I think today answered a question I asked a couple of weeks ago, is it the Head Coach or the players It is without a doubt the players If we get a decent offer for Sarr.........gone If we can get anything for Deeney and Gray.......gone Ngakia doesn't look good enough for this league let alone the Prem.....gone Pedro and Pericia have looked better than Deeney and Gray Success just let him go for for anything we can get I never thought I would be this fed up with our team as I am now It is time the Pozzos let a Manager/Head Coach build a team that can play the football he wants them to play rather than a Manager/Head Coach trying to make a silk purse from a sows ear
You say that Duggie and I agree mostly with you but right now Pedro & Perica appear injured or isolating, Success still coming back from injury, was it 3 u23's on the bench? Our squad is currently stretched and we are not going to do much more in this transfer window. I may be wrong but I doubt it.
Yes they are and we keep hoping Success comes good ! Agree we might just have to look for a loan or two up front .
Ten years ago our under 23,s would have been getting some game time to see if they can deal with the pressure and if they are good enough to challenge for first team inclusion The last batch are mostly playing football albeit at a lower level This is just not happening any more and we have a couple of fringe players from other academies but none from our own Unless we give them the opportunities we will never know I guess I am just fed up with the way things are going Not at the owners tho, without them we would be playing Stevenage or in the National League under a new name Recent recruitment has not been good and we have wasted million on players who have not measured up If the Cisco Kid can get us working as a proper team like Swansea, Norwich etc then it will all change but we are a laughing stock for good reason
Another point to add about the U23s druggie is the number of games they actually play. The first team are virtually halfway through the season having played 22 matches - the U23s have played 11. Granted a couple of U23s have also made brief first team appearances, but that's the exception rather than the rule. I find it ironic that they play in the grandly titled Professional Development League when the lack of game time does anything but develop them professionally. If we can't go back to the days of the Football Combination, when reserve teams played as many games as the first teams, and players were ready to step up when required, then I think we'd be better off having them join the Herts County League.
There used to be a clear pathway for a young footballer with not only the Football Combination, but also the South East Counties League. The current set up is chaotic with the so called development league being used to nurse injured players back to fitness whatever their age, and games with a number of trialists. The Football Combination was definitely a reserve side, with players kept fit and ready to jump into the first team if required. It was a proper competitive league and helped bring through young players. To get called up from the juniors to the reserves was what the youngsters could see as a stepping stone.
I think we were once Football Combination champions - a bit before my time though. I watched quite a few matches in which Johnny Fairbrother scored goals for fun - never could understand why he rarely got a run in the first team. We could have done with him in the mid 60s when he was a scoring machine for Peterborough & Northampton. A favourite Combination memory of mine is from around 1968 - sitting in the old Main Stand for a midweek game, watching us demolish Luton 10-0.
I think we won the Football Combination more than once and we won the FA Youth Cup when we put in John Barnes as a ringer, he was the only one to make it to first team football
I think you'll get an argument from Nigel Gibbs, Jimmy Gilligan, Paul Franklin, Neil Price, Ian Richardson, David Johnson and Worrall Sterling about that. probably from Gary Porter as well - he was unused sub in both legs of the final. Had a quick search through Football Combination champions - can only find that we won the Div2 title in 1959/60.[/QUOTE]
We won the Youth cup twice didn’t we? 82/89.. I remember we won the FA Premier Reserves league under Nigel Gibbs in 2003.
[/QUOTE] I thought they were in different Youth Cup Squads Nigel Gibbs was already on the fringes of the Ist team I think It was a long time ago
I thought they were in different Youth Cup Squads Nigel Gibbs was already on the fringes of the Ist team I think It was a long time ago[/QUOTE] It would seem that in this instance you were correct Bolton Boots And we did win in 1989 against Man City They got their revenge 30 years later at Wembley
It would seem that in this instance you were correct Bolton Boots And we did win in 1989 against Man City They got their revenge 30 years later at Wembley[/QUOTE] Watford won the F.A. Youth Cup in 1982 and 1989, but they also lost to Newcastle in the 1985 final. Players such as the Holdsworth twins and Malcolm Allen from the 1985 youth team or David James, Jason Drysdale and Barry Ashby from the 1989 youth team later played for Watford's first team. Bolton's Boots has already mentioned many players from the 1982 youth team who graduated to the first team.
Watford won the F.A. Youth Cup in 1982 and 1989, but they also lost to Newcastle in the 1985 final. Players such as the Holdsworth twins and Malcolm Allen from the 1985 youth team or David James, Jason Drysdale and Barry Ashby from the 1989 youth team later played for Watford's first team. Bolton's Boots has already mentioned many players from the 1982 youth team who graduated to the first team.[/QUOTE] My original point was that this is no longer happening We are not promoting players from our youth squads but picking up fringe players from other youth squads which to me is very disappointing
