The grass isn't always greener

The narrative through media and opposition fans down the years is our youth should move on for the sake of their careers, some players heeded that advice while others stuck at it and it looks like the players who decided on the latter route are the one's reaping the rewards. Christensen, Hudson Odoi, Loftus, Mount and Tammy (Tomori also to an extent) have all established themselves in the squad the last couple of years with Reece James almost certainly following suit once he recovers from his injury.

Now we look at the players who decided to do the hipster thing and look elsewhere for "more opportunities".

Rhian Brewster, 6 months until he's 20 and still hasn't played a single minute of senior football, not even in the league cup. Wonder what his thoughts were when a lad two years his junior in Billy Gilmour was brought on in a PL match? With our current striker problems there's every chance he would be a serious squad player at this point had he stuck around with a chance opening up to grab the number 1 spot, especially if he impressed on whichever loan he went on.

Dominic Solanke, had a season's worth of token minutes from the bench but was quickly shafted and sent to Bournemouth.

Marcin Bulka, fair enough he got his pro debut quickly at PSG but immediately afterwards two keepers were signed to send him back to 3rd choice again.

Eddie Nketiah, 19 appearances mainly token minutes from the bench in 2 years and now aged 20 is on loan in the Championship.

Any agent worth their salt should be pointing all this out to Odoi or any other youngster who may think the grass is greener elsewhere, especially now a manager who's quite clearly going to give any quality young player opportunities.