Pooch, I WANT as many of these youngsters to come through as possible BUT I know if they do not make the first team at the right time it isn't going to happen at all. It mostly doesn't happen at Chelsea and Man City with all their resources.
We had a junior team that struggled to win whenever Ricky German didn't play. Now we think Wakefield and Rowley from that team are way in front of him. That doesn't seem logical to me. They may beat him in all sorts of ways technically, and perhaps they always have, but it doesn't mean they'll necessarily win us competitive matches. His big advantage is that, although his game is not complete, he has the physique to handle the challenge IF the manager does not choose to destroy the natural enthusiasm of youth.
Rowley and Wakefield may or may not grow much more, but games will teach them how to cope with their physique AND they will get stronger. I'd want all three in my eighteen on match days. That is, they are, the only way for our club to move forward. And by contrast, hooking your young centre back after twenty-odd minutes may be a very brian-clough thing to do (but he could be a prick and a bully too) certainly isn't Dancing's Road to Paradise, take it away David Byrne. I've been in schools, colleges and workplaces all my life, witnessed loads of attempts at humiliation and I have never seen it have a good effect.
Lots of complete bastards learn to manage football teams successfully. I hope ours does too, but it won't stop GC, like Sheridan before him, being an objectionable man. How he interviews on Radio Di Da is of relatively minor importance. How he behaves matters.
Last season, when Forest Green were loaning him out, I told you we should make a play for Kieffer Moore. Now he's on loan at Rotherham and it doesn't sound like we could handle him at all. I said we should look at Gozie Ugwu when he was at non-league Woking, we have and he seems pretty popular. All I can tell you is I'm more certain than I was with either of them that Ricky German can be a centre forward, not only for us, but at a much higher level. Being a big lad he is already at the point in his career at which we have the choice to kill that spark, or feed the flame. Ernie Moss made it because we played him when he'd scored and shone for the Juniors and the Reserves. Kevin Davies did the same. Ricky German led the Juniors, scored with the Reserves, WE HAVE only one more level.
Put wet rags on a flame and all you get is smoke.
We had a junior team that struggled to win whenever Ricky German didn't play. Now we think Wakefield and Rowley from that team are way in front of him. That doesn't seem logical to me. They may beat him in all sorts of ways technically, and perhaps they always have, but it doesn't mean they'll necessarily win us competitive matches. His big advantage is that, although his game is not complete, he has the physique to handle the challenge IF the manager does not choose to destroy the natural enthusiasm of youth.
Rowley and Wakefield may or may not grow much more, but games will teach them how to cope with their physique AND they will get stronger. I'd want all three in my eighteen on match days. That is, they are, the only way for our club to move forward. And by contrast, hooking your young centre back after twenty-odd minutes may be a very brian-clough thing to do (but he could be a prick and a bully too) certainly isn't Dancing's Road to Paradise, take it away David Byrne. I've been in schools, colleges and workplaces all my life, witnessed loads of attempts at humiliation and I have never seen it have a good effect.
Lots of complete bastards learn to manage football teams successfully. I hope ours does too, but it won't stop GC, like Sheridan before him, being an objectionable man. How he interviews on Radio Di Da is of relatively minor importance. How he behaves matters.
Last season, when Forest Green were loaning him out, I told you we should make a play for Kieffer Moore. Now he's on loan at Rotherham and it doesn't sound like we could handle him at all. I said we should look at Gozie Ugwu when he was at non-league Woking, we have and he seems pretty popular. All I can tell you is I'm more certain than I was with either of them that Ricky German can be a centre forward, not only for us, but at a much higher level. Being a big lad he is already at the point in his career at which we have the choice to kill that spark, or feed the flame. Ernie Moss made it because we played him when he'd scored and shone for the Juniors and the Reserves. Kevin Davies did the same. Ricky German led the Juniors, scored with the Reserves, WE HAVE only one more level.
Put wet rags on a flame and all you get is smoke.