We welcome back Donogh Hurley with his latest offering for our Fan Chat feature where he shares with us his concerns for the player we love to call Joniesta and those youth players that will follow in his footsteps.
It is dubbed the best league in the world.
The financial windfall that comes with getting there, nowadays, can effectively ensure long term fiscal stability, if managed responsibly.
Space in the stadiums is at a premium. No longer do you have the entirety of row 17 of the Arthur Wait to yourself for the visit of Hull City on a Tuesday evening. You are surrounded by familiar faces, excited by the prospect of top quality football on a weekly basis. It is great, to be saved the monotony of welcoming Rotherham United through the gates for a must win end of the season clash.
The principles of competitive football are based on this – get as high up the ladder and pyramid as possible; win at all costs; ensure that your collection of players is sufficiently better than the collection of players at the clubs around you.
But it is no secret that in modern football, there are pitfalls in this rat race to the top that make for an unsettling reality. As more money is pumped into the game, and the financial rewards are so significant, development of youth talent takes a back seat. No, that is not to say that it is being completely ignored, but it is to say that, regardless of your level in the Premier League, it is becoming rarer for clubs to exclusively develop their own talent.
Clubs like Palace, West Ham United, Aston Villa et al all pride themselves on giving youth a chance – which is true to a degree – but as the risks get greater, the playing time for players coming through gets even more limited. Jonny Williams is case and point.
Most Palace fans are in agreement that Williams is an exceptional talent – a player gifted with the sort of technical grace that is so rare in British football. A young player who despite his diminutive frame, is at times equally as adept in the tackle as he is with the ball at his feet. Just shy of his 21st birthday, this is a player who Palace’s midfield should be built around – making Joniesta the fulcrum of our attacking play, with a sufficient amount of muscle and flair around him to be the metronome of this Palace side.
Much to Joniesta’s and the fans frustration, that is not the case, and as speculation mounts of another short term Championship loan deal, the fear that Jonny’s potential may only be realised with a move away from Selhurst is starting to become apparent. You have to look at the environment Palace now find themselves in, and it becomes clear that the Welsh international’s lack of playing time is down to a wider fear of failure.
I do not think it is down to doubts that Holloway and then Pulis had in his ability, but worries that his lack of experience at this level is too much of a risk to run, when the difference between survival and relegation is so marginal.
But where does that leave us? Well, from Palace’s perspective, it leaves them in danger of losing a long term star for short term gain. If the approach every year is to simply survive at all costs, it’s not just the transfer kitty that takes a hit in order to get a few experienced old heads in. It provides an obstacle for the progression of obvious talents like Jonny Williams.
Now that is not to say that Palace’s youth structure is not a sound one. You merely have to look at Victor Moses, Nathaniel Clyne and the returning Wilfried Zaha as evidence that Palace are a club that has had success in bringing top level talent through in recent years. But you do have to wonder whether these players would have had the opportunity to progress had Palace been in the Premier League when they were coming of age. Would Wilf had to have been forced to spend a year on loan at Bristol City to get game time, flitter between clubs on a variety of short term deals, struggle to get a level of consistency to his game, and develop into the type of player he is now?
It is hard to know, but you have to suspect that such is the nature of the Premier League beast, that the time and effort to bring a young player of that calibre through does not weigh up when placed on a scale with the overall worth of the balance sheet, just as we are seeing with Jonny Williams now.
Palace are nt short on talent coming through the ranks at the moment – Jake Gray, Jerome Willams and Sulley Kai Kai have all been touted as potential first team stars. But if Jonny Williams is struggling to get the game time he desperately needs at this point in his career due to the level Palace are playing, then I certainly do not expect the three above in question to get a look in either. It is the nature of the Premier League unfortunately – it is great being here, but brace yourself for a team of experienced heads and imports rather than a locally sourced collection of prodigies.
Sure, clubs are still developing players and there is the argument that if a player is good enough, then he will come to the fore but being given the opportunity to play, make mistakes and learn is not as forthcoming as it once was. To be honest, I do not think the attitude of fans is wholly positive either a lot of the time. We are increasingly as 21st century people suckers for instant gratification, in a world where patience and tolerance are decreasing where choice and information is increasing. This translates into a demand for instant results, instant impacts, putting pressure on players and staff to consistently get the right results. Fans are equally as keen for their club to succeed, and that pressure surely takes hold of a manager looking to mitigate risk. Youth is the obvious sacrifice, and as such, young players are farmed out in the hope that the lower leagues will act as a catalyst to their development.
Much has been made of the Chelsea’s and Manchester City’s of this world stockpiling youth, much of which is a route to ensure compliance with what are admittedly deeply flawed Premier League squad specifications. But to focus on the detrimental policies of the large clubs bringing talent through, takes away from the fact that there are not many Premier League teams doing it either, Palace included.
I am hoping Williams is given the chance to shine, much like I am hoping as an Irish fan that Jack Grealish at Aston Villa will be given his chance (and also that he will continue to play in a green shirt despite his increasing flirtations with England). However, I am not holding out hope that this will be the case, and as a reluctant acceptance of Williams possibly moving on permanently at some point begins to creep in, so too does the realisation that it might be a considerable time before Palace give a young player the platform to develop like they have in recent years with the current crop mentioned already.
As long as Palace are a Premier League side, you suspect that the Eagles will be staring this catch-22 quandary in the eye the entire time. And that truly would be a shame.
