Much has been made since Martin Rennie's dismissal about the need to see more of the Residency talent make the transition not only to the MLS squad, but to actual playing time.
We looked at that very desire for progression on <a href="http://www.canadiansoccernews.com/content.php?5023-Residency-progression-will-be-a-key-focus-for-new-Whitecaps-manager" target="_blank">Monday</a>. Bobby Lenarduzzi waxed lyrical at last week's press conference about the hope and expectation for this to happen and those thoughts were backed up by the likes of Nigel Reo-Coker and Russell Teibert at the last training session of the year.
But how realistic is that plan? And would it have a detrimental effect on the team and the new manager?
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It's a subject that sparks a lot of debate.
Some argue that even at the best academies across the world, developing one first teamer a year is thought to be excellent production. Two or more would be hitting the jackpot.
Are the Whitecaps and the fans being unrealistic in expecting more just because a lot of money has been ploughed into the Residency program and we're seeing promising signs?
Many of those academies are in superior leagues however. Where it's harder for not just young, but also domestic talent to break through into becoming a starter. Where a manager's job often hangs by the narrowest of threads and it's much preferable to go out, splash some cash and buy a proven talent, than have your career at the feet of an unproven young starlet.
Major League Soccer is not like a lot of those other leagues. There is often more patience, although we may be seeing the start of that environment changing.
It is a League where young talent can be brought on in an actual competitive environment and flourish. But like any football league in the world, results are king.
As a veteran of the game, and MLS, Joe Cannon knows it's a tough dilemma, especially for any coach coming in to a new club, as we'll soon see in Vancouver.
In a results driven business, does a coach really put that much emphasis on youth development when he needs to gets points on the board?
<i>"It's a difficult question because as a coach, you know they're kind of looking to get results now and they don't have the opportunity of say like an American university coach who can know that they're not always under the gun, that they have years to develop and bring recruits in"</i>, Cannon told Steve Pandher last week.
<i>"Here, it seems the timeline's really quick, but you're seeing more of an emphasis on it. I think it's just a slow process because in certain markets, and because of how soccer is in North America, it's not a given.
"We're still trying to sell the sport so you're trying to kind of balance selling the sport and entertaining the fans with a product that the city's going to be proud of. Then on the flip side, finding new players that are going to fill in that product, so that balance, every team, does it differently.
"I think honestly, for every franchise I've seen now, because the Residency, the development academies are so new, they're trying to evolve individually."</i>
The salary cap also plays a role, where there needs to be cheap, young talent in a squad to make up the numbers.
With the right development in a full time set up, who knows how many of these up and coming players make the breakthrough into being first team regulars?
That's the gamble that the Whitecaps are looking to take and it's the right one as far as we're concerned. We feel it is realistic but we also know it could easily all go horribly wrong.
Much better to use your time, energy and money developing players fully from an early age through your system than acquiring what is often just a pig in a poke in the drafts. You at least know what you're getting. Their strengths, their weaknesses and their desire to play for the club that has nurtured them.
They won't all work out, and maybe after being in the first team environment for a couple of years it turns out that some just aren't good enough for that level. But others will and some will then get sold on to bigger and better things.
And this is the crux to my argument. If you don't put them in that environment, how can you ever know if they'll succeed or fail and if they don't get the playing time, how will they ever get the proper chance to develop and reach the required level?
I admit that this is where we're wandering a little down the idealistic trail.
As the outsider looking in, that's the right thing to do. It isn't my job on the line after all if it all goes tits up.
In reality, it takes either a brave or a confident manager to take that step. Or one
that has the full backing of the owners to make that move and the guarantee of time to see it through to it's full fruition.
The Whitecaps are indicating that this will be the case here. But will it?
It's not always that what the owners want in some situations, they can get. Sometimes fan and media pressure can pull the plug early on such plans, especially if the former are walking with their feet, and wallets. And how much stock does a manager put into boardroom promises?
Ultimately the prime goal of a football club is to have a winning team on the park and some modicum of success.
And that now brings us to the infamous old saying of <i>"you can't win anything with kids"</i>.
It was coined by ex Liverpool and Scotland defender Alan Hansen on the BBC and aimed at Manchester United in the 1995/96 season where they swept out the old guard and brought in the new. United had the last word in the argument, winning the League and Cup double that season.
Most occasions, that's not going to happen and you're not going to blood the likes of David Beckham, Paul Scholes and Gary Neville at the same time.
But playing younger players doesn't have to and doesn't always equal poor results. To quote one of Reo-Coker's favourite sayings on the matter - if they're good enough, they're old enough.
The flip side is that often it can and teams can get hammered. You only have to look at some messes in MLS to know how easily it can all go wrong and how hard it then is to turn it around.
If the team was failing on the park, how much appetite would there be amongst Vancouver's owners, supporters and media to keep going down a youth route if there were positive signs being shown?
It is all a bit of a vicious circle.
As a coach you need results, and when your predecessor was canned after delivering more points, wins and goals than the season before, you know you're at a club with high expectations.
But those expectations are also to see the much lauded academy bear fruit.
The Whitecaps have the options to go out and buy success or try to develop it from within.
In reality, the correct path will lie somewhere inbetween both of those avenues.
The Caps executives seem to be saying the right things with regards to youth development. It is realistic, but there has to be an acceptance that it could be difficult path. The players may make it on to the MLS squad, but they still might not actually see actual minutes.
It's now up to the new manager, and others within the front office team, to try and make this happen.
Let's just hope that others outside of the club, have the necessary patience to see this plan through.
That could be the hardest and most unrealistic part.
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