23-01-2018, 13:24
Players in non-league ARE there for a reason, because professional development programmes are so wasteful. Most of them are the cast-offs of League clubs at ages 15-18. But League clubs get it wrong almost as often as they get it right. Equally 31-year-old Championship players are touted around League 2 for the best wage possible by their agents FOR A REASON. My simple logic is that the 21-year-old ripping it up in non-league is a better bet than the has-been whose desire is dubious at best.
Pooch, it is kinda nice of you to say the club should employ someone like me, but if the club were clever and original it could scout around the nation for free. People spend half their lives uploading boring films of themselves from their smartphone to Facebook or Instagram or wherever. Why not turn fans into scouts everywhere? Why not set up a FAN SCOUT website? Why not reward recommendations as you say if they come to something?
Of course we can still recruit players from higher divisions or our own level ......... but youngsters who have fallen through the very leaky net or non-leaguers who everyone in their home area think should be full-time pro's are a cheap and productive source of talent. And other teams use it better than us. Why should Peterborough always be first in the queue for every non'league talent? They are prepared for the gamble to fail ..... and sometimes it does. But sometimes you can get a Sam Clucas, as Mansfield did from Hereford. The trick is don't sell him to a Chesterfield for next-to-nothing.
In playing terms young non-leaguers have a big advantage. From 17 or 18 they are playing against men and they have to learn fast. By 21 they've had three seasons of proper competitive matches that a 21-year-old at a league club generally lacks. Big clubs are trying to create players to play at their level. IMO that we generally need players with the grit to play at ours.
If Dayle Grubb at the age of 26 can step up to the league and plonk two in on his home debut for FGR why not Jacob Hazel? I first mentioned him as a bit of a wind-up, but he's kept the goals flowing freely. It is every week. Matt Briggs made the England squad, was almost certainly our most talented player, but he's come off the rails, wouldn't a Jacob Hazel from the opposite end of the spectrum be a wiser gamble? Ask Joey Barton, he knows all about gambling.
Pooch, it is kinda nice of you to say the club should employ someone like me, but if the club were clever and original it could scout around the nation for free. People spend half their lives uploading boring films of themselves from their smartphone to Facebook or Instagram or wherever. Why not turn fans into scouts everywhere? Why not set up a FAN SCOUT website? Why not reward recommendations as you say if they come to something?
Of course we can still recruit players from higher divisions or our own level ......... but youngsters who have fallen through the very leaky net or non-leaguers who everyone in their home area think should be full-time pro's are a cheap and productive source of talent. And other teams use it better than us. Why should Peterborough always be first in the queue for every non'league talent? They are prepared for the gamble to fail ..... and sometimes it does. But sometimes you can get a Sam Clucas, as Mansfield did from Hereford. The trick is don't sell him to a Chesterfield for next-to-nothing.
In playing terms young non-leaguers have a big advantage. From 17 or 18 they are playing against men and they have to learn fast. By 21 they've had three seasons of proper competitive matches that a 21-year-old at a league club generally lacks. Big clubs are trying to create players to play at their level. IMO that we generally need players with the grit to play at ours.
If Dayle Grubb at the age of 26 can step up to the league and plonk two in on his home debut for FGR why not Jacob Hazel? I first mentioned him as a bit of a wind-up, but he's kept the goals flowing freely. It is every week. Matt Briggs made the England squad, was almost certainly our most talented player, but he's come off the rails, wouldn't a Jacob Hazel from the opposite end of the spectrum be a wiser gamble? Ask Joey Barton, he knows all about gambling.