Always looking a few steps ahead.
That seems to be the mantra that Birmingham City are taking when it comes to the first team at St Andrew’s. With the emergence of Jude Bellingham as a regular member of the senior team, Pep Clotet isn’t scared to dip into the academy when he feels like he has to, for instance with Odin Bailey who scored the winner against Middlesbrough a few months ago.
And it sounds as if there could be a few more players on their way into the first team in the future. Speaking ahead of this weekend’s game against Nottingham Forest, the Spaniard mentioned how a number of the youngsters have been training with the first team and that the door is always open for them:
“I can assure the fans that this week, I’m very satisfied with what I see from the young players. And the fact that they train with us regularly, the whole season, but this week a little bit more because we added a few numbers. I can reassure that the future is bright for the club if we manage to set up the right plan for them to get in.”
It’s all well and good saying this, but there does have to come a point when we have so see it come to fruition. Whilst there are the two that I mentioned earlier, there hasn’t really been a player who has had a consistent run in the starting eleven.
Regulars to this site will know my love and appreciation for Jack Concannon and to a lesser extent Miguel Fernandez, but if Clotet is serious about offering them a path into the senior team then sooner or later he’s going to have to show them the same level of faith that he showed Bellingham earlier in the season.
Would you like to see more youngsters make a breakthrough this season?
Yes
No
And if not, then they need to be given a chance to showcase their talents elsewhere on loan. The sooner that we can work out if they can cut it at senior level, then the sooner we’ll know if they are worth keeping around or selling on.
