Brown Nose
Well-Known Member
Calvin Bassey's decision to reject a new contract offer from City in search of a better chance of making progress elsewhere is quite telling. Like Alex Pascanu last summer, and reportedly another talented player Dennis Gyamfi also reportedly heading off after again rejecting a new contract, we have a problem. Several young players feel that their chances of making it are better if they leave. I think that they're probably right.
Those that have stayed around are an example that these players may well be trying to avoid. They are largely a stunted and wasted group. Our U23 squad isn't working.
Three examples of many. George Thomas - signed aged 20 from while playing first team football at Coventry. He's now spent three years sliding backwards from being a full Wales international to a nobody. The same summer 2017, we signed another 20 year old, Sam Hughes, who had been playing first team football at Chester for two years. Another career wrecked. In those three years, he's had 8 matches on loan at Salford. A home grown player, Darnell Johnson, will shortly turn 22. He's been capped at England level at U16, U17, U18, U19, U20. His career has completely stopped over the last couple of years. There are a lot of similar stories.
Now we know many young players don't make it. And we are a club where the standards are pretty high to get into our first team. We have three home produced players in the squad - Barnes, Chilwell and Choudhury - and that compares relatively well with our rivals. But that's not my point.
Our first team squad is hopelessly bloated. We are far too eager to hand out long term contracts where they are not deserved. It's easy to pick examples of this but seeing Matty James trotting around in training this week made me reflect that we've been paying him now for 5 years since he made any kind of contribution to the first team. Our U23 development squad have something like 30 players - it's difficult to be exact as reporting isn't great. However many it is exactly, it's way too many. What is clear is that we have over 60 professional players.
There are lots of reasons why having that many professionals is really wrong. Our wage bill is stupidly high. Most of those players don't play football regularly. They're just training and collecting a salary. What does this achieve for them or the club? It is now normal for us to be paying more than 10 players at any one time to play for other sides. What is the mentality of players that aren't getting regular football? What is their motivation? This is the responsibility of John Rudkin who has overseen this ridiculous player collecting.
Calvin Bassey may well have stayed at City if he had a clear pathway to the first team squad. Or even a slight chance of a place of the bench at some point if his performances merited it. He saw that it didn't matter how he played, he'd be rotated in/out of the U23s and nothing more. We need no more than 20 first team players and 15 U23s. That would demand excellence and competition. All players would have to deliver or be released/sold on. Without some discpline from Rudkin and a concerted effort to redress the mess below the first choice team, we'll lose more and more players in this way.
Those that have stayed around are an example that these players may well be trying to avoid. They are largely a stunted and wasted group. Our U23 squad isn't working.
Three examples of many. George Thomas - signed aged 20 from while playing first team football at Coventry. He's now spent three years sliding backwards from being a full Wales international to a nobody. The same summer 2017, we signed another 20 year old, Sam Hughes, who had been playing first team football at Chester for two years. Another career wrecked. In those three years, he's had 8 matches on loan at Salford. A home grown player, Darnell Johnson, will shortly turn 22. He's been capped at England level at U16, U17, U18, U19, U20. His career has completely stopped over the last couple of years. There are a lot of similar stories.
Now we know many young players don't make it. And we are a club where the standards are pretty high to get into our first team. We have three home produced players in the squad - Barnes, Chilwell and Choudhury - and that compares relatively well with our rivals. But that's not my point.
Our first team squad is hopelessly bloated. We are far too eager to hand out long term contracts where they are not deserved. It's easy to pick examples of this but seeing Matty James trotting around in training this week made me reflect that we've been paying him now for 5 years since he made any kind of contribution to the first team. Our U23 development squad have something like 30 players - it's difficult to be exact as reporting isn't great. However many it is exactly, it's way too many. What is clear is that we have over 60 professional players.
There are lots of reasons why having that many professionals is really wrong. Our wage bill is stupidly high. Most of those players don't play football regularly. They're just training and collecting a salary. What does this achieve for them or the club? It is now normal for us to be paying more than 10 players at any one time to play for other sides. What is the mentality of players that aren't getting regular football? What is their motivation? This is the responsibility of John Rudkin who has overseen this ridiculous player collecting.
Calvin Bassey may well have stayed at City if he had a clear pathway to the first team squad. Or even a slight chance of a place of the bench at some point if his performances merited it. He saw that it didn't matter how he played, he'd be rotated in/out of the U23s and nothing more. We need no more than 20 first team players and 15 U23s. That would demand excellence and competition. All players would have to deliver or be released/sold on. Without some discpline from Rudkin and a concerted effort to redress the mess below the first choice team, we'll lose more and more players in this way.
