One thing that Stuart Pearce has preached since taking over the job is the value of young players going out on loan in order to gain experience which will stand them in good stead once they return to the club.
This transfer window has seen a number of youngsters at the club go out on loan and currently there is Kaspar Schmeichel, Joe Hart, Matt Mills, Kelvin Etuhu, Marc Laird and Nathan D'Laryea all farmed out to lower league sides to continue their footballing education.
Clearly some players are talented enough to bypass the need to go out on loan and make the jump straight to the first team, but another benefit of younger players going out on loan is the barometer of whether or not they will ultimately make the grade at City and often their time out on loan will confirm that perhaps they will not make the grade.
I think the only drawback for us at the moment is that the squad is so light, we do not really have the option of loaning players out for the season due to the possibility of them being needed at the club so a lot of the loans we are involved in at the moment are for the period of a month.
In the modern game though it seems that there is less emphasis on reserve team football, and as a result it does not provide the required intensity for a young player to bridge the gap between youth team football and the big stage and with the talented crop of youngsters that are coming through, the option of loaning players out over a sustained period of time is becoming even more important.
This transfer window has seen a number of youngsters at the club go out on loan and currently there is Kaspar Schmeichel, Joe Hart, Matt Mills, Kelvin Etuhu, Marc Laird and Nathan D'Laryea all farmed out to lower league sides to continue their footballing education.
Clearly some players are talented enough to bypass the need to go out on loan and make the jump straight to the first team, but another benefit of younger players going out on loan is the barometer of whether or not they will ultimately make the grade at City and often their time out on loan will confirm that perhaps they will not make the grade.
I think the only drawback for us at the moment is that the squad is so light, we do not really have the option of loaning players out for the season due to the possibility of them being needed at the club so a lot of the loans we are involved in at the moment are for the period of a month.
In the modern game though it seems that there is less emphasis on reserve team football, and as a result it does not provide the required intensity for a young player to bridge the gap between youth team football and the big stage and with the talented crop of youngsters that are coming through, the option of loaning players out over a sustained period of time is becoming even more important.