Post by Alex BH on May 21, 2022 8:28:31 GMT
Spot on, when it was announced we were having a B team it was obvious we are going to have a big squad, which would include a fair few low-cost players who may or may not get near first-team action depending how they develop. Adebowale may simply be in the running for an affordable contract to act as one of a few players who will provide an experienced spine to a young team, the coaches may see something in him that helps younger players. The B team will still need to be of viable strength and numbers to fulfill fixtures while not calling on first teamers.
There's been a school of thought on this forum that having development players is a waste of time if they aren't immediately useful to the first team. But I don't know of any club that doesn't nuture, young inexperienced development players. For me, blaming low-cost development players has always been a massive distraction when talking about why we aren't progressing as a club.
The problems arise when you have a huge squad many of whom never play a game, without the facilities. That causes frustration, resentment and other issues and doesn't develop the players. I was told by someone at the club that at some points last season there were over 50 players attending training sessions at Horsham due to Erdem's obsession with roping in anyone who could kick a football. The club will never progress like that.
Quite frankly I think it’s embarrassing and tin pot having so many players at training like it’s a year 9 lunchtime kick about in the playground. If i was a squad regular I would want to be training with lads I was going to be playing with and I think it would help build morale and team bonding having a smaller group of lads rather than loads of youngsters who aren’t going to play and who don’t get the competitive games and have the right coaching, education and structure in order to progress so probably end up feeling alienated and disillusioned which affects the morale of the whole squad. Yeah a B sounds good in theory, put in actuality how is that going to work? What if any reserve leagues are there? Will we have separate dedicated coaches for the B team? Separate training facilities? Good scouting network to recruit players? I’m skeptical about this.