Another Youth Signs

[LoftusRoadLad]

https://www.qpr.co.uk/news/2024/june/04/jack-mcdowell-joins-qpr-dev-squad/

JACK McDowell has joined QPR's Development Squad ahead of the new season.


The centre-half, 18, moves to W12 following a decade in the academy of Aston Villa, who he signed for as an Under-9

[shaggy24]

Complete rebuild in youth side / development nothing wrong with that held onto too many for too long hopefully a few break through

[Isleworth116]

I'm thinking around 20 players for Development Squad. Aged 18-20. Leaves gaps for U18s to step up as some go out on loan, others join first team.

[Abseits]

I like this idea of picking up lads of this age from other clubs. You could argue that they're cast-offs and rejects but it simply may be that that other club, Villa in this case, has a better funded/resourced youth set-up with a large crop of talent and regrettably has to let some go.
I also think our swish new training HQ must be reassuring and attractive to lads used to top-class facilities too and make us a compelling choice if several clubs are after his signature.

[QPROslo]

Eze had just turned 18 when he came from Millwall to join our development squad. We know the story well - he was rejected by Arsenal, Fulham, Reading and Millwall before joining. This is a good example of the the potential value of some former rejects. There is a lot of gems out that that is deemed surplus to requirements everywhere - both at good PL clubs and clubs our level. Likewise, there are plenty of talented players abroad that would love to join QPR development squad.

I agree that the top notch facilities we now have makes us a more attractive proposition. The more players we manage to bring through, i.e. Eze, Chair, Armstrong, Kolli, the more attractive we become, as potential new signings see us as a better step stone than many other clubs.

I hope the more analytical approach to player recruitment that Nourry represents can also help us with recruitment to the development squad, not just the first team. Our long term success is fully dependent on finding, developing and selling players successfully, and we will not be back as one of Britain better clubs before we manage this successfully. Hence, the recruitment to the development squad is much more important than we think. The development squad has produced so few first team players the last few years that we tend to overlook it, but it is a very important part of the jigsaw of our long term development.