QPR must go back to their roots 08:48, 31 July 2015 By Tim Street So says the man who brought Raheem Sterling to the club please log in to view this image 11 Shares QPR fan who earned his club £9million by helping discover Raheem Sterling wants the Rs to go back to their days of unearthing cheap or local talent. Back in the halcyon days of 1993, the last time the Rs finished as top dogs in London, the likes of Tony Roberts, Alan McDonald, Kevin Gallen, Karl Ready and Bradley Allen had come through the ranks, while Les Ferdinand and Andy Impey were picked up from local non-league clubs. Darren Peacock, Rufus Brevett and Andy Sinton were also bargain buys from the lower leagues. It is a far cry from the millions spurned on big-name flops in recent years, as the Rs have bid to win their place back at the top table. But Rangers' transfer policy this summer has swung back towards their early Premier League days, with Ben Gladwin, Massimo Luongo and Jay Emmanuel-Thomas exciting talents scouted from the lower leagues, while Darnell Furlong flies a flag for those hoping to break through from the Loftus Road youth system. please log in to view this image Home grown: Rs need to being more Kevin Gallen's through, says Creith All of which is music to the ears of John Creith, who worked for QPR's academy between 2004 and 2008, during which time he brought Sterling to the club as a raw, skinny teenager. Creith said: “I've been a fan for 45 and I still watch them now. I used to go with my dad, we lived on Shepherds Bush Green. “The club has lost it's ethos in recent years of finding local talent and scouting the non-league system. Local players are always hungrier. “For a lot of years we didn't look like QPR, and a lot of fans walked away. Now we're getting our identity back, we need to rebuild as a local club. please log in to view this image Glad tidings: Rs have gone back to scouring for lower league talent by bringing in the likes of Ben Gladwin “It's also good to see Darnell Furlong getting a chance, I remember him from playing in our U9s. Another talent who should follow him in is Osman Kakay, who played with Darnell in the U9s.” Creith believes the portrayal of Sterling as the greedy embodiment of all that is wrong with modern football is far from that of the happy-go-lucky teen he spotted playing for Oakington Manor Primary School and Alpha & Omega Youth Club. He said: “Me and a guy called Peter Moring both watched him, we were working under John O'Brien at the QPR academy. Raheem was just desperate to play football every day. Any time or any place, give him a ball and he would be happy. “He always had the ability, would happily take on players 10 times his size. We were just in the right place at the right time. It's a shame the things turned out the way they did with his transfer. He's a good lad but has been given some bad advice.” please log in to view this image City slicker: Raheem Sterling is Creith's biggest success story Since leaving QPR, as well as more academy work, Creith has taken his first steps in management with Kentish Town and Amersham Town, from where he was sacked in April following the club's relegation. He is now back in west London as assistant manager at Les Ferdinand's first club, Southall. He added: “Amersham was a bad experience, but a learning curve. I had to rebuild from scratch midway through the season, and it wasn't enough, although I think I deserved more of a chance. I'm looking forward to a new challenge with Southall though.”
Some great names plucked from the unknown lower leagues there, a good read, thanks for posting. However, I do wonder if the gap between the Premier league/Championship and the lower leagues is far greater now than it was in the 90's.
Agree with Dave, it's much more difficult to bring these players through the leagues, it does happen the Palace winger for one (however that is only one season in the Prem). One of the big problems is that the top clubs will go down the leagues and buy up the players on the up, a couple of examples of this is City buying that lad from Fulham for stupid money and the Spuds signing Ali from MK Dons, and as we know they go a plunder the acadamies as well!! Also, as Dave has pointed out the gap is wider and the price of failure is massive and the risk of playing to many 'prospects' is usually too much for a manager who is usually only a few games away from the sack!
You also have to take into account the rest of Europe which is light years of us playing football at all levels. France and African France produces 100 better players to our one odd golden nugget. They are fitter, stronger and generally are better players. Spain is the same of course aligned with with South American players. The real difference we get one golden nugget in the UK we simply **** that player up in the media and expect too much too soon in a false pre tense that we must produce world class players. Of course we do but they are rare and the time we put out 11 of them for England we can't understand why it doesn't work … we are a victim of our own hype IMO. A promising lad from lets say Brighton has it all to do against the world of football players. I know this first hand as my mate was rejected from Palace after 6 years because he was simply too small and nowhere near mentally right compared to African lads. He made it OK and today plays for England u21 with southgate and is measured and grounded to a degree. Keeping his head out of the clouds is testament to his parents as the pressure and temptation is something many of us would never understand. In the UK we generally ruin players
