There has been a huge debate among Red Arrows fans about the youth team project which the club embarked on back in 2016.
The fans of the Airmen have mixed feelings on the topic with one group thinking it is working while the other group thinks it’s a failed project.
Winger Alick Phiri Jr is the only player in Chisi Mbewe’s current squad to have come through the youth ranks after being promoted as one of the first three to graduate to the senior team together with Jack Mphande and Kombe Sibawa.
William Phiri son of coach Mathews Phiri, the man who led Red Arrows to their only league title in 2004 was promoted later on.
Alick Phiri made his debut in a 1-0 defeat to Kansanshi Dynamos on 8th February. Former Napsa Stars winger Eric Yema scored the only goal of the game in the 87th minute.
A couple of years ago Red Arrows came up with the youth team which has had promising young talent so far but they have not yet made the breakthrough into the senior team.
Arrows have gone on to sign players who have considerably less quality than these young boys who if given a chance and worked on could become very good players even better than some of the current crop of players.
In life everyone needs a chance so if Red Arrows don’t give these young players chance who will?, And how do they are expecting them to blossom into fully-fledged Zambia Super League stars if not given the chance they yearn for.
Some of these boys have ended up being frustrated and turning there back on football and the talent gets worsted just like that.
Red Arrows needs to do a very deep analysis to see how well they can help these boys develop and be given a chance to do what they love most and that’s to play football.
The club may end up even opening a new revenue stream by selling the surplus players to other teams if this project is properly managed.
