Crystal Palace youngster hits out at club over handling of development

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Kian Flanagan has expressed his frustration with being stuck with the U23s at Crystal Palace and has publicly hit out at the situation.

The 20-year-old won the U23 Player of the Year award in April, but he still hasn’t managed to make his breakthrough at senior level for the first team under Roy Hodgson.

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In turn, having arguably done all he can at youth level, he will either need to be given a chance at Selhurst Park or be allowed to move elsewhere on loan to gain experience and improve and develop his all-round game.

With that seemingly not happening, he has opted to hit out at the club while also blaming himself and other young players too.

“This is our fourth U23 season. We really shouldn’t be here this season. We should be out on loan, honestly,” Flanagan said, as quoted by HITC.

“Even Shawsy (U23 coach Richard Shaw) said it should just be two seasons. See how you progress from there, then look to get into a first team. When it gets to three or four seasons it just gets repetitive.

“It’s a bit of frustration. Partly it’s our fault, partly the club’s. At the end of the day, we just have to come in and do what we do.”

Time will tell if the situation changes for Flanagan, but ultimately it’s questionable as to whether airing his thoughts publicly will go down well with the club and Hodgson as ultimately it sounds like an in-house discussion that needed to take place between himself, Palace and his agent.

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