Quote Originally Posted by Nobody's Rep View Post
I've watched a few of the lower EFL league games this week and the highlights show as well and it makes me wonder what quality we do have in the youth coming through as the standard looks pretty poor generally and yet none of ours on loan there? Are we not a fan as a club or did no offers come? I don't know the answer to that

Not convinced in our use of the Scottish leagues as how many have gone there and come back better players ?? I can't think of any??

Are we using the loan system just as a means of off loading wages rather than a clear strategy for player development?

Good questions here. I can answer the second one - Earnie. Burrows sent him up to Greenock Morton to 'toughen him up' and we know the rest. Even then we can't be sure though. Burrows never fancied Earnie so maybe he was just offloading him, Billy Ayre brought him straight back when Burrows was sacked. Was that loan the turning point for Earnie or was it Burrows going? Earnie says it benefitted him so we'll have to count it as a successful loan but I doubt it made a huge difference, he only played four games there.

And that's the issue here really. I don't know any more than you about the thinking behind the loans so we're just putting our interpretation on things. A number of contracts are being run down presently while King, Bagan and Davies are being 'developed' but there are plenty of grey areas to keep us guessing.

The question of why we don't have our young players going to EFL clubs on loan is one that throws me too. I'd have thought it was easier to establish what level a player is at if they go to League 1 or 2 but only King has done that this season of the youngsters (Isaak Davies was wanted by League 1 clubs but went to Belgium). We can't have a problem loaning to EFL clubs because Adams and Rinomhota are there, younger players like Healey, Mark Harris, Sang, Watters and Ciaron Brown before them. James Connolly too.

So you have to conclude that our youngsters aren't seen to be at that level yet but that would mean the current crop are not only worse than the players mentioned above but also worse than those who were getting EFL loan deals in recent years such as Ben Nugent, Oshilaja, Tutonda, O'Sullivan, Barnum-Bobb, Ibrahim Meite, Danny Johnson etc. Even Paul McKay. That would be a sobering thought.

That's far too simplistic though, I think. It would be interesting to know what loan offers (if any) came in for Ashford and Joel Colwill in January and what offers were made for Rubin Colwill over the years and why these were turned down but, without all the relevant information, I'm playing as much of a guessing game as you are.