BHS":2vlrdjz8 said:
I salute Sangsters entrepreneurial spirit, very commendable, but I feel ultimately it maybe detrimental to Sangster the professional footballer and Argyle, will he make a professional career Or (more likely) turn out semi pro for Truro, Tiverton, Torquay, Torpoint et al like a lot of Argyle’s “promising” young talent.
The vast majority of young academy graduates at professional clubs aged 18-21 won't be being paid a professional wage after 25. They filter down to semi pro level, some give up entirely. A personal trainer at the gym I use used to play for the Birmingham City U21 team having been bought for the price of a 3 bedroom house, and now he is running spinning classes.
Sangster will still give 100% to his career but there is no harm in having side interests and a fall back option.
The chances of Sangster, Fletcher, Lolos, Peck, Cooper, Battle, Jephcott, Randell and Law all making it at Football League level are remarkably slim. Perhaps one, two if we are very lucky, will still be in the top 4 divisions in 3-5 years time.
The last player Argyle produced who was earned his place in the first team on merit was Ben Purrington and before that it was Curtis Nelson. Perhaps on average every 3 or 4 years a player will come out of the academy who has what it takes to maintain a career in the Football League, in between that there are a lot of broken hopes and shattered dreams of players expecting/expected to make it who ultimately don't.
I remember furore over some managerial decisions over the years regarding Tyler Harvey, Louis Rooney, Ollie Chenoweth, Jamie Richards, Luke Young, Jordan Copp, Aaron Bentley, Jordan Bentley, Callum Rose etc. Statistically that is the way it is. It isn't always lack of focus, desire or determination, not all the lads will have the ingredients. In fact most of them won't. We let Aaron Taylor Sinclair go and we let Ashley Smith Brown go, so it shows the standard Ryan Law for example needs to be at if he wants to get a first team professional contract offer. Very very difficult.
