Knibbsworth":3jk59pxn said:
Can you tell me who has played Championship standard before and who is an apprentice that has never made a first team appearance?
In terms of being up for a game and adrenaline pumping, I don't think Plymouth Parkway away was the biggest game of Osbourne's life the way it was for the other lads. It was a vehicle to get closer to fitness.
Osbourne played very well by all accounts at Morecambe against much better quality forwards than Plymouth Parkway's.
I'd have to question your sanity to honestly think playing an untested apprentice against Doncaster instead of an experienced pro like Osbourne strikes you as a good idea.
Well we have one player on the downward spiral, who racked up a bakers dozen appearances in the second tier half a decade ago, that's had his share of injuries on the one hand. On the other we have someone who could potentially go on to much better things in the ascendancy in either Callum Rose or Jordan Bentley. I know which excites me more, a raw talent that I believe (in either of those), given the right opportunities and coaching, could easily eclipse Osborne's achievements to date, which all appear to be behind him. Jordan has already got the same amount of appearances in the first team as Osborne and is ahead of where I think even he would have predicted even this time last year. Callum is plugging away waiting for his chance, quietly impressing. (Steve Evans on another thread even predicting, perhaps somewhat excitedly, that he thinks Callum will be a Premier League player)
Personally I would question the sanity of anyone who would make assumptions on who may or may not be the better player, if you have never seen one of them play. Your opinion of course and your entitled to it but in my opinion I would question if it was an informed one.
Time will tell of course but in the current climate I very much doubt Callum Rose will be too far off of the first team squad and I've got a gut feeling we will be hearing a bit more about him sooner than we might think. If you factor: Injuries racking up, games racking up, still a way to go before the transfer window, another apprentice already making his debut and its not unrealistic to see how he could catch a lucky break in all of this.
I would hope to think your wrong with regards to Osborne's attitude to a SWPL game, and to be fair I don't think it is his attitude. I would again question if you think its a good idea to play someone in the first team who feels they are above having to prove themselves in the reserves when they are not in the team, which to me doesn't seem cohesive to creating good team moral.
As for the untested comment, they are all going to have to be tested at some point or we never end up moving on anywhere. If they play in a nothing game all we hear is that they shouldn't play in a meaningful match because they didn't prove anything in the nothing game because the opposition were "on the beach" or some such nonsense, which is the argument we most recently had with Rooney (and rather ridiculously Tyler Harvey ), after the Hartlepool match and whether they should have been contenders for the play off games.
There is always an excuse of not "risking" playing our players: we are going for Play offs/autos/fighting relegation (delete as applicable but its unlikely that you wont have a season where one of those is not your situation.) Its a convenient excuse to hold people back, plain and simple and now is the ideal time when things need shaking up and changing you could afford one or two (and that is all that's being suggested,) a run of games between now and January. If its not working out then we can look at it and bring people in. In the meantime stick with what's looked shot the last four games or, twist and inject some energy, something fresh because it sure as hell looks like it needs it.
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