Aiden Marsh

If a youngster is good enough they will get a chance. Our current squad is full of academy lads being given a chance to shine.

 

Sadly he wasn’t good enough for the first team. He would have offered more than those other Charlatans last year that’s for sure but that doesn’t make him the right fit this season. Bags of effort but isn’t going to score you a hatful of goals.

Good luck to the lad. I hope he has a long and successful career, it might be that he blooms a little later. I’m sure we’ll find out one way or the other.

 

But how do you get good enough to be in the first team?

It's years ago, but I remember seeing plenty of young kids play and they were nowhere near ready. Watson, Eaden (who got released but then got re-signed), Morgan, Liddell, Moses. If you'd stopped after 3 appearances and 2 minute cameos, nobody would have batted much of an eyelid. Even Stones had some mares and looked quite weak.

But recently, and hopefully it changes a little, we've not given the youth from our academy much chance. I certainly don't expect someone to make their debut and be a sensation. But I'd like to think we could have patience, coach them, teach them and get them feeling like they belong.

 

Some players are good enough and some aren’t. We’ve had a litany of players we’ve played for 40 games plus who’ve not been up to it. It’s fairly obvious, pretty quickly the ones who can adapt and the ones who’ll try but don’t make it. Sadly not every player we bring through from the academy can be given a season or more to improve if we want to progress. Supporters are already impatient enough and demand signings at the drop of a hat.

Sending young lads on loan to get them proper minutes is one way of potentially improving them. Marsh has been out more than once and barely played anywhere whilst not really scoring when selected. Can that number of managers all be wrong?

Im also not sure about not giving young lads a go. There have been a good few over the last couple of years even to the point of comments on various social media sites of needing more experience and we can’t go in with this many kids.

 

To an extent, I agree.

That said, it’s crucial to have a head coach who genuinely believes in giving youth a chance, while also avoiding a bloated first-team squad. Unfortunately, we’ve had both issues recently, which has limited opportunities for our young players.

On top of that, several of our most promising prospects have suffered injuries at the worst possible times, disrupting their development — which has been really disappointing.

 

I don't think sending youth out on loan is a magic bullet. It might work for some, but for me, you're abdicating responsibility. I also don't think it helps with the chopping and changing of coaches, styles and now formations.

Marsh may have proven not to be good enough. But we gave Liddell and those others I mentioned time and opportunity they wouldn't have had. In fact, today, I suspect Redfearn wouldn't have made it beyond his first season.

Maybe learning patience may be a better thing for all of us. It could certainly be more cost effective.