MarkMatthews":fbzu0vl2 said:
Jimmyd":fbzu0vl2 said:
briangreen":fbzu0vl2 said:
A good player who was not given real opportunities, for me like Harvey and Alex Battle. I reckon he will come back and bite us one day. No one can score 2 goals against a Chelsea team filled with future (now) premier and international standard players and not be up to the level, that's ridiculous thinking.
Neither Harvey or Battle have gone on to prove Argyle wrong (stood next to Harvey's Dad once, he thought the whole world was against them)
I wish Fletcher the best of luck, i like him. My cousin who plays for Tiverton speaks very highly of him
It probably felt like the world was against them, in reality it was the previous two managers and 40% of our fan base.
I’m not sure how you draw this conclusion. Our youth players always have been given great support by most fans. More so than the performances deserve in many cases. I remember Ashley Barnes hit the crossbar once and the fans sung his name for about the next 12 games because of it.
Tyler Harvey got plenty of opportunities under Fletcher. Didn’t score enough. Transitioned into midfield under Sheridan, didn’t look the right fit. By the time Adams came along the writing was on the wall. He was very inconsistent and I don’t think he ever improved much after he broke through. Partly due to John Sheridan, but i think if you’re good enough you’ll force the managers hand.
As for Alex Battle, I saw him play the odd youth game and he never stood out. The same goes for Fletcher who struggled on the occasions I saw him play v Tavistock, and that was SWPL level.
I appreciate that you watch a lot of our youth football and can judge the players better than most. But given the long list of players you have championed over the years have led to limited first team impact, you must surely realise that youth football alone is not a great indicator for potential first team chances?
The harsh reality is stepping from youth football to men’s football is tough. It’s totally different and not all of our youth players are good enough to do it. Some are and will carve out a semi decent career in the lower levels, e.g Luke Young. Some will go on to the top levels as I expect Mike Cooper to do and then others who didn’t look cut out for it, will surprise us all, e.g Isaac Vassell (who I thought was rubbish!) or currently Jephcott, who I thought looked distinctly average as a winger under Adams.
Ultimately if you look at every player who was on Argyle’s youth books over the past 10 years, only a very, very small percentage have gotten anywhere and to be honest I don’t think any (in my immediate recollection) will be making Argyle look back and go “we got that one wrong”.
