2) We have more youth academy products than you, therefore we are better mentors than you
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Youth team footballers have to acquire a certain level of proficiency at various skills specifically useful for the game, in order to be able to make the jump to the professional level and stay there. Most of the biggest clubs in the world have youth systems which take in youngsters at tender, pre-teen ages and train them for several years in order to prepare them for the professional game.
Whether any player is able to market himself well enough by performing in specific trials is then dependent upon the opportunities provided to him. Most youth footballers learn the game for up to 3-4 of their most important years under the same coaches. If the club’s senior team does not require players trained under this coach’s tactics, players often lose out on the opportunity to graduate from the reserve team to the main squad.
But that does not make the youth system of one club inferior to that of another because the main squad is governed by a different setup independent of the youth setup. Often, players have found success in other clubs, although most of them are then doomed to play in the lower leagues. All of these opportunities are governed by luck, so it would be incorrect to link youth team mentorship to the number of graduating players.
