West Ham chairman David Gold has spoken of the "changing landscape" in football that means it is now difficult for young players to break into Premier League first teams, reports the London Evening Standard.
"Today, if we're having a cup final, there probably would be 30 internationals on the pitch, so there is a big difference and a changing landscape that's changed the whole dynamics." Gold told TalkSPORT
"There is nothing more pleasurable, for a fan, owner or manager, to have a young academy player breaking through. However, I think we've got to be realistic and say that is now virtually impossible.
"I think we had one or two that broke in this season. I think we had Rashford and that was really a freak situation. That wouldn't have happened under normal circumstances and I think there was an injury during the warm-up and he got his chance.
"It's just not going to happen on a regular basis. It's different now. We have to face the fact that 17, 18 and 19-year-old young men are not going to get into the Premier League first-team. That would be very, very rare."
He confirmed that the funding for West Ham's academy would not be stopped, but conceded that there were concerns as to its productivity.
"From a financial point of view we'd like them to come through earlier, but we've got to face up to the fact, the academy is in place and that's not going to change, what will change is that instead of teenagers breaking into the first team, they are going to have to go out on loan.
"That's what is happening and there is a big drive for players to go out on loan and they may do that for three of four years."
Source: tribalfootball.com