The importance of selling on good young players

Take Boyd as a shining example. He can't sign a professional contract until he is 17 which I believe is next October. Up until that point there is nothing stopping him going at tribunal for a pittance and even more so if most of his development to date has been outside of the academy in local football.

We have to rely on the goodwill of those advising Boyd that staying here is best for his development.

With a clear pathway, we stand a good chance of keeping more than previously but we will still lose some along the way for peanuts.

Get them to 17, 18 or 19 with a good number of games under their belt and we can start making some money, probably to a club like Peterborough.

Quoted from mimma

Trick is to sell at the right time for the right price plus generous add ons.

Jack Barlow springs to mind.

When I was a kid in the late 70s/early 80’s I was friends with a lad who’s brother went on to play for a town, did well and went on to play for a few other decent league clubs.

Prior to signing for Town on a pro deal he was courted by Forest (and a few others) who had just won 2 European cups but took wide advice from some people he trusted and stayed at Town as he’s have more chance of breaking through which he did

Another lad who was part of the same “gang” playing on the school field most nights took an apprenticeship at Arsenal, don’t know what he’s doing now but he never emerged in the pro game.

The difference now is that I would assume a kid can go to a big club and get showered with “remuneration” where as if you come to a club like Town you might well break through especially in the current climate under Ian Holloway.

Quoted from lee65

Then Norwich sold him to Rangers for £400k I think a few years later?

And went to Coventry for 800k when he wasn’t in his prime.

Quoted from HertsGTFC

The difference now is that I would assume a kid can go to a big club and get showered with “remuneration” where as if you come to a club like Town you might well break through especially in the current climate under Ian Holloway.

Exactly this. There’s a pool of players across the top two divisions who are potentially wasting much of their career playing in a glorified youth team until they’re 23. Kids plucked from their local clubs and warehoused in the hope that one in every 50 might be worth a few quid.

Can’t blame the players, if you’re on a grand a week, often more, and not really under any pressure it’s more than a decent living. Coasting on a decent wage, access to the best facilities money can buy, few hours training a day and living the life of a pro- footballer, then not having to deal with the pressure on a Saturday, dreamworld for plenty. Get a loan out to L1/2 when you’re 22 and hope you land a contract in men’s football.

Bennett had over 100 league appearances when he left us at 20. Now, Ipswich might have left him in their u23s rather than release him?