Some of the names listed above also failed on loan at other clubs.
I’d argue that what has changed since the days of Cork, Landsbury and Beckford is the way loans are used.
We’ve gone from having maybe just 2 or 3 loanees over the course of a season to perhaps ten or a dozen!
This means that both the loans and our own youngsters don’t get the game time they need to develop.
And it can be a no win situation too. We sign a loan and don’t play him – why do we need him? Put him straight in the team – it’s denying one of our own players a place in the starting lineup.
Put a limit on the number of loans available over the course of a season – handicapping clubs with small squads?
