Courtesy of 'Monk' on SaintsWeb - the chap who is pretty well-linked when it comes to Saints and other pro clubs, through his coaching: "Had a very interesting chat with an un-named member of Saints staff (no not who you're thinking). Below is a list of players, Saints either moved for or was knocked back by the player or club or we pulled out. These names refer to Champ & LG1, some we already knew, some we didnt. Rhys Williams Dale Stephens Scott Arfield Gary Hooper Dedryck Boyata Albert Adomah Stephen Gleeson Sam Baldock Sam Sodje Might be of interest to some. Also, we are pushing to sign AOC younger brother Christian from the Skates and also Fulham have some 16 year old in their ranks called Emerson Hyndman who looks bloody good"[/I] DTLW
Hyndman has not only signed a pro deal with Fulham, he has actually signed two...the initial one on his 17th birthday, and one extending through 2016 a couple months later. We'd likely have to put some significant money forward to get him, as he's considered to be one hell of a prospect.
Think we heard about most of those around the time and looking back I'm not really disappointed that we missed out on any of them. Would be interesting to hear who we have attempted to sign/shown genuine interest in signing these last 2 seasons back in the PL.
What ever happened to dale Stephens? We got him on loan in L1, played 1 game, got injured and left. When he was on the pitch he looked good though I remember being disappointed he didn't stay. Not fused now though!
Probably not surplus to requirements if we tried to sign him. IIRC, he initially turned down the loan move but then his agent was like "What are you crazy?!?" I thought he had class that was quite obviously beyond League One. I would have been happy to have him in the Championship and think he could have developed with us and become a decent Premier League midfielder. Maybe he's actually done that with another club, though. At this point we don't really play the same formation. And we have lots of actual Premier League AMC-types who are decent and/or have a tons of potential. We need a European level midfielder.
Dale Stephens plays for Charlton these days, by all accounts their fans really like him but fear he will be poached soon. Was talk of Aston Villa being interested last season.
Certainly had more technical ability, I seem to remember Stephens drifting crosses in from corners as well...?
I remember asking him after Walsall whether he was staying and he replied that he was going to have talks within the next week. I'm guessing they didn't go we'll.
Fulham have an excellent academy under Huw Jennings (Well they pick up good results), yet Jol seems reluctant to play them and their 1st team is pretty ageing. I thought they would promote more youth to the 1st team this season but they just bought in old players again. Ibrahimovic, Drogba and Rosicky are the ones which got away :-(
I suppose it's possible Jol doesn't want to set the club's youngsters back by bringing them into a struggling team. It's actually much easier for a teenage prospect to come into a side that's doing well, for all sorts of reasons.
Seem to remember being after Mackail-Smith when we got promoted to the Championship but I heard he chose Brighton over us.
Being born and bred in Sheffield, can I take this a little off topic and mention that Sheffield United tried to sign a young lad called Diego Maradona (you may have heard of him) in 1978. Ho hum. http://sport.uk.msn.com/football/the-footballers-that-got-away?page=3 Now THAT was a miss. Vin
It's been touched upon on focus with Greg dyke. The short term job prospects of managers leads to short term thinking for the clubs 1st team. It's no shock that United and Arsenal have been more successful at bringing players through the system because the managers have/had job security.
