We have just signed 18 year old Centre Back Ryan Inniss from Crystal Palace on loan til the end of the season. He's recently just returned from a loan spell at Luton Town. This has annoyed me to be honest, whats the point in signing someone else's young defender when Taylor doesn't even bother to play our own? Davies is more than competent at this level and everyone has got high hopes about McKain so bring in another youngster from someone else? Here's the link anyway: http://www.gillinghamfootballclub.com/news/article/ryan-inniss-joins-gillingham-1358978.aspx
I said all along, I didn't want loans coming in taking the place of our own young players. We have Davies and Josh Hare, so why did we need to bring someone in?
I can only assume that he doesn't rate our own young CB's. Or at least doesn't think they are ready yet. Maybe (coming from an EPL team), this guy is a very decent player. Hope so. I see he's also an England Youth player, so must have some pedigree. And he had a spell with Cheltenham in L2 so knows it is a bit 'rough' down here
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/26189383 Apparently we are also playing the Owls on Wed instead of the other side of Sheffield
With regards to Josh Hare he's actually a defensive midfielder but can also play at CB but its not his natural position. But like I said in the OP McKain is the next in line after Davies for central role.
CB's are normally better with age (25/6) as it's all about positioning and reading the game, still he deserves to be given a chance before I make up my mind.
What's the situation with McKain we don't seem to hear anything about the lad. I know he was at Maidenhead on loan end of last season.
Clearly, unlike yourself brb, Taylor doesn't rate Davies. To turn an old adage on its head just because you are old enough doesn't make you good enough
So does he also not rate Hare or McKain? I'm full of plenty of opinion on this one. He sticks like the manager before him with Barrett who would not look out of place with the Harlequins. Despite us having conceded 53 goals this season, only second worst in the league to Crewe. I was livid last season when MA got rid of Essam and he only appeased, yes I use that word again appeased the supporters with Davies. I was picked up on using that word, being reminded Davies had earned his place, oh what unlike Essam, oh how fickle supporters memories can be. I knew as soon has he made that mistake at Stevenage how everyone would bury Davies (just read twitter), head in hands, even alwaysright could read my thoughts...lol...brb you really didn't want that to happen did you! Question is where was the left back, not in sight that's where, so Davies carried the can. He didn't ask Hewitt to handle on the line. Not blaming Hewitt but if he had stayed on the pitch, I have no doubt we would have won and the Davies situation would have blown away in the wind. But no, everyone now wants to stick the knife in. I was one of very few who spoke out against MadDog last season but at least I supported the young lads he did keep faith in. ie Davies Mind you maybe its Callum Davies' saving grace, that at least if he's not played, he won't get booed for every little error as is normally the routine for players out of supporter favour, I can't say manager, because like the MA and Essam routine before him, we know how this one plays out.
Essam was sent out on loan to Dartford and not deemed good enough by them to extend his loan. What does that tell you? I really feel sometimes we make our youth to be something they are not. But we are just going in circles here.
To be honest the Davies debate is getting a tad tiresome, I know you rate him BRB and your entitled to your views, but when he got his chance at Stevenage he didn't really grasp it hence he dropped back onto the bench. Peter Taylor knows young players, thats just a fact, maybe he sees something in this lad that could improve us or add something thats previously not been there and personally I don't mind if it knocks our own young players down the pecking order for now. Peter Taylor has said many times this season that its about securing our place in League 1 this year and maybe the loanees will be able to guarantee us that which then allows him in the summer to have a proper look at the squad and make up his mind on players young or old. Wouldn't be surprised to see a very different squad take to the field on opening day next season to the one that will hopefully keep us up this year. Anyway the kid looks good and to only be 18 and have played in the Conference and League 2 shows he's got some experience of the lower leagues and could be valuable to our defence.
brb I know you was trying to get me to react ! Well, if I'm not to disappoint you I might as well irritate you at the same time. Nobody told Hewitt to handle the ball - but if you read back through your responses on the subject, you'll see that you said that the 'handball' was instinctive and that Hewitt could do nothing about the incident. What I said in my posts was that the difference between Barrrett & Davies is that Barrett has a better footballing brain (usually) and this would have told him that the Stevenage attack needed to be put to a stop before they reached our penalty area - Barrett would have taken out the winger and copped for a yellow card. Davies couldn't realise that - AND, even his young legs failed to keep up and cut out the cross. Whilst I share much of your sentiments regarding using young players if they're good enough - sadly I am not confident that Davies is ready for L1. I doubt if the other youngsters are even up to the standard of Davies. When we achieve L1 safety, I hope there are a few games left where it would be a good idea to use Davies & others to give them some experience.
I saw Barrett's footballing brain in action against Brentford, he gave away a penalty that led to the winning goal, by running face on to an opposition player in a reenactment of a matador or is that the bull just having seen the red rag at the Plaza de Toros de Las Ventas.
On the bench. Says it all. While I love your passion brb I have got to be honest and say that the youth at the club at this current time are just not good enough. I wish it were different. I wish we could be producing a set of youth players that were good enough, but sadly I can't.
Hang on a minute, people are being a bit unfair to Davies here. You have to remember he's 20, he hasn't started a game against September and when he finally is given a chance you expect him to be John Terry? He needs games to get up to speed, he can't be loaned out because we don't have any cover in case Legge or Barrett get injured so at the moment he's probably scratching at the walls. The chances are that this lack of confidence probably got to him and made him a bit nervous for the Stevenage match and having a go at someone so young really won't help matters! Callum was an integral part of us becoming Champions and if you wind the clocks back even further, he was actually favoured by Hessenthaler over Essam when he played against Crewe. He is more than competent for this level it just appears some people's memories appear to be very foggy. We got our first clean sheet of the season when he made his first start so surely that must mean something and as a partnership Legge and Barrett together have conceded 48 in just the league! Even with the top form of Legge alarm bells must ring regarding this partnership?
I cant agree with you peg leg that he was an 'integral part' of our promotion last year, I remember it being Barrett and Flanagan then Legge that meant we got promoted, it the same thing as saying that Stevens was vital last year, yes he played a part but wasn't vital. Plus I don't think anyone expects him to be John Terry but you cannot simply let players stay in the team if they are not good enough just because there young especially this season where if results go off the boil we could still be in a relegation battle. Look at Hessy and Dack, both our own youth products and are playing regularly, don't think its a biased view against Davis by Peter Taylor I simply think he is not good enough to be in the first team yet.
You seem to forget the time Flanagan was out of the side then, Davies played a lot more games than you remember. Callum has started 3 games in L1 this season and we've won two of them. You can hardly judge a player by saying he's not up to it with such a small amount of game time. Experience has nothing to do with it if you care to remember the points that have been thrown away thanks to mistakes by Legge or Barrett. A lot more points thrown away than Callum has.
I am not aware of Davies receiving criticism from the fans, but alas I don't get to as many games as your good self. As for McKain and Hare I would assume that Taylor doesn't rate them or doesn't feel they are ready for first team football. Lets nor forget that Taylor will see these players on a daily basis in training so it isn't just a case of judging players on any given Saturday
