The population of Devon and Cornwall is about 1.7 million, nearly 3% of the population of England.
Argyle are the biggest club in the two counties and should have the pick of young players, so you could argue that proportionate to that, roughly one out of every thirty or so English footballers should be coming through the ranks at Home Park (meaning say, six or so players in every age group who go on to have a good pro career).
There are reasons why that's a bit simplistic, but we should surely be averaging a couple of pro standard players per year, and at least one of Premier League/Championship level. There are well over a dozen or so players from Devon and Cornwall playing in the top two divisions, which I think demonstrates that this is totally realistic.
As it is, since Adam Randell (plus Klaidi Lolos in the same cohort) we have now had three straight year groups go through without producing a single pro player.
It's massive under performance that costs the club a lot of good players and millions of pounds in revenue but because it's not really visible it gets overlooked. I fear there is quite a lot that we are getting badly wrong.
Not sure about the 12 players from the Championship/Premiership nor that at least 1 per year of premier/ championship ability. Obviously Watkins , Randell and Cooper , Christian Walton , Freddy Issaka ( just) , Matt Grimes , Adam Stansfield.
Players are starting to come through and the under 16s have done well this year and we did well in the Milk Cup last season but it’s a long process .
Obviously it’s a big step from the under 18s to the Championship and the Club are going to need to decide how they bridge that gap - some players may “ only” be L1 or L2 level .Lolos is arguably a good example - you could take the view that he’s now more proven that Waine .
It’s not necessarily about only selling upwards but also downwards ( with sell on fees) as well . Exeter through necessity have been much better at promoting from their Academy although obviously at a lower level . The fact that we are in the Championship and the new Academy should help in attracting young players. With our development centres in Cornwall we should be picking up all of their talent .
You can’t though rule out “ poaching “ from the Premiership as happened with Harry McGlinchey who went to Chelsea at 14 for £30/40k .
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