Aswad replacement

I can remember a young scrawny kid called John McDermot get his first game away at Bradford playing on the wing. It took a while for him to convert to a defensive role and he didn't do too bad, but still kept his attacking skills. Similarities with Caine? Yes.

Quoted from oldun

I can remember a young scrawny kid called John McDermot get his first game away at Bradford playing on the wing. It took a while for him to convert to a defensive role and he didn't do too bad, but still kept his attacking skills. Similarities with Caine? Yes.

Nail, head......

But for every John McDermott, there are a dozen other youngsters who aren't going to make the grade.

There seems to be a great deal of certainty amongst some on this board that Hurst won't ever pick the right players, Hurst won't ever give young players a chance, Hurst won't ever play a game without LJL, Hurst won't ever select the right formation or tactics etc etc.

As examples that giving young player a run out is the clearly only way forward, we're given a player signed for £16 million by Arsenal, Ryan Bennett signed for a few million by Norwich and John McDermott, arguably one of the best English full-backs of his generation. It's funny how the Tom Corners and Darren Mansarams of the world aren't used as examples, isn't it?

Much as I hope Winfarrah does well, you can't seriously compare him to some of the best young players in the country! Hurst was an extremely experienced defender so I'm willing to trust his judgement as to whether or not Winfarrah is ready just yet. Personally, I would probably have played him as wing-back against Dover, but then I've not seen him in training so don't know whether or not he was ready for the task. For all the credit of his performance against Nuneaton, they didn't really attempt to attack. I'm not sure how well Winfarrah would have coped with Dover's strong and pacy No. 7 who caused even our senior defenders some problems at times.

If Paul Hurst signs a loan player, does this player come with a guarantee to play better than what we already have?

No guarantees in football that I've ever heard of. However, Hurst has always done pretty well with his defensive loan market signings, so I'd expect anybody incoming to cover for Thomas to be capable enough.

The struggle is in finding good attackers to bring in on loan. Most managers like to keep a wide array of attacking options available to them, so it must be more difficult to sign good attackers on loan than defenders. Good youngsters from higher division clubs (Championship or thereabouts), would seem to be a reasonable option - if you can persuade them to come out on loan! Another Martin Paterson style loanee would be very nice indeed, but they are very hard to come by.

Was disappointed to see PH looking for a loan signing. He said the squad's defence was settled - then one injury and
he's trying to recruit! Something doesn't add up there...

He's given contracts to Winfarrah & 2 other youngsters. This is the time to find out if he was right to do so IMO.
Against that, you could say CW is a left-winger and it's unfair to play a youngster in an important game out of
his natural position. Equally, though CW looked decent against Nuneaton, he didn't have too much defending to do.

But what happens when we get in a loan player? The new guy doesn't know the set-up or the other players, and
we have a big bruising left-back of the type that Rodman (on form) used to run past routinely. How does that help?
Let's not forget, too, that there often wasn't any end-product to a Rodman mazy run.

I actually think CW is the right type to play against Rodman - and we'll know better about the young lad's capabilities
if we do. How much are we risking?...well let's not forget Aswad scored the winner for Huddersfield last season!

I really don't see the point in having a youth system if you're not going to play the lads that you eventually bring through.

You'll never know if a youngster will 'make the grade' if you only give him 10 minutes here and there.

I don't understand why we're prepared to give a youngster from another club (ie Townsend) lots of game time yet we don't give our own youngsters the same opportunity - we may as well scrap the youth team entirely and simpy loan any youngsters from Hull etc without the expense.

Arguably the greatest GTFC side since the war was built on a foundation of local lads from the youth team.

Genuine Town legends came up through the youth system because we gave them a chance.

Drinky played from 17
Lundy played from 19
Dave Moore played from 19
Kevin Moore played from 18
Wilky played from 19
Lever played from 18
Macca played from 18

We're playing in the fifth tier for crying out loud!  I could understand the reticence to throw someone into the side in a championship game but we're non-league, if we can't produce youngsters who can hack it at this level we may as well not bother!

The only way this club can go forward (without having to rely on JF funding) is for the club to concentrate more resource on the youth team and give these lads a chance.

The fundamental fact is that most of the good young local lads these days are hoovered up by the Academies of bigger clubs or even just those in the League. Wasn't there an article about Grimsby youngster in the press recently who has joined Scunny or perhaps even moved from their academy to a bigger club? It doesn't necessarily follow that we're going to get the same class of young player in the future as we did in the past.

Many of the players you name came through when we were a 2nd Division club and these days, the difference in money available between the divisions is very large. Not to forget that it is almost unprecedented the way that so many talented local lads came through at a similar time (don't forget Tony Ford!).

We're a 5th tier club and the way in why the system works now, we've got 5th tier youngsters. Any better young players are more likely to move on League Academies either straight away or by being 'poached' in the way that Barlow was the other year. Who was the last home developed youngster who played for us before moving on to play at a higher level? I can't think of any in the past 4 or 5 years. Bear in mind that Bennett arrived after being released by Ipswich and was in the team quickly.

I suppose you could say I'Anson who is on the books of a top level Spanish club, but he's mostly played against amateur clubs for Elche's reserves so far so I'm not sure he counts.

Hopefully one or two of our current batch of youngsters will be good enough to force their way into the team, but recent history doesn't indicate that this is particularly likely.

I have faith in and hopes for all 3 of our first year pro's but their development is not an exact science and nothing is guaranteed. We must expect the management and coaching staff know them better than us and it is their judgement about when and where they play. I think they do believe in them, after all they game them pro contracts. Circumstances will dictate when they get their chance. Some young players develop well others stall and do not really improve. For every Kevin Drinkell or Tony Ford there will be half a dozen Mansarams and Bores. That's just the way it is. Having said that, I did think Caine could have been useful for us against Dover.

Agree he should have been given the chance to show what he can do against Dover, the more his chances are limited the more pressure there is on him when he does play not to make any mistakes. Young players like Caine should be given a decent run in the team & what better time than now when we have an injury to our first choice LB.