4 youth players offered deals

Joe Starbuck - right back/centre mid/wide right
Duncan Idehen - centre half
Joseph Hope - left back
Cameron Painter - centre mid/right back

Good luck to them all. fair chance given the current climate they all will get a fair bit of 1st team opportunity's

Like you say with a small squad great opportunity for the youngsters to impress when we do restart. Neil Woods and the rest of his staff are doing a great job there.

good luck yoof

Quoted from TwoLeftFeet

Like you say with a small squad great opportunity for the youngsters to impress when we do restart. Neil Woods and the rest of his staff are doing a great job there.

Completely agree, BUT what is worrying is if they step up but dont play to a certain standard. Will we be stuck with underperforming members in the limited squad size and have to grin and bear them until their contract runs out, presuming they will only be offered 1 year? Or can their contracts be terminated to allow Ollie to sign someone to cover their position?

I think that a lot of new contracts for footballers will include new clauses because of the situation the EFL have pushed upon lower league clubs.

This is the way lower league football will be from now on; small squads of senior players with a good fistful of youth players actually available and considered for selection.  Maybe there is actually a silver lining to the pandemic; there has to be one somewhere, surely?

I really hope these boys make it; despite Woodsy doing a good job, the success rate of our graduates progressing is still quite low in recent times.

Buss pass holders like me will remember with pride watching the Moore's, Drinkell, Ford, Mawer, Lund, Wilkinson, Donovan, Wiggington, Croft and others all progress through the youth system to become first team players of some stature. Value for money? Absolutely, and the likes of Wilkinson, Croft and Donovan all secured big money moves to further their career, and bring much needed finance to the club.

Between them they played 1,900 games for the club, so it was a major investment in youth which paid off handsomely. We have to get back to this kind of system. It's long overdue.

Quoted from jock dock tower

Buss pass holders like me will remember with pride watching the Moore's, Drinkell, Ford, Mawer, Lund, Wilkinson, Donovan, Wiggington, Croft and others all progress through the youth system to become first team players of some stature. Value for money? Absolutely, and the likes of Wilkinson, Croft and Donovan all secured big money moves to further their career, and bring much needed finance to the club.

Between them they played 1,900 games for the club, so it was a major investment in youth which paid off handsomely. We have to get back to this kind of system. It's long overdue.

Its a nice thought but half of them nowadays would be snapped up by thje Premier/Big champ teams before they were even put on a YTS and thats why very few of our youths will ever make any big lumps of transfer money, though some will hopefully get to the level required for us to use them. If you look at all our most recent money spinners they were released by much higher clubs when still young eg. Bennett/Bogle,  and if he is as good as we hope then Martty Pollock might make us a few quid but again he was released by a much higher club I think.  

Quoted from Heisenberg

This is the way lower league football will be from now on; small squads of senior players with a good fistful of youth players actually available and considered for selection.  Maybe there is actually a silver lining to the pandemic; there has to be one somewhere, surely?

I really hope these boys make it; despite Woodsy doing a good job, the success rate of our graduates progressing is still quite low in recent times.

Patience and it will come.

The Academy has only been structured as it is now since we got back into the FL. So only 4 seasons have passed since. I'm sure in another 5/6 years we'll see much more, when the kids start coming through that have been in the Academy in its current format all the way through the system.

In other words, the lads that have just finished as u16s and been given decisions now, were in the academy when it was operating on skeleton staff and funded by donations/fundraising. And only in their last few years has the structure of coaches, support staff, strength & conditioning etc all been in place.
The kids that came in as u9s when the Academy was set up as it is now, will only just have finished their season as u12s. So in 4 years they'll have gone the whole way through the better Academy set up that exists now and potentially be offered YT's.

Thats not to say players arent being produced already. Holloway has spoken of a few he likes already, and there's the few we already have in the first team squad. Onwards and upwards.

I really hope that they progress here.  Would have been ideal if one of them was a striker.  

Me and the wife sponsored Joey and Cam last season as we feel guilty living so far away and not being able to contribute on a regular basis . Was given the recommendation by one Mattie Pollock .

Quoted from jock dock tower

Buss pass holders like me will remember with pride watching the Moore's, Drinkell, Ford, Mawer, Lund, Wilkinson, Donovan, Wiggington, Croft and others all progress through the youth system to become first team players of some stature. Value for money? Absolutely, and the likes of Wilkinson, Croft and Donovan all secured big money moves to further their career, and bring much needed finance to the club.

Between them they played 1,900 games for the club, so it was a major investment in youth which paid off handsomely. We have to get back to this kind of system. It's long overdue.

Well said Sir, I agree whole heartedly.

Wasn't there a winger/wide attacker that was pushing for a go in the first team a bit last season, or have i made that up?

Actually i might just be thinking of Starbuck, who Holloway has pointed out a fair few times.

For what it's worth I don't see the new pros being used more next season than they would this season. They won't benefit from the current climate. They'll play if they deserve to play like previous seasons.

I think we'll end up with a similar sized squad to this season. I think IH will have more loan signings than we've utilised in previous season. I think the squad will be assembled later than in previous season. Right up to the transfer window shutting and beyond due to the large amount of free agents they'll be.

I think we all know IH rates Joey Hope very highly and Joseph Starbuck too. The other 2 will probably be sent out on loan straight away to get some proper men's football.

Starbuck definitely the pick of the bunch from what I've seen.  Had the season continued as planned I'm convinced he would have a handful of first team appearances under his belt now.  Looked about ready to break into the first team when the season was curtailed.  Very, very exciting talent.  Reminds me a bit of Peter Bore when he was on fire.   Direct, pacy and that awkward lean style that makes difficult to knock off the ball.  The Bore reference is a compliment, when he was on his game Bore was unplayable at times.

Hope, I believe, was very close to getting some game time and Holloway was 50/50 on playing him at a few points this year but felt he wasn't quite ready.  Ironically the injury suffered to Glennon against Scunny could have seen him get a chance.  Not sure what was up with Garmston but it was Tilley who went to left-back.  Very comfortable on the ball when I've seen him and loves to bomb forward.  Looks a strong lad too.   Everton and a few others were watching him, sadly as mentioned above we stand little chance of competing when the big clubs come along.

Idehen I've seen a few times and still can't make my mind up on.  In the space of 5 minutes he can go from looking like a Rolls Royce of a defender to someone who looks like he's never played the game before.  I'm guessing it's that inconsistency that led to his release from Lincoln, but presents an opportunity for us!  If he can get some consistency in his game, he's got half a chance.

Not seen a great deal of Painter to be honest and when I have he didn't stand out so unfair to pass comment.

What about tht Aldard lad who was on the fringes?

Luis Adlard?

He's a first year, going into his second next season, I think anyway.  Seem him a few times and he's got something about him. Reminds me a bit of Danny North, very hustle and bustle.  Not lightning quick but not slow, not big but quite strong for his size.

The other one I believe they've got high hopes for is Evan Khouri who we picked up last year from West Ham.  Only seen him twice but you can definitely tell he's come from an Academy set-up.  Technically very good.  Saw him play as a box-to-box midfielder but also in that sitting role, which in my opinion suited him more as he controlled the game.

It's a huge step from youth football, through reserve team football and into the first team.  But in my opinion there's a lot of justified excitement about the kids that we've got coming through at the minute.  We're lucky to have the coaches we have led by Neil Woods but I hope we've also got a manager who wants to bring them into his set-up too.

From above comments:  Kevin Drinkell should have gone for a big fee.  The tribunal favoured Norwich’s very low valuation.  (Another slight against Town from the other thread).

David Pleat described Drinkell as having the most potential outside of the top division.

Drinkell was the first player bought by Glasgow Rangers when they had a lot of money and bought up top English players.

Both Wilkinson and Lund were selected (as Strikers) for the England under 21 squad.

We also signed and developed Ryan Bennett.  Although not an ex-junior player.

Bryan Klugg was a talented Grimsby lad who went to Ipswich.  He never played for us.

Quoted from TownSNAFU5

From above comments:  Kevin Drinkell should have gone for a big fee.  The tribunal favoured Norwich’s very low valuation.  (Another slight against Town from the other thread).

David Pleat described Drinkell as having the most potential outside of the top division.

Drinkell was the first player bought by Glasgow Rangers when they had a lot of money and bought up top English players.

Both Wilkinson and Lund were selected (as Strikers) for the England under 21 squad.

We also signed and developed Ryan Bennett.  Although not an ex-junior player.

Bryan Klugg was a talented Grimsby lad who went to Ipswich.  He never played for us.

According to Wiki he was born in Coventry, could be a different Klug as his only has 1 G.