as well? Interesting that none of them got a shot with the first team, but all 3 attracted the attention of bigger teams regardless. Makes me wonder who else is in the development squad that we could do with snapping up to a senior contract before someone else does.

[SupermarketShrimp]

Getting them to sign for us when championship clubs are sniffing round is pie in the sky.

[tim-sanchez]

I'm not suggesting poaching a player from under the noses of Championship clubs, of course we can't compete with them. However, I'm sure plenty of these players would be happy to sign a professional senior contract, and release clauses could be built in. It offers them some income, and provides us income as well if they move on.

Maybe it is pie in the sky to think our youth players might join the senior team, but I'm sure there are some in there that could perform well for us and then progress to a better side anyway.

[SupermarketShrimp]

We haven't got money to play the players we've got, let alone chuck money at the kids.

The academy is there to get us the agreed fees now that it's been restructured by the FA. There's very little if anything we can do about it.

[Shrimpy]

Getting them to sign for us when championship clubs are sniffing round is pie in the sky.

I think it's important to differentiate between the Youth Academy and the Development Squad here.

Davis came from the Academy, I have no issues with his departure, he was only 18 when he left and I've no doubt he would have broken into the first team setup.

Crankshaw and Flaque were in the development squad. What this appears to be to me is a team made up of promising young players in non league who are either without a club or play part time for someone else and then turn out for our development team against other reserve / development teams. You can see the league table here: http://fulltime-league.thefa.com/Index. ... ue=1848526.

Crankshaw for example has done the rounds of a few non league clubs whilst also playing for our development team, Clitheroe, Colne, Curzon Ashton. We've had him playing for our development team for at least 18 months before Wigan signed him.

Now, to me, the whole purpose of this development squad is to find gems in non league who could subsequently join our first team squad. I think this is how Reece Deakin signed for us for example. If we have players like Crankshaw who ends up being taken on by a bigger club than us in Wigan and Flaque who joins Las Palmas turning out for these teams and excelling then why are they not finding their way into our first team squad? If we're not going to sign players from it then what is the point of having it in the first place?