Carl Rook ... triallist

[El Presidente]

Are you seriously trying to say that taking a player from that level should be greeted with positivity, congratulations and new-found optimism?

I suggest we should try to greet him with an open mind, you should try it some day, it could transform your outlook on life.

 

[The Wizard]

People, take another look at my opening post. I'm not suggesting we shouldn't get ANYONE on trial, or that it's costing the club anything. My point is that I expect us to be aiming a lot higher than Tonbridge Angels these days. In fact, I'm sure we ARE aiming higher than Tonbridge Angels, which makes this trial totally pointless. We've got Murray and Forster, we've got a new £300k signing, we've got very able deputies in Hart and Davies, so what is there to gain by considering adding someone from the Isthmian League to that? He's, at best, 6th choice from day one. Let's get some proper players in midfield please.

Leeds bought Beckford from Wealdstone and look how he turned out.

Give him a chance for crying out loud, if he isn't good enough then we move on, if by any chance he has some potential Russell thinks he can extract then we may have found a gem, just like Beckford who had a similar scoring record in the lower leagues.

 

[Barrel of Fun]

People, take another look at my opening post. I'm not suggesting we shouldn't get ANYONE on trial, or that it's costing the club anything. My point is that I expect us to be aiming a lot higher than Tonbridge Angels these days. In fact, I'm sure we ARE aiming higher than Tonbridge Angels, which makes this trial totally pointless.

But not pointless if the player turns out to be a useful acquisition for the club. Aiming higher should not mean we should ignore (potential) local talent.

 

[The Wizard]

Not pointless IF that happens, but how much time and money do we waste on trialists and the youth set-up? And for what return? A handful of mediocre players.

Personally I'd just scrap both and use the money wasted for a very healthy transfer budget each year.

 

[Barrel of Fun]

Not pointless IF that happens, but how much time and money do we waste on trialists and the youth set-up? And for what return? A handful of mediocre players.

Personally I'd just scrap both and use the money wasted for a very healthy transfer budget each year.

An interesting proposal. I would imagine that we spend more on our youth setup than we take in transfer fees. However, there is an unquantifiable amount as to what we would spend on various players that make up our first team or have done during the time of their contract.

I think we are talking peanuts, when it comes to triallists.

 

[chez]

Not pointless IF that happens, but how much time and money do we waste on trialists and the youth set-up? And for what return? A handful of mediocre players.

Personally I'd just scrap both and use the money wasted for a very healthy transfer budget each year.

Personally I still think you're on the wind up here but here goes anyway.

It doesn't matter in the faintest where the player is currently, all that matters is how good or bad he is.

Every player has to start somewhere, you could list a whole England international team from days gone by where all the players have started off in non-league.

I think that it is brilliant that we are looking at clubs like these.

Even just looking at The Albion starting from when Wardy joined us from Burton Albion we have unearthed some absolute gems by trawling the non league scene.

 

[The Wizard]

Yeah trialists don't cost money - I wasn't claiming that. They're just a waste of time.

Right, with the youth team, think of it like this. We currently pay numerous coaches to coach a lot of youngsters. We run two centre of excellence's, which must require admininstration and upkeep. We provide them with kit and equipment. We then take on a handful of players as professionals - most of which, understandably, don't make the grade. As such, we're paying them wages for a couple of years before we can get rid.

Take ALL of that money and time wasted, and I reckon you could make several quality additions each summer. Our way, what have we got? Elphick, Virgo, Lynch and Cox as the total result of about five years work. Great. You can't tell me we couldn't have bought four players like that for a few hundred grand.

f*** me your strange, has he always been like this?
I think I would kill myself if I had to live with the attention seeking rat.

 

[Barrel of Fun]

Yeah trialists don't cost money - I wasn't claiming that. They're just a waste of time.

Right, with the youth team, think of it like this. We currently pay numerous coaches to coach a lot of youngsters. We run two centre of excellence's, which must require admininstration and upkeep. We provide them with kit and equipment. We then take on a handful of players as professionals - most of which, understandably, don't make the grade. As such, we're paying them wages for a couple of years before we can get rid.

Take ALL of that money and time wasted, and I reckon you could make several quality additions each summer. Our way, what have we got? Elphick, Virgo, Lynch and Cox as the total result of about five years work. Great. You can't tell me we couldn't have bought four players like that for a few hundred grand.

You are neglecting to mention that we sold Hammond, Virgo and Harding for approx. £2.25m.

It is a risk game, but one I would be willing to take and hope that we keep our youth setup. As the club grows and income expands, then we are likely to be able to attract a greater amount of decent youngsters to the club. Why not keep it ticking over until we are, a relatively, more attractive proposition to potential suitors. Remember the days when Archer et al ignored the youth setup? We had to make do with the Fox brothers and Simon Funnell.

 

[BigGully]

Yeah trialists don't cost money - I wasn't claiming that. They're just a waste of time.

Right, with the youth team, think of it like this. We currently pay numerous coaches to coach a lot of youngsters. We run two centre of excellence's, which must require admininstration and upkeep. We provide them with kit and equipment. We then take on a handful of players as professionals - most of which, understandably, don't make the grade. As such, we're paying them wages for a couple of years before we can get rid.

Take ALL of that money and time wasted, and I reckon you could make several quality additions each summer. Our way, what have we got? Elphick, Virgo, Lynch and Cox as the total result of about five years work. Great. You can't tell me we couldn't have bought four players like that for a few hundred grand.

The club receive annual funding to help towards the cost of running their youth set up.

Not sure of the exact amount but £150,000+ per year.

 

[king Wombat]

Yeah trialists don't cost money - I wasn't claiming that. They're just a waste of time.

Right, with the youth team, think of it like this. We currently pay numerous coaches to coach a lot of youngsters. We run two centre of excellence's, which must require admininstration and upkeep. We provide them with kit and equipment. We then take on a handful of players as professionals - most of which, understandably, don't make the grade. As such, we're paying them wages for a couple of years before we can get rid.

Take ALL of that money and time wasted, and I reckon you could make several quality additions each summer. Our way, what have we got? Elphick, Virgo, Lynch and Cox as the total result of about five years work. Great. You can't tell me we couldn't have bought four players like that for a few hundred grand.

This is you right?


LOOK AT ME I'M SO INTERESTING'..


REPEAT TO FADE.

I feel abit sorry for you actually.

 

[Barrel of Fun]

I do remember the likes of the Fox brothers, and I don't think anyone could argue our youth system hasn't moved on incredibly since then. But it's brought in £3m (including Gareth Barry) in over 10 years. To me, that's not amazing. Especially when you consider the cost of running it for that long, which I expect would be a lot more than £3m. You're right, it's a risk either way, because if you go down my route you could blow the budget on shit players. Similarly, if we continue to go down yours, we might not get a valuable player come through for another five years.

But would you just shut up shop? What about when we increase our turnover six-fold or more, with the new stadium? Should we start from scratch then? Why not keep things ticking over? There are plenty of clubs in the Championship that rely on their youth setup with some big money signings here and there. Why should we be any different?

 

[The Wizard]

But would you just shut up shop? What about when we increase our turnover six-fold or more, with the new stadium? Should we start from scratch then? Why not keep things ticking over? There are plenty of clubs in the Championship that rely on their youth setup with some big money signings here and there. Why should we be any different?

Why bother debating with him, he is a total loon.

 

[Barrel of Fun]

Because unless you can produce a top-class youth set-up, is it REALLY worth having one at all? When we're in Falmer in the championship, turning out players like Elphick won't be good enough. And he's one of the better ones right now! So either we step it up a notch in the hope of finding a gem, and take the risk that we might not produce anyone good enough for us, or we put the money into signings. I don't know, I'm unqualified to judge, but putting the money into a few proven signings HAS to be an option surely?

I am sure we will step it up a notch when our income increases, but that is not a good argument to close the whole thing down now. We probably break even at the moment (I am speculating), perhaps lose money, but we have a decent reputation for giving youth a chance. What good would it do to close our youth system down?

Whether or not we produce one or eleven players that are worthy of a first team place is neither here nor there, at the moment. It is all about putting ourselves on the map and building a reputation with the whole of Sussex and beyond.