Former MLS midfielder and U.S. youth international Andrew Carleton shared his perspective on the debate surrounding youth development in the United States on Twitter.
“THE YOUTH SYSTEM IS NOT THE PROBLEM. Anyone telling you that either doesn’t know what they’re talking about or they’re protecting MLS.
The USMNT will never become an elite national team as long as MLS continues spending millions on young foreign players instead of giving meaningful minutes to young Americans.
Every MLS club has talented academy players who sign Homegrown deals. Fans get excited, then those players spend the next 3–4 years sitting on the bench or in MLS NEXT Pro. By the time they’re 21 or 22, the window to become truly world-class is gone.
There’s a reason the only young Americans who consistently break through in MLS are outside backs and, occasionally, center backs. Those are the positions clubs typically don’t spend big money on. Meanwhile, they invest millions in midfielders and forwards, making it nearly impossible for a 17-, 18-, or 19-year-old American to play over a 20-year-old South American the club paid a $10 million transfer fee and a multi-million-dollar salary to.
Until that changes, you can overhaul the youth system all you want—it won’t matter. If young Americans aren’t actually playing meaningful first-team minutes during their most important development years, the pipeline will never consistently produce world-class players.”
@EddieZamites@ATLWill_ if you aren’t from atlanta you can’t comment on this lol.
As others said:
People are late
There is much to do inside the stadium more than just watch the game
Concessions are dirt cheap so everyone is in line
but yeah keep pushing the false narrative lol
@wokeupikethis@_BobbyJohnson you realize AI is the voice filter
someone records the reference and puts it through the AI filter to sound like Carti. so there would still be breaths taken…
@KeenWeezy basically the same play but the bills ran it out of shotgun and had shakir in motion. even down to the mesh concept underneath. allen didn’t even look that way and rolled into pressure