What ages were Senior, Peacock, Ellis, Webb and Lauititi when they made their Leeds debuts? Our homegrown "golden generation" is only a fraction of the story.

What does buying proven quality have to do with it? Those players were not developed by Leeds.

Don't dissagree with that at all. The issue though is had others been given an opportunity who knows what they might have brought to the table.

And on that basis, the new structure of the academy, for me will push clubs to give players a shot (not necessarily a continuous run) earlier than they are currently. Which was a formula Leeds did so successfully previously.

For me personally, I would have added an extra stipulation to the new academy structure and included rules for the first team squads, where by you had to inlcude at least 2 of your under 19's squad in your 20 man squad each week, and one of those two should be in the final 17.

Maybe we'll never know how many might have gone on to greater success with the club if they had been given the opportunity to play alongside this once great team that is in steady decline.

As many others have stated the rotation in the forwards should have been done so much better this season at least, instead of flogging the generally crumbling old guard to excess. The likes of Roche, Stewart, Hood, Smith and Singleton (and Chisholm plus Olds outside of the forwards) might now be already proving their worth at first team SL level........Instead we continue to see the same old faces, that are sometimes not interested enough to raise their game in the season's 'lesser' fixtures (all apart from the play offs ??) commensurate with an alternative acadamey youth that would have been out to make their mark.

Competition is good for all.

Even forgetting the prefix 'acadamey', youth - in the shape of Ambler and Amor - I would suggest alone would have been better investing in rather than the older, but no better, Moore and Griffin respectively.

Buying proven quality has everything to do with maintaining a successful team. There's this convenient myth that Leeds's success has all been down to this core of Leeds juniors when that's only part of the story, and maybe our decline is more to do with us not recruiting players developed elsewhere than with our own development structure, which has still spun out potentially international standard players in Ward, Hall, Watkins and (partial responsibility) Hardaker in the last few years.

Weller's officially gone. Good news overall I think, the role he has played this season could easily have been filled by a junior needing a break like Gotcha says.

Yep can agree with that....either way (lack of promoting youth or signing quality additions from outside the Leeds set up) there can be little doubt that there will some barren years ahead. IF the SL continues in its present structure of course.
Maybe GH knows or least suspects there will be an implosion of quite a few more clubs yet, whereby talent will become more readily available at discounted rates in the much slimmer near future competition.

Hopefully.....but on present form Leeds will probably offer Kylie another year or sign up another ageing Moore, Griffin or Kirke

Kirkes off to wakey by all accounts

So we won't be signing a FB, which I think is good news. Hopefully a top centre is on the shopping list although there's not many of those available off contract.

When GH mentioned about signings having to be good enough for the 17 I think he was referring to overseas players and not recruitment overall.

If we lose Hauraki (gone already) and Kirke, then we will need to add some depth in the second row. Haven't we just lost a number of kids who are forwards (Roch, Smith, any others?) that would have padded out the squad a bit? I'm also a bit concerned that in Delaney, JJB and Clarkson we actually have 3 identical players who are overall pretty easy to defend against...

There must be some more coming in...

I think Stevie Ward should be moulded into a backrower, he seems more of a back rower than a HB IMO and Achurch maybe Kirke's replacement.

I also think Aaron Brown looks a better prospect than Clarkson at this point.

I know the discussion has moved on but I'd still like to answer this as I (like others) also think it's relevant to the current situation and the worrying slippage in recruitment quality.

SL:
Senior - 23 (1999)
Ellis - 23 (2005)
Peacock - 28 (2006)

I can't think of another quality addition to the Leeds squad from within SL since Peacock's capture seven years ago. He's played a huge role over that time and I would question how many of the recent titles would have been won without him?

we both know the answer to your last point...

Is it unrealistic in the current economic climate to expect signings that involve significant transfer fees, or should we be looking to make signings at this point exactly because of the economic climate and other clubs need for financial security. The best time to buy, in terms of value for money, is usually when others don't have much cash...

In the current economic climate I'd have thought it may be essential to invest in some quality to give the Leeds season ticket holders renewed hope for next season.

This promise of 'jam tomorrow' is going to be looking pretty sick if Leeds start 2013 with the same battered bodies as they ended 2012.