YOUTH IS THE ANSWER?
I was over in Amsterdam at the Amsterdam Tournament held in Ajax¹s Arena a few weeks ago.
Of the four teams taking part here is a comparison of how many of their squads were products of their respective youth systems:-
BARCELONA - 7 out of 24
MANCHESTER UNITED - 12 out of 24
PARMA - 1 out of 29
AJAX - 9 out of 29
How many would we have in squads of that size?
Needless to say smartass Vanderhogg came up with the answer:-
First team squad of 29 - I reckon about 10 (11 if you include Craig Moore).
Non-youth players (assuming all fit):
Stefan Klos
Fernando Ricksen
Lorenzo Amoruso
Arthur Numan
Claudio Caniggia
Christian Nerlinger
Tore Andre Flo
Michael Mols
Neil McCann
Kevin Muscat
Ronald de Boer
Bert Konterman
Billy Dodds
Michael Ball
Russell Latapy
Mikel Arteta
Shota Arveladze
Peter Lovenkrands
Craig Moore
Barry Ferguson
Maurice Ross
Graham Smith
Allan McGregor
Stephen Hughes
Andy Dowie
Chris Burke
Tom Brighton
Robert Malcolm
And one other - maybe Peter Leven or Charlie Adam.
Only my opinion though.
VANDERHOGG