James Tilley

Can anyone remind me the circumstances of James Tilley leaving Town?

He seems to have developed into a decent player at Wimbledon.  I seem to remember he wasn’t rated by the fans here but maybe it shows that you have to stick with young players until they develop properly.

I saw him as raw and light wright, but skilful enough at that time. Has he bulked up since?

Against Wimbledon looked a lot chunkier (and more tattooed) than during his last spell with us. A good few years older now, of course.

I can’t remember him but my son said he was nothing special

Think Holloway brought him up from Brighton, started well enough but was in & out of games like most wingers are. Then got clattered early-on one game and was taken off with a head injury. Didn’t look the same to me after that.

Hurst came in, started him in his first game back but took him off at halftime when 2-down at home to Cambridge. Left him out the squad for the next match and left by mutual consent a fortnight later. He had 6 months left on his contract at that point.

He’s only just now, 2 & half years later, delivering on that early promise after spells at Dorking & Crawley. Never know the circumstances behind his departure, how much he was on, what he had in his contract etc. Fair to say Hurst jettisoned plenty when he first came in, maybe Tilley was unlucky but he definitely wasn’t a Hurst-type player.

Maybe adds weight to the notion that young players need time to develop but the game is impatient and doesn’t generally afford that scope. Doing really well for Wimbledon now and looks like we let him go in error, but, in truth, we are just as susceptible to wanting results and outcomes swiftly and he was fairly unremarkable during his time with us, although, he never really had a long run of games.

Must have been very hard for a young lad to move hundreds of miles from home to join a completely dysfunctional club as the country plunged into lockdowns and a global pandemic. Suspect it wasn't the dream that was sold to him and Holloway hardly helped him by massively raising expectations with his usual hyperbolic bullshit.

When he signed for us he was a boy. A young boy living a long way from home.

Now he is a man and playing his best football for Wimbledon.

He was only average at Crawley so sometimes you have to play the long game with some young players.

I think it’s a bit hard to judge the lad on his time here, or our decision to let him go, given the prevailing circumstances.

He signed as 20-year old in January 2020, to much Ian Holloway fanfare (I assume he got a decent kickback), a time long before “Runaway” had run away, and anything the reprehensible Bristolian had to say held far more stock than it ought to have done. That set a level of expectation that probably didn’t help the kid, but my memory of his initial time at BP was that he did ‘alright’ without particularly pulling up any trees.

Then Covid hit, and we shouldn’t underestimate the significance of that to a young man in the fledgling years of his career, 250 miles from home. Under contract or not, I can only imagine that spring / summer was a tough and worrying time for young footballers.

Then when football eventually returned, the club had become a complete basket case, he’s playing in empty stadiums and for a chunk of his latter time was playing while the country was under strict lockdown conditions. He’s basically stuck, alone in a hotel room, with none of his friends or family around him, unable to legally travel home, with naff all to do to entertain himself. Those aren’t circumstances that are likely to get the best out of the kid, and ultimately the move to Crawley was an absolute no-brainer at the time.

Christ, when I was 20, I was happy spending my days smoking weed, eating KFC and playing GTA Vice City for the bulk of my waking hours. I doubt a major pandemic would have brought out the professional best in me.

He’s doing well at the minute so good luck to him. A forgettable part of GTFC history but by no means is that entirely attributable to him. Wrong place, wrong time.

Quoted from Rodley Mariner

Must have been very hard for a young lad to move hundreds of miles from home to join a completely dysfunctional club as the country plunged into lockdowns and a global pandemic. Suspect it wasn't the dream that was sold to him and Holloway hardly helped him by massively raising expectations with his usual hyperbolic bullshit.

Yup. Agree

Quoted from Poojah

I think it’s a bit hard to judge the lad on his time here, or our decision to let him go, given the prevailing circumstances.

He signed as 20-year old in January 2020, to much Ian Holloway fanfare (I assume he got a decent kickback), a time long before “Runaway” had run away, and anything the reprehensible Bristolian had to say held far more stock than it ought to have done. That set a level of expectation that probably didn’t help the kid, but my memory of his initial time at BP was that he did ‘alright’ without particularly pulling up any trees.

Then Covid hit, and we shouldn’t underestimate the significance of that to a young man in the fledgling years of his career, 250 miles from home. Under contract or not, I can only imagine that spring / summer was a tough and worrying time for young footballers.

Then when football eventually returned, the club had become a complete basket case, he’s playing in empty stadiums and for a chunk of his latter time was playing while the country was under strict lockdown conditions. He’s basically stuck, alone in a hotel room, with none of his friends or family around him, unable to legally travel home, with naff all to do to entertain himself. Those aren’t circumstances that are likely to get the best out of the kid, and ultimately the move to Crawley was an absolute no-brainer at the time.

Christ, when I was 20, I was happy spending my days smoking weed, eating KFC and playing GTA Vice City for the bulk of my waking hours. I doubt a major pandemic would have brought out the professional best in me.

He’s doing well at the minute so good luck to him. A forgettable part of GTFC history but by no means is that entirely attributable to him. Wrong place, wrong time.

Yes indeed

Found a home & a manager that believes in him sometimes that's it takes footballers are fragile same as any human being can be , also when with us i never doubted his talent he was just lightweight & now looks to have bulked up

Yeah, lightweight, no particular pace or strength, had some nice close control and touch but rarely influenced games, without being actually bad or anything. Just very mediocre. At age 20 of course. Ywars later now turned out to be useful at our level perhaps. The decision to part ways was right for both parties.

I've just had a look at George Williams who was with  us around the same time under Holloway- he thought he was loads better than he was! I see that after being binned by Hurst he was a bit part player at barrow, then dropped to NL and managed just 8 games and has had to drop to NLS to get football. Yet he had been in the Wales squad at the euros in 2016!

Tilley is one of few who Hurst sacked off from the Holloway era that has gone onto do anything better or operate at the same level of us.

He left us in 20-21 to go to Crawley, they finished 12th as we got relegated.  He was a regular.  Following season as we fought back into the league, he was again a regular as they finished 12th once more.  It's only last season that they struggled, no doubt thanks to their farcical owners but again a regular.

The other obvious one (who has actually gone onto do much better) is Terry Taylor.  Another young lad miles from home.

There was something about the culture at the club at that time that wasn't right. Especially with young lads.  Joe Starbuck and Duncan Idehen were quite mysteriously binned off by Hurst and ended up in Championship development squads at Sheff Utd and Bristol City respectively.  Starbuck is without a club at the minute but Idehen has played a few times for Bristol City and had a loan spell at Carlisle last season.  Both were talented whilst here, certainly players you would look to develop yet Hurst opted not to. I seem to recall he dropped some sort of hint which went along the lines of 'they need to get away from the place to develop', perhaps not as to the point as that.  

I don't think we can underestimate just how bad the set-up was under Holloway and culturally that's a difficult thing to change.  For young lads in that environment, it can be a toxic place.  

Quoted from diehardmariner

Tilley is one of few who Hurst sacked off from the Holloway era that has gone onto do anything better or operate at the same level of us.

He left us in 20-21 to go to Crawley, they finished 12th as we got relegated.  He was a regular.  Following season as we fought back into the league, he was again a regular as they finished 12th once more.  It's only last season that they struggled, no doubt thanks to their farcical owners but again a regular.

The other obvious one (who has actually gone onto do much better) is Terry Taylor.  Another young lad miles from home.

There was something about the culture at the club at that time that wasn't right. Especially with young lads.  Joe Starbuck and Duncan Idehen were quite mysteriously binned off by Hurst and ended up in Championship development squads at Sheff Utd and Bristol City respectively.  Starbuck is without a club at the minute but Idehen has played a few times for Bristol City and had a loan spell at Carlisle last season.  Both were talented whilst here, certainly players you would look to develop yet Hurst opted not to. I seem to recall he dropped some sort of hint which went along the lines of 'they need to get away from the place to develop', perhaps not as to the point as that.  

I don't think we can underestimate just how bad the set-up was under Holloway and culturally that's a difficult thing to change.  For young lads in that environment, it can be a toxic place.  

Couldnt disagree anymore regarding Joe Starbuck, he showed nothing for us. Idehan I thought looked okay.

terry Taylor was a weird one in that again he looked crap, but he was playing alongside the likes of James Morton and god knows who else from that awful awful season

That he got a move to a bigger development squad suggests he had something about him though, same with Idehen.  It's not as if they picked them up from us in the same style of Grist, Pollock et al.  We released them.

As with Taylor, who you're right looked dreadful, there's a reason so many young players didn't progress or even regressed in that period.  

As a side note for Starbuck, I watched a few games prior to him getting his chance where he was attacking mid/right wing in the reserves and he was untouchable at times.  When he got his chance in the first team, largely in meaningless games, it was at right-back or wing-back.  I don't know if it was the positional change or just his general development, but he seemed a different player almost to the point that he looked devoid of belief.

I think a lot of peoples opinions on Tilley hinge on the Covid season which was a disaster for all round. The season before that I thought he was quite well thought of. His stats show no goals or assists in the league but he was quite a jinky winger putting in steady performances whilst we were playing some good football. I remember that season culminating in him replacing Glennon away at Scunthorpe in an unfamiliar full back position and him still putting in a solid performance.

I remember his as having potential but didn't he get bouts of 'bone idleness'?

I always thought there was something potentially in him, but, as I understand it, Hursty didn’t want him. So off he went. Good luck to the lad.

The club needed a clean start when Holloway and Fenty left. There would’ve no doubt been players easily influenced by things outside of the club and others that could steer clear of that environment. Darts matches, baby reveal parties etc we were a joke of a club to any form of outsider. Is it any wonder that we’ve had to rebuild the reputation up? It was probably akin to the scunny downfall.

And, for all those that belong to the ‘hurst out’ club. Just be careful what you wish for. The grass on our side of the fence is alright.

He was a young player just starting out in the game. Don't know what people were expecting from him.

Of course he was lightweight and not the finished article as he was barely out of his teenage years and had no experience.

He's gone away and developed his game.

Quoted from WOZOFGRIMSBY

The club needed a clean start when Holloway and Fenty left. There would’ve no doubt been players easily influenced by things outside of the club and others that could steer clear of that environment. Darts matches, baby reveal parties etc we were a joke of a club to any form of outsider. Is it any wonder that we’ve had to rebuild the reputation up? It was probably akin to the scunny downfall.

And, for all those that belong to the ‘hurst out’ club. Just be careful what you wish for. The grass on our side of the fence is alright.

I think you’re right, and having spoken to folk I know involved in the game, we were seen as a joke. Ironically, under Hurst first time, it was him that brought players here, the club still had a excrement rep but they wanted and liked playing for Hurst.

That reputation takes a while to build back up and we’re still doing that.

The so called Hurst out babies are only ever loud when we lose, likely the same people that if they won a million quid they’d moan and say they should’ve won a million and one.

They often struggle to provide any credible reason as to why they want him gone. They’re just stil precious about the ear cupping and because he doesn’t make substitutions when they would…