Unfortunately that results in nurturing talent for bigger clubs to capitalise on. The best a club like us can hope for is they hit the ground running and we see some benefit before the cream are sold.
The longer contracts we are going for gives us a chance of keeping them for longer though. The strategy is starting to become clearer regarding what a push for the premier league within 4-5 years could look like. We need to be able to hold onto our better players the way the likes of Bournemouth do.
The length of the contract is to get more for the players when they are sold. This will raise the profile of the club when higher calibre replacements are brought in. During this time the players that are developing will have improved sufficiently to off set the sale of the better players. That's the theory anyway.
To add to that, the recruitment team can clearly recognise potential and the coaching staff are excellent at helping players reach that potential, but it doesn't happen overnight. Lindsay was a mainstay in a team that was relegated in his first season. Pinnock couldn't get into a team that was relegated. Mawson was part of a team that went on that shocking losing run and was bottom of the league in December. He didn't start looking anything like until we brought Long in to play beside him, an experienced centre half. Roberts had a couple of good games then a few where he was all over the place and was taken out of the firing line for months. He wasn't brought back until the coaches had worked with him and Long had brought Mawson up to speed.
