Good points, mate. Especially about Caulker - he always seemed slow to me, but I guess I'm misremembering.
I'm not implying that McDermott didn't do a good job - a lot of players broke through for us under him, and he's a great pickup for the FA. But this is, as you point out, a chance to reposition ourselves and take the academy in a new direction - especially if Luis Campos, or another DoF, wants to come in and revamp the whole setup from top to bottom.
The academy has done a good job for us, not a brilliant one. It obviously pays for itself with the sales we have made and the occasional Kane, Winks, Tanganga in the 1st team.
I'd really like to see us revisit our vision, it may be co-incidence but Carroll, Mason, Winks are very similar style players (and I'm sure people could point out a few others) and I'm not sure they are best set for current PL game