Luke Hyam is set to join Colchester in January with a view to a permanent. This just about sums up the state of our club at the moment. Why bother having a youth academy at all when we seem to be getting rid of our young players in favour of bringing in OAP journeymen on a big fat fee. Why would any parent looking for a football club for their son choose Ipswich at the moment? It seems to be the case that you will only play for Town if you are over 30 and looking for a last big pay day. Hyam has shown how good he is and with more chances and experience he will only get better. This is an absolute bloody disgrace and the Clegg/Jewell partnership should just clear off before they do anymore lasting damage to our club. Who knows the way we are heading Luke Hyam will be playing against us in League 1 next season. Town Youth academy RIP!
JWM i think you'd be better off not following football for a while, it doesn't seem good for you atm!!
Problem is, a large number of Ipswich supporters seem to think that every young player we have, is some kind of world superstar, the harsh reality is that most youngsters in any pro club are going to fail, allways has been, and allways will be. Bear in mind that young players are monitered and assessed at every club, the training staff are the best ones to do this, if they had any real future, they would be played in the first team. In Hyam's case, in the spell he had in the first team, not too long ago, he did ok, albeit with weaknesses in his play, I saw no evidence that he could be a player of major influence in the championship. Think the problem is, that supporters will see a young player playing out of his skin in the youths, or reserves, and failing to grasp the fact that to perform in the championship is an enormous gulf.
In Hyam's case he had already established himself in the first team under Keane and he did a great job in the holding role before he got injured. Once Jewell got here he wasn't picked again and the same goes for O'Connor! We used to encourage our youngsters and gave them a chance to shine. It is completely unsustainable to have a policy where you only go out and spend shed loads of cash on "Experienced" players!
I still cant actually find this story anywhere. Can someone help, Not on our website, Col u's website, bbc etc etc
It was the EADT Tractorbhoy: http://www.greenun24.co.uk/ipswich-town/paul_jewell_denies_luke_hyam_colchester_link_1_1154868
Ihave to say I am with JWM on this one. Why the f#*% are we happy to see all of our young up an coming potential stars for the future leave the club, all before they have been given a real chance to show their worth. With all the imenent departures surely it would be wiser to keep these boys here rather than look to offload them at the first opportunity...
ptc totally take your point, BUT Luke Hyam is an exceptional talent. The worst thing is not that we're signing players like Bullard - he was great last season - but just that Hyam and O'Connor and Wight have not been given a game. Throughout the semi-successful Lyall / Burley period, players who never amounted to that much like Tony Vaughan and Adam Tanner were given a fair crack of the whip. I don't need to talk about what our Youth Academy produced prior to the 1990s! I was disappointed but didn't lose any sleep when Billy Clarke and Jordan Rhodes moved on, but at least Roy Keane did give youngsters a game if he got little else right. Dare I say that things have incredibly and almost impossibly got worse?
maybe the like's of Tony Vaughan and Tanner proved themselves in training and earned the right to a first team place???
Are you saying Weighty that suddenly Hyam, O'Connor, Wight, Murray and all the other young players at the club have become lazy? Even if that were the case it'd say more about Jewell and his coaching staff than about the players.
no i'm saying that i don't see them in training everyday so therefore i can't say if they deserve to be in the first team or not. How do they look in training Hamps????????
Behave yourself Weighty....If you have/had seen any of their past performances for the 1st team in the past, you would know they were both worth at the very least another look...!
TBH....Weighty no. For all of RKs faults, and there were many, he at least gave almost every player a couple of chances in the 1st team to prove their worth, PJ on the other hand has cast a number of our younger home grown players out in the wilderness. Not even a sniff of the 1st team squad. I am sure they are all working hard in training, at "friendly" reserve team games, but if you are out of favour...! well I am sure we have all been there at some point in our lives..!
or maybe there not ready yet and if put in the first team and they make mistakes it could be detrimental to the development of said player. T Smith is a young player but still got buckets of flack off a few fans.
