All of the above are probably legitimate reasons, depending on the player.
But PL clubs' perception of the 'risk' of playing youngsters really needs to change IMO. Would Onomah have done any worse than Sissoko in his first few weeks? Would Edwards (or whoever) have done any worse than Nkoudou? KWP any worse than Aurier? That's £67m+ we spent on players when we had youngsters who were A) free and B) would now have developed to a point where we could usefully use them or sell on for big profit if they were not going to make it with us.
I agree, that's 67m we could have avoided spending, and I'm sure Levy is aware of it too. The Academy is his baby, he specced it out before he'd even heard of Poch. I imagine he gets a huge amount of satisfaction, and not just over the finances, when we find a Kane/Winks/KWP etc.
I agree to that it's the clubs' perception of risk that is the problem. But you can see why they are so risk averse (although I think they're wrong). While a club owner might not want to spend £20m for example on an overseas player, that's nothing to the hit that that club takes from relegation. Take last 2 seasons - every club outside the top 6 has been shit scared of relegation at some stage. Saints finished well 2 years ago, then crashed and almost went down. Everton looked strong ditto, but without Fat Sam they would have been in the mix. Burnley did well last season, but the one before they were down there. B'mouth have had 3 seasons in PL now, 2 strong positions, but there have been times when the vultures have been circling. Wet Spam - gifted a "Stadium" for buttons but last 2 seasons they've been close at times. West Brom and Stoke went down, yet they'd had a series of strong finishing positions and seemed settled.
And it's the same with the top 6. They're not going to get relegated, but for the 5 who don't win the title, they HAVE to finish in the top 4 for the CL money, brand exposure (yuk), shirt sales in Outer Mongolia etc. Chavs and Goons missed out last season - both booted out the managers.
Chavs and Citeh have to be the worst examples. They've been the best Academies in terms of cups, but feeble at bringing the players through.
We've been OK, but could have been so much better. KWP should have got way more game time last season, and if not with us then surely a loan would have been better. But I can see why Levy/Poch spent a net -£20m on Aurier having lost Walker for a ton of cash. Hopefully Aurier is better than last season, KWP also gets some quality game time, we can offload Aurier for more than we paid and we've got 2 great English RBs in KWP and Tripps.
But at Spurs the risk factor isn't going away, and with the new stadium to pay for it's just going to get worse. I'd like Poch to have been bolder with KWP and Edwards. And played Josh in his best position where he could be an outstanding MF for years. At least CCV was getting first team game time at Ipswich (btw I think his best asset is his attitude, I don't see him as ever being a Spurs regular).
Maybe there's a succession plan as long as your arm. Maybe we reckon that we'll lose Sanchez to Barca in a couple of years for megabucks, but we'll have the likes of Tanganga and BLF coming through. Our MF could be made up of the likes of Winks, Josh, Amos and Skipp. Maybe Troy P will progress and get a decent loan in a couple of years, or better. But it's all ifs and maybes.
Griffiths is the sort of big time Charlie that it's hard to keep, but if we're losing others that don't have that attitude then that's more of a worry. Even some of the loans could have been much better handled; Pritchard to Pulis' West Brom, and Josh to Bruce's Villa????
We really can be much bolder than we've been recently.
