[bluepooch]

Dev, as I've said before I have no objections putting the youngsters in ,like the saying goes if you're good enough you're old enough, but you seem to think all it needs is to give them first team experience and they will automatically become good enough.As I see it we have to trust the coaches on this ,they see them every day .
One good thing my lover GC did was to introduce Joe at a very tender age which suggested he was something special and it looks like Gary was right.It was satisfying that he looked every bit as good as the Man C players of similar age last night.
Could Jack have signed a keeper on emergency loan ? If not then he has no choice but to play him and back him .January will tell us how much Jack rates Joe.

[spireitematt]

Will you still be saying that if we make the final at Wembley Matt?

I think its very very unlikely we will make the final at Wembley Dancing.

I preferred the old format of the JPT when it was a knockout competition.

[Devongone]

Jack can't and couldn't do other than keep Anyon - except pick Dylan Parkin. We could only have had a loan if Anyon was injured ......... BUT Glenavon SELECTED a 14 year-old in goal last week and won, Woking chose a 17 year-old and drew and he saved them early on .......... so if Dylan were good enough he'd be old enough. But if he isn't then playing him might ruin him for life. As far as I can see the Bob's fans are right, we have to sign a keeper in January. As I told you in July Joe Anyon's most likely reaction to a two-year contract would be to drop it!

I'd trust the coaches had not our squad been filled with loan players by a desperate manager who realised he'd fkkkd up. I'd trust the coaches if British football had not had such a reputation for destroying and discarding talent.

I think what Joe Rowley's success is saying to us is WAY TO GO! WE want more Joe Rowleys. Unfortunately Jack Lester has had to spend two months developing the first squad, which he's doing brilliantly. At the moment all I'm saying is what's the point of developing Diego if he's going back to Bristol, wouldn't we be better off with Charlie Wakefield on the bench?

What worries me with Joe is how old is he? Is he 18 now? If so we can get him properly contracted until the right offer comes along? A 17 year-old, as Exeter found this season, is vulnerable to a marauding Chelsea or a Manchester City.
(I just looked Joe up, his first pro' contract was signed in April when he was 17. He was 18 in June. Now for a contract to be legally binding the signatory has to be 18 doesn't he? I think I would be looking at giving Joe a much better contract now, with a release clause to enable him to take up any unmissable offer if Real Madrid came in!) And by the way, what you said is exactly what worries me as much as it pleases me- HE LOOKED AS GOOD AS THE YOUNG MAN CITY PLAYERS!

[Devongone]

Just thought I'd add - currently we invest money in developing talent. We're all apparently in favour of that. I just want us to maximise our return on that investment. Okay if Joe Rowley is eventually sold for £1 million +, then just getting one through from our current crop doesn't matter. But what if Joe is one of those blooms that flowers early but by the time he's 24 isn't much improved .......? We'll have trained one first teamer for ourselves and the rest of our youngsters will be forgotten - new Jacob Hazel's topping Frickley's scoring charts?

Long-term we can't continue discarding so much talent after either a few minutes with the first team, or even none. Equally we are a small club so we realistically can't let youngsters reach 22 before they hit our first team. We have to have a policy of getting them in and around the first team when they are showing the promise at 17. It doesn't have to be sink or swim, but it does have to involve them actually getting in the pool.

It is a huge shock at 17 or 18 to come up against a Lenny Carter and a Micky Savile, but you have to be able to cope.

One of my biggest objections to GC was when at the end of March he introduced Joe Rowley to a first team, which was already safely on course for the bottom of the league, that he progressed the careers of Charlie Wakefield and Ricky German backwards, still had Maguire out on loan and had packed his losing team with the development players of other clubs.

(I'm still strongly of the opinion that the sole function of loanees is to win you games you would otherwise lose. If you regularly lose with a team full of loanees you should simply ditch them and give your own youngsters a chance to experience the football they've been training towards - even if they lose too.)