IS EXPECTATION KILLING YOUTH AT COUNTY?

Danny Whitehead

By Mark Smith

As the dust settled on a season of discontent and disgrace much was made of Danny Whitehead's move up five divisions to West Ham.

As fans scratched around for sources of hope for the future, Whitehead's name rarely came up.

To me at least, this was a surprise. His finesse and technique was a shining light at times last season, and while I'd be the first to acknowledge he never did it anything like consistently enough I never really expected him to. He's 19.

What we saw, particularly in the early season were flashes of Football League quality in a teenager who clearly shouldn't have been thrust into the uncertain pressure cooker we were experiencing.

His ability though, dictated otherwise and his knack for scoring spectacular goals out of nothing demanded his inclusion perhaps more so than his own development required.

Given how the season finished, it's easy to forget his late winner at Grimsby and his piledriver against Macclesfield but they both demonstrated an ability few have shown for us in recent years.

Much as I've little time for Crewe and their twee little "Production Line" reputation, their fans have always struck me as particularly supportive of young players. It's like they understand their role in the development of youngsters.

They're patient and know that if a kid makes a mistake it's part of his learning process and not reason to rant and villify him. What's the difference between us and them though?

In contrast to the stability and relative success Crewe have managed over the last couple of decades, County has been a chaotic environment for around 15 years now.

Most of our better young players have emerged into teams that were habitually losing. And of course the pattern for defeats usually spelt anger to a fanbase who had enjoyed unprecedented success the previous decade.

That success came mostly with a well-oiled conveyor belt of ready made players who were young enough to be fit and strong but also experienced. Few youngsters progressed through the ranks during this spell though and so we as County fans perhaps never got used to watching players of that ilk.

Dozens of youngsters have graduated from our now-defunct youth setup since the late 90s. Few managed to live up to their early promise and it's telling that of those who did, many spent their formative years playing for a team which wasn't getting hammered every week.

The problem at County is while we have sometimes had the footballing staff required to nurture promising youngsters, the rest of the club has been anything but the right atmosphere.

The poor leadership from the top has created disharmony and mistrust, going back more than ten years. That leads to more pressure from fans which all too often ends up being directed at those within easiest reach, the players.

Occasionally they deserve it but mostly they simply don't. Clearly, the lack of unity behind the scenes has seen the development of players stall.

Andy Halls

Andy Halls made his debut at Elland Road and finished up being relegated to a league four levels lower having struggled to stand out in far less salubrious surroundings. He got his fair share of stick though, seemingly without anyone pausing to notice he played for ten different managers in four seasons. Is it any wonder he never really improved?

While it has become crushingly evident that we as fans can't effect much of what happens in the boardroom, we can influence things on the pitch, and we should.

This season we'll begin with a side which has an age profile similar to the successful sides of the 90s, and yet in goal we have two young keepers with just 44 professional games behind them. We should support them, perhaps more so when the inevitable errors of judgement come.

Maybe Whitehead's move should be a final wakeup call to those who can't see beyond the players when they're seeking someone to blame.

Rickie Lambert tied with Frank Lampard as the highest scoring Englishman in the Premier League last season. That's the same Rickie Lambert who joined us eleven years ago aged just 20. He had just 36 league starts under his belt before he arrived at EP and we struggled to employ him correctly.

Whether Whitehead goes on to emulate Lambert remains to be seen. I'd be surprised if he does.

But maybe there's a lesson for some of those who have overlooked boardroom unrest, inconsistency in the dugout, financial uncertainty and mass mismanagement and instead just called teenagers names.

Maybe next season...