Hopefully all these trialists (today and in past weeks) are a sign that Rosenior and Acun are working hard to take an already fairly good academy pool of talent to the next level.
Don’t know why he hasn’t been named on the bench in our last few games. Can’t be any worse than Ebiowei.
He's being released. As are quite a few of the U21s. Some have already bought out their contracts, some are fighting to get another year. One has already agreed to join another club.
Absolutely bonkers. Vaughan has been great but Jarvis is better imo. Also find it bonkers Matty Jacob and Callum Jones have been given new deals at their age
I expect they'll be sent to Shelbourne or whoever we end up buying over there as a gesture of good faith. If they have a good season, we get a fee for them because they're under contract.
Jarvis is? What a piss poor way to treat him. Been kicking his heels since November hasn’t he after been recalled from Scarborough. Really poor
Oh believe me, Chazz, there is a hell of a lot of disgruntlement in the Academy at the moment among the first and second year pros. I don't know how much interest there is and I've chatted with HT2 about it, but I'd be happy to share if people want?
For sure, I’m pals with a few of them and the way some of the long serving few have been cast aside, training alone etc, is nothing short of a shambles
Just seems quite amateurish/brutal how some of them have been told they’re being moved on and cast aside. Some of them have been at the club since they were 9 years old and as much as it’s probably a correct decision on the pitch off the pitch it’s a shambles.
Are they not given a lot of training, education, support through the year on off the field stuff? Is it really that bad or more a case of sour grapes or understandable disappointment & hurt?
So, yeah, this is the weird thing. From a fan's perspective, what you're going to see in the coming months is nearly all of the U21s being made up of talented, "home grown" youngsters (i.e. academy graduates that have been with us a while, thought not necessarily Hull lads.). So the likes of Sani, Ashbee, Iggulden, Coyle, Opoku, Onoh, Fanning, Nkomba, Kelly and Chibanga will probably be given a pro deal given how well they've done in the U18s, but the problem lies in the management, not the playing staff. Onur Zayim, who previously worked at the Turkish FA and managed the Turkiye U17s at their World Cup, as well as the U21s. He's done very well and one of the reasons why so many youngsters are popping up ahead of their age groups. The manager of our reserves, Connor Sellars, isn't popular. In fact, that's an understatement. When Daws was promoted to the first team, it obviously left a gap. Connor Sellars was brought in to plug that gap, and it's safe to say it hasn't gone well. There was a genuine excitement about his appointment as he had done a good job managing Bradford and had a 43% win ratio in his joint role (harsh sacking). I haven't met him, but a few of the lads have told me he is much like Jimmy Bullard in his attitude, one of the lads, banter, apparently favours players who he likes over how good they actually are. Because of this, some of the current professionals in that team have become disenfranchised with the game, or have fallen out of love with it. I can't comment on his ability to manage on the pitch because the results seem up and down, but he's hardly set the world alight like Beale did (who was very unfairly driven out and subsequent information I've learned has left me deeply worried about certain individuals under the previous regime), or Pennock before him. The lads there grew up watching Dawson and they idolised him, he commanded total respect and, on top of that, was tactically astute and fully aware of what it's like to face the pressures of being a young lad in football. When he left, they wanted somebody who would carry on that ethos and boy were they disappointed. Sellars had a rather pointless playing career in the Portuguese lower leagues and then in the Icelandic second tier before spells at a couple of local Yorkshire clubs and retired early on to focus on coaching. At 31, the lads don't see him as somebody with that much experience, so his ability to relate to their problems aren't there. The feeling is that for a while now, professional contracts have been given to trialists arriving from released clubs (Nixon, Simms, Leckie, Chorlton, Jones etc) which has blocked the pathway for a number of graduates who had worked hard to get a pro contract, but seen their pathway to the first team massively narrowed. So you see somebody like Harry Vaughan come in and think "wow, we've uncovered a gem", which is great from a fans point of view, but the reserves are trying to make a go of it as professionals and while they won't begrudge anybody a chance, they feel like not enough is being done to push them on. On the other side of it, the youngsters coming up, while talented, are also being favoured because of their names. There's a Coyle, an Ashbee, a Wilson (not sure if it's true but apparently George Wilson is the son of our former keeper Steve Wilson), hence why so many of them have been popping up in the reserves as of late. Those three players are talented, don't get me wrong, but if they're being blooded at a higher level because of who their families are, something isn't right. The loan system that we have, where you see youngsters going out on loan to these Level 10/11 clubs are seen as annoying and pointless. One lad I spoke to questioned why he was sent to a club over 100 miles away to train twice a week with a part time club with piss poor facilities, to not even be guaranteed a place in the squad (note squad, not first team line up). That's on our end, because at that level, we are in a position to say "look, play these lads or you're not getting them". This has hastened the search for a feeder club and played a part in Acun's decision to go for Shelbourne/Dundalk, where these lads can play proper men's football and train in actual, professional environments. Sellars apparently rebuffed complaints from some lads who felt that they were good enough to play at a higher level. Then came the East Riding Senior Cup debacle. City Reserves got to the semi finals and played Hedon Rangers. The game ended 2-2 and Hedon won on penalties. Throughout the game, Hedon berated the Hull City lads (as any Saturday league team does) saying things like "how have you let him score, he was out on the piss till 6am!" and generally laughed at them. Hedon obviously play in the Humber Premier League. I've played in that league before for South Cave and it is not, I repeat NOT a high standard of football. I don't think we played a team that season that didn't have at least two, overweight over 50s sweating it out. For a team of young professionals to be drawing with them and then losing that game on penalties is shockingly bad. Sellars was apparently furious and proper berated the lads for it. But he picked the team, he was in charge of the tactics and he should have known what he was up against. As it turned out, he didn't have a clue and at no point did he apologise for the lack of preparation or professionalism that representing Hull City demands. There was no scouting of the opposition, no knowledge of players, the team turned up assuming they would win. Even the players were asking who to mark and who to focus on an HOUR before kick off and were told "it didn't matter, they're ****." [not sure if that's a direct quote from Sellars or another staff member] So it sounds to me like the lads are trying but the management isn't doing it for them. Billy Chadwick has all but gone, Josh Hinds is going back down South and the rest are either trying to negotiate another year or are just leaving for pastures anew. Most have already had offers, I know of two that will have it sorted by next week and another who has had an offer from the USA. Jarvis, Lovick and Wood are basically done, while McAuley Snelgrove has had offers from the Conference North, SPL and one local team with big ambitions. Sincere Hall has been offered something but also has offers from the USA and Ireland. It is ****ty being released and some of that might read like sour grapes, but having spoke to a few of these, it doesn't sound like that to me. Anybody with any other knowledge, please feel free to verify any of this.
Sounds about right to me ST. Sounded to me like he struggled to make an impression from early doors. It’s a real shame too as the likes of Snelgrove and Jarvis were looking to breakthrough just a year ago.
Being sent to Northern Ireland and then Spennymoor didn't go down well with Snelgrove. He had to have emergency surgery, hence why he came back, but then he didn't return to Crusaders afterwards, even though his recovery period should have seen him back in February. He's apparently told CS that he is a number 10, despite always being played as a winger and was ignored. He's had an offer from a club that have said they'll play him as a number 10, I think he'll take it. But he is just one of a few that have had their love of the game crushed out of them and he's also looking at trades outside of football to fall back on.
Is Sellars the beirdo with medium-length slicked-back hair? I think I’ve seen him during warm-ups on match-days at the MKM. Unless that’s a different fella who does the pre-match warm-ups with the first team.
