Originally Posted by
bigmac
Unfortunately, every league in the world bar the Italian, Spanish and English is in the same boat of having to sell their best players. As it stands the players aren't staying until 22/23 because they believe that the only way to get to play in the Premiership is to move to England age 16 or 17. This means that many players go who don't make it but end up at the lower levels of English football. If we can create a situation where it can be seen that the best players in the league are scouted by English clubs, then it might prompt more kids to stay in Ireland to play football when they leave school.
We're always going to lose the best players across the water, the challenge for us is to firstly hold on to those players as long as possible and thus keep the financial rewards within the league here, and secondly to hold on to those players who might not be good enough for top level but are still good players. It's all too easy for a player who doesn't make it at a big club to let his head drop and drift down in to the lower reaches of the league, or perhaps out of football, despite the fact that he might actually be a very good player, in the right environment.
In my opinion, it's a better situation for clubs to sell their best players in their early twenties than to lose them completely when they're 16.