With the Cherries in the Championship, the standard requied, not unsurprisingly, has been raised that bit higher for the younger players to get anywhere near contention for the first team.
Manager Eddie Howe, speaking in the Bournemouth Evening Echo is quoted as saying: "The challenge is to keep bringing through players but it gets more difficult to produce for your first team because the level is a lot higher. If we were still in League Two, I would imagine a lot more players who have come through the ranks to possibly be in the first team. But as we are at Championship level, it is only really the exceptional talents who are going to get through. We were almost forced to give Sam Vokes his debut here as a 17-year old because we had nobody else and it was a similar story with Danny Ings. We gave him his debut when we were thin on the ground for players. Now we have a bigger squad so it is much more difficult to get that breakthrough and to get a foothold to make a career. But we certainly want to push through young players if they are ready to play in the team".
Source: Cherries MAD
Source: FOOTYMAD
