If We Hadn't been a Premiership Team......

bingaddick

.....do you think that players like Haynes and Green would have stayed at the Valley?

It occurs to me that one of the liberating advantages to clubs in the lower divisions is their ability to bring on home grown talent.

In the later stages of our time in the Premier League, very little regular first teamers came from the clubs youth development.

Players like Haynes and Green would have had to have been almost beyond exceptional to have found their way into the first team set up.

Not all players develop in an identical linear way, and I would think, judging by the number of players who are recognised as top flight players much later in their careers, that it is not always easy to pick winners when players are 16 or 17.

Take Pritchard as an example, how could a player with his talent be so overlooked as to be playing for Hayes and Yeading?

I am therefore delighted that players like Haynes and Green are back, re-igniting their careers with us. I think its a great move to look at former players who are still relatively young and have plenty to prove. Not just to the manager but perhaps to themselves. It is also so nice to unearth players like Pritch who have been completely under the radar.

LenGlover

It depends on where the strengths and weaknesses are at the time in the squad as to whether or not a player is released. It's not all about ability necessarily.

Danny Shittu and Michael Turner have both done well but we had too many good centre halves ahead of them at decision time so they were released.

I suspect that happened with Green and Haynes, although there may possibly have been "attitude" issues from what i've read, and Myles Weston can be added to the list too.

scruffle

i was thinking the other day about this - although I wondered if we'd actually saved money in not paying them wages for the past how ever many years, since in haynes we only paid a reported 50k, surely we've actually done well out of this deal gviving him the origial education then him learning his trade somewhere else before returning a more rounded player??

Kap10

I don't think you can judge specific players but certainly if we had been in the non prem divisions with the cash constraints, then players from the junior ranks would have been given more opportunity and there would have been a requirement to take more risks with players. Would Waggy, Shelvey, Solly had the chance they did if we were prem? Probably not. Shelvey may have been held back longer and been loaned out rather than gone straight into the first team - a bit of Scotty Parker scenario, but Waggy and Solly would probably not had a chance and gone on frees or contract releases.

Saga Lout

Good point - I wonder how much more Shelvey would've been worth if we'd been premier and maybe sold him a couple of years later, having developed him by loaning him out. We'll never know.