The Future Looks Bright

By: Jimmy | March 4th, 2010

Zac Alley Rovers completed the signing of up and coming prospect Zac Aley from Southport today. The lad comes with high praise from the head of youth development at Southport, Haydn Preece. “To sign for Blackburn is a tremendous achievement for Zac. Hopefully he’s on the ladder to international stardom” Preece told the BBC. Zac told The Official Website: “The deal has been done and I’m delighted. I’m happy everything has been sorted out and I’m really happy to be here. My preferred position is up front, but I can also play on the left or on the right.” Not too shabby, kid.

So as we bolster our reserves and start to see some youngsters making appearances in the team and on the bench, what does this mean for our team down the road?

Signing Aley is only the beginning of a multi-step process. Signing and having the talent in the reserves is one thing, but to have them grow and develop is the hardest and most important part. Take a look at Everton, a club who’ve been excellent at this development in the past few years. Homegrown talent in Jack Rodwell and Dan Gosling gave Everton 3 points over mighty ManUre.

Thankfully, we seem to be on this road as well. This past match against Liverpool saw youngsters in Olsson, Hoilett, Nzonzi, and Kalinić start with Di Santo (who isn’t even ours) on the bench. Not just start and play though, but play well and hold their own against a strong Liverpool side who are fighting for a CL spot this season. This recent show has left Big Sam in great spirits when thinking about the youth at the club. “I am excited. I think the rapid growth of the youngsters has been a real bonus and a real pleasure for me,” he told EuroSport.

All this is for nothing if Rovers weren’t using the third part of this plan I’ve created; but they’ve started to use the third part recently. The plan, if you’ve been following along, is to sign/develop talent in the academy and reserves, then develop that talent to a premier league level, and finally, allow young talent a chance to break into the squad and show us what they’ve got.

Rovers, and I think Big Sam in particular, have been cracking down on players who were sure they had a spot in the side, have become complacent or just plain old. We’re seeing with Rovers who’ve been around forever like Reidy, who I love, now being sent out on loan to show they still have it and to allow an Olsson or a Nzonzi to start. We’re also cutting our losses like we did when we saw we made a flub in Elrio. And lastly, we’re not wasting our youth when they aren’t yet ready to start by having 9…NINE.. players out on loan getting in games to keep them developing and fit.

I for one can’t wait to see how the next few years pan out for some of these stars in the making and hope that the higher ups at Rovers keep things moving as smoothly and efficiently as they’ve become.