Saturday 9 January 2010

Bid for Moses

The story moves a little bit today, with reports from Ian Herbert and Daniel Taylor that a bid is likely. This is from the Independent:

Palace manager Neil Warnock indicated yesterday that he believes Moses will be heading out of Selhurst Park unless the current financial difficulties are resolved and City’s football administrator Brian Marwood will press ahead with the club’s move for a player Palace are seeking £5m for.

Palace are understood to have received a £1.5m bid from West Bromwich Albion and there are doubts as to whether other prospective suitors will match the valuation. But City, who feel that their current academy crop does not equip them to make the leap to Champions League football, have the spending power that others seeking Moses’ signature lack.

It seems like this is going to the thrust of our new youth policy. I've written about this before but I'm not sure it's going to work. A youth policy requires a long term plan, a patience with players who may do less well in the immediate term on the basis that they will flower in the years to come. And the sacking of Mark Hughes shows that patience isn't something that we're big on at the moment. Look at Chelsea: Frank Arnesen can buy all the talented teenagers he likes but there is a pressure from the owner for immediate results, which forces managers to play the more experienced players. And it doesn't matter how promising the teenagers you buy are, if they're sitting on the bench they won't get any good.

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