I'm going to withhold my trust for a bit longer than about a fortnight and one game in charge. That said, I'd be surprised if Steve Morrison had a great deal to do with the decision to let these players go.Originally Posted by Armitage Shanks
I say that because back in the days when our Development team consisted mostly of home grown players, you'd get the odd trialist who playing for the team from about the end of February onwards (Semi Ajayi was one of them). Invariably, these were players who had been told by the clubs they were contracted to that they would not be getting a new deal in the summer and so they were quite happy for them to play for other sides in the hope they would impress them enough to be taken on permanently. It was similar with the Academy team - usually around this time of year there would be a change in the make of of the team as younger players came in and the ones told they would not be offered pro deals dropped out.
As for those released, I watched Connor Davies in a Welsh Youth Cup Final when I believe he was just fifteen and he definitely had something about him, but he's been out on loan at Weston. It was originally for a season, but I notice he came on as a sub in the Under 23s' last game, so maybe it was ended early. Getting a loan to play a season in senior football at seventeen strikes me as pretty impressive, so I'm a little surprised he has been released, but I'm not really surprised about the others.
Sadly, this includes Cameron Coxe. Looking at it from the club's perspective, I do feel that decisions about releasing young players should be made no later than the expiry of their first professional contract and this is the situation that Coxe finds himself in. However, I go back to when Wales were invited to compete in the prestigious Toulon Under 20 tournament in 2017 where they acquitted themselves well in getting five points from their three group matches. All of the games were televised live and you only had to listen to the commentators to learn that Coxe was one of the best Welsh performers in each game - this in a squad which included Joe Rodon, George Thomas, Tyler Roberts, Dan James and Chris Mepham.
Coxe played in the manner of a modern, attack minded full back full back in those games and also did so in the Academy games I saw him play, but, to some extent with the under 23s and to a large extent in the first team, he was deployed more defensively.
You can say that, unlike so many, Coxe at least had the chance to play some first team football, but, given the general level of performance in cup matches in recent years, all four of the games he played were occasions where it would be very hard for any young player to impress. Unfortunately, despite senior players being just as culpable as he was, Coxe could be faulted for his part in at least two of the goals conceded in the games against Carlisle and, as mentioned earlier, the writing was on the wall for him when Dion Sanderson was signed - when I think back to Cameron Coxe's time at Cardiff, I'll remember that the first team just weren't playing to his strengths when he got his, limited, opportunities.
Best of luck to all of those who have been let go.
Reply With Quote