Pearson Praises Academy Work

[davieG]

OS

City manager Nigel Pearson admits he has been impressed by the emergence of players from the Club's Academy this season.

And the Foxes boss reckons opportunities given to the likes of Liam Moore, Jeff Schlupp and Tom Hopper this term should provide encouragement for the Club's next group of aspiring youngsters.

Nineteen-year-old striker Schlupp, who graduated from the Academy alongside Moore last summer, has been regularly involved in the first team squad this season, scoring six times in 24 appearances.

And Moore, also 19, showed his growing maturity when making his first team debut against Crystal Palace at the turn of the year, just days after returning from a loan spell with Bradford City.

Pearson has applauded the emergence of the likes of Jeff Schlupp from the Club's Academy.

At the age of 18 and still in the second year of his apprenticeship, despite signing pro terms in November, Hopper is younger than both of them and yet also came on for his first team debut in the FA Cup win over Swindon Town in January.

It all bodes well for a Foxes Academy which currently boasts an Under-18 side battling at the top of their Premier Academy League group and Pearson sees a bright future for those coming through the ranks.

"They're doing very, very well and I think continuity at the Football Club is always important," he said.

Liam Moore has been on the brink of the first team squad since his return from Bradford City.

"One thing we have going for us here is that players will get opportunities if they're good enough. If you look at some of the real giants in this country, some of the young players are not going to get opportunities.

"We have very dedicated staff at the Football Club, right the way through, and there have been some nice surprises this year.

"We've had players coming through and being involved in the first team squad and I think that gives encouragement to everyone in the academy because it shows if they look after themselves and work very hard, they will get their chance."

[davieG]

OS

"They're doing very, very well and I think continuity at the Football Club is always important," he said.

All the more reason to have continuity in management style going from Pearson > Sousa > SGE > Pearson with each manager adding their own type of player to the squad was a recipe for failure.

[seanswhisper]

I still think Nigel Pearson is a good manager. Next season, he will bring in the right players that we are missing. We're just a few hot players short of becoming the team we should have been this season.

[Matt]

Hope he plays a few of 'the kids' to play out the last few weeks of the season, we should treat the rest of this season as pre-season to look at the academy/reserve players, get abit of competition, they'll have something to prove, e.t.c, we have nothing to lose, we can afford to just see what they've got and how far/or not so far they are away from the first team.

[Dan]

I still find it a bit laughable how some of our fans make out Hopper to be some wonderkid based on 10 minutes against Swindon where he was actually pretty quiet.

But I'm all for him being given a chance, these games are pretty harmless and to be honest I'd actually start Moore over Peltier this weekend. We need to get these game time against Championship opposition and this is a rare chance.

[Webbo]

If he did play the kids and they lost would all the haters forgive him or would they complain about about 5 points from 21?

[Dan]

I just look back in hindsight and say now if Schlupp had played all of Beckford's minutes this season he'd have done far better.

But that's hindsight.

[Al-aLondon-Foxile]

I think if NP held his hands up and admitted defeat this season he could quite easily play some of the young lads, and I'd be happy to see them given an opportunity, regardless of results.

[Matt]

If he did play the kids and they lost would all the haters forgive him or would they complain about about 5 points from 21?

I didn't think about this, the fact although we have nothing left to play for (Apart from to finish as high as possible - which is neither here nor there when ultimitely it position means fuck all outside the playoffs) if we don't pick many points up in the remaining games it's just more ammo for the Pearson out brigade.

I personally am supporting Pearson, if he played the younger players and we lost i'd be disappointed but still support him and between now to the end of the season unless Pearson does something dramatically stupid, wrong and annoying that won't change.

Like I said above though I think the fact he'll be handing ammo to the fans against him should he play inexperienced youth players where anything can happen might be abit too risky and scare him off doing this.

[Cropwellfox]

It would be great to see NP signalling that he'll only use players who he wants around for next season for the last few games - it would give a sense of who needs their agents to be phoning round for them.