I love the idea of bringing in our own youth, but as we are rarely ever going to have enough of them coming through at once, we also have to recruit outside amongst younger players who'll cost next to nothing to create a competitive team.
We released Parkin who is currently still playing for Cleethorpes on loan from somewhere else I think ( and I wish we'd kept him). I don't think Hand is still at Chesterfield, but I don't know where he is. And poor Rawson seems somehow to have taken a step backwards under our development plans, so that last season's frequent scorer has turned into this season's frequently subbed and he had a terrible time at Matlock. We certainly released Willock in the summer (last sighted at Redditch United) when we also released Ricky German. I imagine both had become disillusioned with their lack of opportunities so did not impress MA when he interviewed them and he released them on the same day.
Certainly I'd be slotting Sharman onto the bench rather than Nelson and either Ofoegbu or Wakefield would be there too awaiting their chance to shine.
But we have Hollis who is a loanee at centre back, who could be taken away from us at any time, we're rightly ditching Nelson and we have Maguire injured. Looking beyond this season I'd be wanting to sign another BIG centre back to play alongside Maguire and or Evans so that's why I think I'd give Astles a chance to step up from Southport to us. And I don't think he'd be a block on the future of Render or Sharman, because he is a different kind of player
I'm not saying I want all my list of players to sign, they just have potential and if we could get any one of them I think that would make a difference. Kosylo from Halifax would be great, but that might be flying too high as Championship clubs were eyeing him up last season, but he would provide some ammunition for Amantchi and Shaw. But players like Tshimanga, Kiangebeni and Wheatley are all young players who could be with us through the National League and into the EFL ...........
And we are struggling to stay in this league aren't we?
The real block to our young players coming through is not OUR OWN players, it is that three of the first eleven places always tend to be taken by loanees. And unless the rare event happens as it did with Smith, that we get them to sign permanently, that is very much a short-term approach to the long-term project of getting back to the EFL. All I want is a blend of experienced and developing young and young-ish players into which we can feed those players we produce.
Unfortunately I fear / suspect we will soon learn that Charlie Wakefield and Iffy Ofoegbu are to be released when their contracts are up. I hope I'm wrong, but their development process seems currently to be stalled doesn't it?
The thing is for our win over Salford to mean anything we have to build wisely on it. I'm thrilled for Levi - I wish we had Ricky to go with him - but we have to take care of him. We can't expect him to carry Denton and our entire attack. He's young and very inexperienced, he'll probably make mistakes too and we have to make allowances. That being the case IF Lee Shaw doesn't start scoring as well as working his socks off we almost certainly will need a goalscorer and he has to cost next to nothing. And our rivals at the bottom are all making signings .........
Do you really think we'd stay up only by feeding in our youngsters?
We released Parkin who is currently still playing for Cleethorpes on loan from somewhere else I think ( and I wish we'd kept him). I don't think Hand is still at Chesterfield, but I don't know where he is. And poor Rawson seems somehow to have taken a step backwards under our development plans, so that last season's frequent scorer has turned into this season's frequently subbed and he had a terrible time at Matlock. We certainly released Willock in the summer (last sighted at Redditch United) when we also released Ricky German. I imagine both had become disillusioned with their lack of opportunities so did not impress MA when he interviewed them and he released them on the same day.
Certainly I'd be slotting Sharman onto the bench rather than Nelson and either Ofoegbu or Wakefield would be there too awaiting their chance to shine.
But we have Hollis who is a loanee at centre back, who could be taken away from us at any time, we're rightly ditching Nelson and we have Maguire injured. Looking beyond this season I'd be wanting to sign another BIG centre back to play alongside Maguire and or Evans so that's why I think I'd give Astles a chance to step up from Southport to us. And I don't think he'd be a block on the future of Render or Sharman, because he is a different kind of player
I'm not saying I want all my list of players to sign, they just have potential and if we could get any one of them I think that would make a difference. Kosylo from Halifax would be great, but that might be flying too high as Championship clubs were eyeing him up last season, but he would provide some ammunition for Amantchi and Shaw. But players like Tshimanga, Kiangebeni and Wheatley are all young players who could be with us through the National League and into the EFL ...........
And we are struggling to stay in this league aren't we?
The real block to our young players coming through is not OUR OWN players, it is that three of the first eleven places always tend to be taken by loanees. And unless the rare event happens as it did with Smith, that we get them to sign permanently, that is very much a short-term approach to the long-term project of getting back to the EFL. All I want is a blend of experienced and developing young and young-ish players into which we can feed those players we produce.
Unfortunately I fear / suspect we will soon learn that Charlie Wakefield and Iffy Ofoegbu are to be released when their contracts are up. I hope I'm wrong, but their development process seems currently to be stalled doesn't it?
The thing is for our win over Salford to mean anything we have to build wisely on it. I'm thrilled for Levi - I wish we had Ricky to go with him - but we have to take care of him. We can't expect him to carry Denton and our entire attack. He's young and very inexperienced, he'll probably make mistakes too and we have to make allowances. That being the case IF Lee Shaw doesn't start scoring as well as working his socks off we almost certainly will need a goalscorer and he has to cost next to nothing. And our rivals at the bottom are all making signings .........
Do you really think we'd stay up only by feeding in our youngsters?