All that time to formulate and that's all you can come with? C'mon BC! Those arguments should feel like an old pair of slippers to you by now. But your tourettes-level of trotting them out is likely what led to your forgetting who actually made the academy-turds argument first and delayed your evolution to my perspective. Intractability is not a virtue. Save us both the bother and you the public embarrassment and just agree with me from the start. We both know I'm right.
You're so full of shit BC. Gio transferred last summer at the age of 16 FFS and didn't turn 17 until November. He was transferred to the first team in January and his first fucking minutes were during BVB's next game. That's immediacy BC not some bullshit gradual crap like you are trying to play it. And beyond that he plays in the same position as their best player...AND IS STILL ONLY 17 BC!!!!.
And no one is talking about Jadon Sancho whose is A) not a turd from our academy FFS and B) was freed up for minutes because Pulisic was leaving though you is your typical way would like to shade it another way. BUT, AS USUAL, NOT THE POINT AT HAND BC. The point was about talent forcing a manager's hand and not charitably being given minutes.
So, you know nothing of Reyna's time yet proffered some bullshit narrative to sway those that don't know. With no shame, mind. If I wasn't so familiar with it i'd be surprised. But I'm not. At least you were able to pull some minute's stats though, right? That musta felt good and familiar to you.
We both know you're wrong about much of this Todd. But I won't expect you to admit it, you never do.
We could and should have made better use of our academy. Veljkovic didn't have to be world class to be as useful as people like Chiriches, Dier or Foyth. We wanted him to sign a contract but he left because we kept signing meh players ahead of him and not giving him game time.
Keeping kids like KWP and Onomah away from first team football of any kind for most of 3 years or so between 18-21 is abject stupidity. Like trying to grow tomatoes and someone tells you what they need is to produce the best tomatoes is heat, shade, fertile soil and a big pot - so you put them in a tiny pot, with sand in it, keep them in a cold place, exposed to sunlight.
Skipp is a naturtal midfielder who is far less scared of the ball and technically much more competent than Sissoko. Why isn't he getting more chance?
Was Marcus Edwards not good enough for more than 15 minutes of first team football?
Your hackneyed cliche about "if they are good enough they will get their chance" is bollocks. Plain wrong.
And the knock on effect of that, is that we are now losing some of our best academy players because they see this. You miss the point about Reyna. You are making my point for me. If we tried to sign a 16yo Gio Reyna, he'd likely choose to go somewhere like BVB because he knows he's more likely to get minutes and his development handled properly. (We were actually trying to sign Sancho)