Thetownend.com

The kids are all right
           

  PAOLO Di Canio has been pleasantly surprised by the quality of some of Swindon Town’s youngsters and feels they are more than capable of mounting immediate challenges for a place in his starting 11
  this season.

           

http://www.thisisswindontownfc.co.uk/news/headlines/9119050.The_kids_are_all_right/?ref=rss
           

How refreshing is this bit

“Having watched them in the last few days of training I could not see how they did not have any chance in a team that went down,” he added.

“I cannot imagine giving a chance to mature players who push (the club) down, down, down over a player who is always going to give his best because he is young.

It seems PDC has the best interests of the club at heart. It also appears as though he is in this for the long haul if he's talking about using the youths. I must admit, although early days he certainly has come across very well spoken and clearly knows what he wants. Long may it continue.

 :clap:

Wilson pretty much disregarded the youth system whilst he was here. If Di Canio is as good as he sounds then we may well see us producing some local lads as decent pro's.
I really hope that is the case. Hopefully our fans (who are at times too hard on players too soon) will give the young players a chance too

OH MY GOD

This is why we aren't signing anybody, we are going to play the youths next season. This board has no ambition, Wray out.

(how was that?)

Viva el Bart!

I never understood why Wilson didn't give some of them a go.

Will Evans put in a good performance at Southampton in the Mickey Mouse Cup and didn't play again. Thompson did ok earlier in the season but obviously needed some more games to get a bit more experience. Bodin wasn't given a chance soon enough. And so on.

I liked the look of that forward who got a few minutes at the end of the season, Storey was it? Impressive for someone not even on a pro contract yet.

Yes Miles Storey. Looked very quick and sharp when he came on in the last home game. Bodin actually did alright in that game as well and apparently played very well in the game at Tranmere too. I don't think our young lads are all that bad. I think Thompson has potential but he clearly has a lot to learn but how can you learn with no first team experience?

We have an excellent bunch of young lads, Bodin, Evans, Thompson, Storey etc but I think the problem was that the previous 2 managers....Wilson and Hart didnt think they could handle the pressure of first team football when we badly needed results, I feel if we were mid table then they would have got more games but with us needing results they thought that experience was needed at the time.

Saying that Wilson hated playing the young lads from our club but willingly put in youngsters from loan clubs....wierd.

I think we have a solid set of youngsters that can step up to the mark when needed, or even regularly, I feel we will see a lot more of Thompson this season.

No coincidence that the loans we got from liverpool and man city resulted in youngsters leaving the club.

Played against Bodin and Evans when I was young, Bodin was very average, but obviously has shown us that he isn't by doing well to get Welsh youth caps and impressing when playing last year, Evans was always amazing, was in midfield and ran the show when I played against him, could tell he would make it.

I was going to comment, but the truth is I have no idea about the ability or mental strength of any of our youth team players. Thompson looked half decent in the one game I saw him in, he's the only one I remember.

I subscribe to the cliché that if they are good enough they are old enough. But you do have to be a bit mindful that there is pressure to do well next season.

Think the senior players need to do a lot more to support the youngsters during games, something I didn't see much of last season. Depends on the player though, Thompson looked like he need support at first (fine at the end of the season though) whilst Storey looked fine.

Worse thing about Wilson was that when he was forced in to playing one of the youngsters, even if they had a great game they'd immediately get dropped from the squad when other players were available again. Doubt that does much for their confidence.

Depends on the player I guess, confidence could have been knocked if they'd played a lot but lost and got relegated. There isn't anywhere to hide from the fans in those circumstances. Difficult one.  Cut at least Di Canio is saying the door is open this year.

Arrggghh!!! Why did i read the Adver Comments section in this article?  I thought there might be some sensible comments on there but instead gonads like Toshman posting the same old crap.  Never again  :suicide:

I just can't do that any more, its so unbelievable, its just depressing that there are people this stupid even alive, let alone supporting our club.

There are some sensible comments on there. I don't even think the ones questioning whether youth are going to carry us through the whole season are completely off, it would be a  a lot of pressure on young shoulders.

Admittedly there are a few questioning the current makeup of the squad. I have done the same on here.

Oh god, I'm turning into a thisiser. Help meeeee.

Looks like I wasn't far off, even though I was taking the piss.

If they're good enough to get in the team then they should play.

As arriba posted though, we (as fans) don't have a good record of giving youth a chance.
Just remember how much shit Macklin took from the crowd in one game (may have been his home debut).

At the moment we have a Catch 22 situation, that if they're good enough we'll have already sold them.

Fans demand results, and have no patience for developing young players....look at what happened to John Trollope, and things have got a lot worse since a total Swindon legend was turned on for a few bad resulkts from his lads.

Fuck me dont start Fatbury off again !

But that is the catch,you dont know after 1 or 2 matches so you have to give them at least a dozen games....which can make or break a manager.....so many managers will not play them these days because of the pressure for instant results.

Somebody has to play them.

Hi,

My name is paul Gadd is tumbled upon this thread via a Google search.  Can I just ask where are the photos?

Lots of love

Paul