Yes but I meant long term. They can't realistically have both Almond and Younger, at their ages, on the same pathway into the first team whilst also being competitive and rightly bringing in people like Batth. At some point you have to reluctantly be willing to let players go to enable you to put your weight behind the development of others.
Dan Neil deserved a chance last season aswell. He's now one of our best players less than a year later. Imagine the difference he could have made for us then aswell.
To be fair Younger is 22 and has played very little first team football, I cant really see him making it at this level. Then again I may have said the same about Jonny Egan
Its good to see the club letting these lads go to try and make a career for themselves - He's at an age now where he needs to play. Good luck to the lad and hope he has a decent career.
this 100%, the lad has never let himself or the club down and always looked like he could fit into the first team, good luck to him.
4m ago13:35 Quartet in for Defoe Sunderland, Ipswich, Charlton and Oxford are all interested in signing striker Jermain Defoe until the end of the season. Defoe also has coaching offers and has yet to decide if he will continue playing. He has previously said he wants to finish his career playing in front of fans. The 39 year-old is a free agent after leaving Rangers earlier this month. Transfer Centre latest: Dusan Vlahovic, Anthony Martial, Diego Carlos on the move? | Transfer Centre News | Sky Sports
I'd be very disappointed if he went to any other leauge one club. People mite think offers from down south would make it a no brainer. We'll see.
If that's the competition it will surely be a slap in the face for us if he chose one of the others and therefore he might feel compelled to join us. If and it's a big if we can afford his wages surely all we need to do then is offer him a coaching role moving forward?
The only way I see us losing out to any of those clubs, is if it’s Charlton and he wants to be back in London.
To me it sounded like he was edging towards it not being a good idea and if that's true he clearly values his ego over a push for promotion. It's a no brainer.
Might depend on where Defoe wants to live. And if Johnson is being coy on the matter, it might be in the way of saying that was the reason for going somewhere in the South.
Speakman etc are also quite particular (rightly) about the coaches and setup behind the scene etc. If JD is asking for coaching opportunities then that's a tougher question to answer that simply playing. Personally I'd be all for it but I'm not Speakman.
Agree that we have the structure in place now and probably didn't anticipate this scenario but we would be fools to turn down the opportunity to allow JD to pass on his knowledge and expertise. We saw what he did with Maja in the year or so before he left, he could potentially work wonders with the academy kids Even the likes of Stewart and Broadhead would benefit from his knowledge
