Went through on Football league Transfer Deadline day (27/03/2014) http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/football/26778429
At least he is out getting first team football, too bad we couldn't do the same for a few of the others.
Hull allowed 19 yr old Ben Clappison to go out on loan to Histon FC a week or so before Conor. He went straight into their first team squad and has been playing really well since. Having been in the relegation zone on his arrival, they've just climbed out of the bottom three today. Our young talents need to get more experiences like these in order to get that first team experience and come back better players and push on.
Shame he and couple of others could not go to North Ferriby to see them over the line. NFU have a few injuries at the moment.
As I said, their coach doesn't see any of our youngsters that could improve on what he already has. Which probably says more about our youth set up than Billy Heath. I spoke to a Mariners fan the other day who reckons Billy could be lined up as their next manager if they fail to win promotion next year.
Don't normally post, but I find it interesting that people often criticise the youth set up and want kids out on loan to toughen them up etc, when the most successful academy at the moment is Southampton who refuse to send any young players on loan. They believe you send a potential premiership player to a 2nd division club and what you get back is a 2nd division player. Of course they then include their youngsters in the team, something most managers are too scared to do, opting for mediocre foreign players instead. As for Billy Heath why on earth would he go to Grimsby, when they are likely to be part time next year and will have a smaller budget than he has at Ferriby now!
I haven't heard about this? I don't think they can afford to go part time and why would they? Even if they had a smaller budget, it'd still be bigger than most of the teams in that league anyway, especially North Ferriby who operate on one of the smallest budgets in the CNN, never mind the CNP! I wasn't suggesting it as fact, just what I'd heard. Our youngsters aren't included in our team because they aren't good enough yet. Bruce likes to bring youth through, which is why we just bought Ter Horst and Kebbie, but other players like Dougie Wilson and CJM simply aren't at a level where they can contribute to our Premier League games. We loan the players out to see if they can succeed at a lower level before they play for us. Incidentally, Ben Clappison had a very good game for Histon in his first game, he assisted a goal, stuck his head in to a high boot and was unfortunate to have the ball ricochet off him into his own net. They were very impressed by him though. Hope his spell there can do him good, Histon are fighting for their lives down at the bottom of the table.
That's how I see it too. If you have a talented player, surely you want to be coaching & developing them yourself, and keeping them surrounded by top players, not farmed out to a 3rd or 4th division, or even NL, club. Maybe sending them out on a short term loan for a few games is sensible, but a half or full season loan seems daft and self defeating to me. As you say, what you are likely to get back is a 3rd or 4th division player, or at least someone who has become accustomed to the skill level of the players in those divisions. But what do I / we know! I guess what is paramount though is first having an academy at a decent level, which hopefully is finally being addressed (and, along with an covered training pitch, should have been the priority legacy from our last PL excursion).
But that's ridiculous, you're saying that the division you play in essentially defines your career! When we signed Ian Ashbee from Cambridge, it wasn't a case of "well he'll be no good at a higher level, he's only played in the bottom division". Don't be absurd. Our youth players interact plenty with the first team, but playing reserve football and sitting waiting for the cup games to come around is bollocks. They need to be getting game time on a regular basis. Look at Mark Oxley; he was never going to break into our first team this year, so he went out on loan to somewhere where he knew he'd be a first team player and solidified himself as the Oldham Number 1. More of our youngsters need to be doing that.
That theory completely falls down on the fact that the youth team aren't surrounded by Premier League players, they're surrounded by other youth players and the reserve league we're in is way lower quality than playing in League One/Two.
I've had two sons go through the youth ranks and into the pro ranks at City, but both left without playing a game. Somehow they've got to find a way of developing 16-20 year olds that brings them closer to the first team, although I do think that sometimes the only way to find out if someone is good enough is to give them a game! I guess Academy status is critical as a means of raising standards and in attracting better kids who currently get picked off by other clubs e.g.Leeds. We also need to give our youngsters the opportunity to play against good opposition on good pitches rather than the current fixture list, which is more about 'getting stuck in' than technical ability.
