Managers must bite bullet and give youth a chance, says Jeff Stelling
Friday 27 September 2013 09:02, UK
One of the reasons that I like the Capital One Cup is that just occasionally it gives you a chance to see that not all is doom and gloom for English football.
The North-East has always been an area that has produced passionate, aggressive footballers who have a fantastic work ethic partly - without overplaying the 'grim up North' card - because the alternative life for some people was to go and work in the pits, the dockyards or on the trawlers. That was a big incentive then but I genuinely believe that people there still have the same work ethic; I can't believe that Sunderland's scouts aren't casting their eye over every promising young player in that region. I hope they have the view that Brendan Rodgers expressed last week that this country casts so many young players into the footballing dustbin at the age of 12 because at that stage they are not fast enough or strong enough. Now I'm not a professional but I can see players who have got potential at 12, 13, 14 who could go on and make a footballer at any level - and I'm sure that's the case in the North-East. There must be plenty out there! If anyone needs any inspiration for what home-grown talent can achieve, then they should look no further than the success Durham CC have enjoyed in recent years - winning the County Championship three times in six seasons with a nucleus of players developed by their academy. If there are that many good cricketers out there, I'm sure there are an equal number of good footballers if not more...
