Dean Wilkins Andy Crosby & Jim Stannard outed by Southampton

[Not Andy Naylor]

Sorry, but which of our home grown players has gone on to play at the very highest level? I must have missed that.

Gareth Barry?

 

[Pavilionaire]

Good luck to Dean Wilkins. He was a good servant for this club and did a bloody decent job before Adams wrecked his legacy.

 

[ROSM]

Gareth Barry?

Wasn't Gareth Barry pre Hinshelwood and Wilkins. I think he was signed and sold when John Jackson was in charge of youth. I'm sure it was pre the withdean era.

 

[Brovion]

I do agree that he was shafted to some extent over the Adams fiasco, but that still doesn't make him Dario Gradi.

It was very much an overachieving seventh place (but a seventh place that was nonetheless a million miles away from sixth place) and I just couldn't see where it would go from there. I never saw Wilkins taking us any further, no matter how much of a screw up the Adams (II) appointment was. Easy to say now, but I felt we'd have been mediocre again the following season under Wilkins. Which, as it turns out, we were under Adams instead.

Wrong. That '7th place' season would have been the springboard to winning League One the following season as the legendary "Wilkins Wonders" went from strength to strength .... but I guess we'll never know will we? However whilst that's just speculation one area where you're definitely wrong is we were NOT mediocre under Adams MkII - we were complete and utter shit.

 

[BigGully]

Sorry, but which of our home grown players has gone on to play at the very highest level? I must have missed that.

It was a 'turn of phrase' those 'home grown' players Edna seemed to take a casual swipe at, have signed million pound contracts, it was to show that we are not talking about League 2 journeymen here, they have to different degrees had real football careers, which is extremely difficult to achieve.

To dismiss so readily is unfair to those players, Wilkins, his coaches and the Sussex area itself.

 

[Deleted member 2719]

White
Wilkins (Whose training ground putting players down he didn't like, might surprise those with rose tinted views on the 'nice guy')
Hinshelwood
McGhee
Adams
And so on

All in the past. Time to move on.

Where has anyone ever said Dean was a nice guy, in fact ferguson and Wenger are not in the nice bracket either.
Some players need a good putting down.

You sound the type that needs a good cuddle.

 

[Weststander]

Where has anyone ever said Dean was a nice guy, in fact ferguson and Wenger are not in the nice bracket either.
Some players need a good putting down.

You sound the type that needs a good cuddle.

Wilkins over stepped the mark, and faced consequences.


Bizarre linking of Taggart and Wenger. Wenger hasn't the reputation of a tea cup throwing and yelling manager; more the always defensive 'intellectual'.

 

[Fef]

Luke Williamson is doing a good job coaching the development squad so doesn't need replacing.

Quite right, Luke is doing a good job with the DS.

But we have something like six age groups in the Academy, and given Deano's previous lack of rapport with senior players, this could be a good role for him.

 

[Kumquat]

Am I the only one who wouldn't want Wilkins back? I can't help feeling some people are in danger of overstating his role a little.

Yes, Wendy picked a few youngsters for the first team, but much of that would have been out of necessity, and none of them have exactly gone on to set the world on fire. El Abd, Hammond and Harding are probably the best of the bunch: Hammond has done OK as an average level Championship midfielder, Harding is embarrassing at this level, while El Abd only started to develop as a defender long after Wilkins was gone.

And not one of those players- let alone the likes of Virgo, Robinson and Cox- would have had a sniff of a professional contract at clubs with genuinely successful youth policies like Crewe, Southampton, West Ham or- dare I say it- the tools up the road. Wilkins did OK, but I refuse to accept that he's some kind of guru when it comes to developing young players.

Agree. I liked Wilkins a lot, but he was never the man to take us forward. Sentimentality sadly was something we couldn't afford. Might be worth mentioning too that El-Abd, Virgo and Robinson were brought through by Adams and McGhee. Wilkins was responsible for the elevation of Cox and Elphick to the first team and most famously Joe Gatting. I still reckon it was too soon for Gatting. I thought he was an excellent footballer, given too much responsibility at that time. Seems a world away now.

 

[Deleted member 2719]

Wilkins over stepped the mark, and faced consequences.


Bizarre linking of Taggart and Wenger. Wenger hasn't the reputation of a tea cup throwing and yelling manager; more the always defensive 'intellectual'.

That's not everyone's opinion of Dean overstepping the mark it appears to be mainly the DK groupies.

Well i don't think wenger is nice.

 

[Northstandite]

That's not everyone's opinion of Dean overstepping the mark it appears to be mainly the DK groupies.

Well i don't think wenger is nice.

Not nice, a bit sneaky with selective myopia, but not a bully of his players.

 

[Deleted member 2719]

Not nice, a bit sneaky with selective myopia, but not a bully of his players.

Who's been bullying players

 

[BigGully]

Agree. I liked Wilkins a lot, but he was never the man to take us forward. Sentimentality sadly was something we couldn't afford. Might be worth mentioning too that El-Abd, Virgo and Robinson were brought through by Adams and McGhee. Wilkins was responsible for the elevation of Cox and Elphick to the first team and most famously Joe Gatting. I still reckon it was too soon for Gatting. I thought he was an excellent footballer, given too much responsibility at that time. Seems a world away now.

No they weren't ........

El-Abd and those other's mentioned came through the Academy of which Wilkins was pivotal , yes Virgo came in late and maybe Robinson leap frogged Wilkins youth team straight to Adams first team, some say to his detriment, who knows.

I think some comments are missing the point when you say that we have moved on, we certainly have, but remember maybe Wilkins himself has moved on too.

He progressed from everything youth team with us to assistant to Mcgee then to first team manager delivering a 7th finish, then to Fulham as their International Scout before being recruited by Pardew at Southampton, on Pardews departure a brief spell as caretaker manager at Southampton before being installed as Southampton first team coach for a sustained successful spell culminating in progression to the Premier League, add a Pro License to boot and it suddenly doesn't necessarily follow that he is clambering to run our Academy just yet ......

 

[Rookie]

Anyone know if Wilkins has joined Adkins at Reading?