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Good interview here on the BBC site with Jared Bowen.
Turns out he was on trial at Cardiff for six weeks but got rejected. Club must regret that one!
Does make you wonder how many youngsters come through the door for trials, must be a real skill to pick out the ones who will develop at that age
https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/a...s/cdd3v0zzdrro
Enjoyed that. Thanks for putting it up.Quote:
Originally Posted by DannyP_93
It feels like a kick in the balls knowing we had the chance to have him here.
When you think of some of the dross that’s put a City shirt on over the yrs, it’s seems crazy we let hip slip through our hands.
Saying that, there must be thousands of players who’ve failed to make the grade after looking promising as youngsters.Luck and mental attitude play a big part as well as natural talent.
If he was signed by us. As he's from Hereford, there maybe a Welsh connection... Thus would be a Welsh player now as England wouldn't have picked him up. Strange how things turn up
I knew of Bowen being rejected by City, but thought he was younger than that when it happened - the gap between him being told he wasn't good eniough for us and him starting to get first team games at Hull is not that great and makes you wonder even m ore about youth development with City.Quote:
Originally Posted by DannyP_93
Of course, the Academy is being praised a lot now and rightly so, becauass it looks like we have a good crop that have come through and appear to be handling the tansition from youth and under 21 football into the first team well - no doubt, the fact that there are a few of their team mates for ten years and more doing the same thing makes it a little easier.
It shouldn't be forgotten though that for a decade and more, the Academy produced players who might get to play in the early rounds of the League Cup every season, but that would be an end to their first team experience. I'll never believe it was a case of us not producing any players good enough to play at Championship level or higher - the Jared Bowen rejection suggests we weren't good enough at analysing or recognising talent for about a dozen years.
I said the same on Twitter in response to a Paul Abbo post - it feels like, on the rare occasions in recent years when a young player was selected for the first team, they have been quite quickly discarded, and I always wondered how they were ALL deemed not good enough (I assumed that those making such decisions clearly knew much more than me and saw more of the player than we ever would)Quote:
Originally Posted by the other bob wilson
And now we see lots of young players getting a chance and seemingly flourishing (who knows if it will last) - so assuming that this continues, what was behind the past conservatism and caution of playing youngsters?
It has always been puzzling and frustrating as a supporter to see so few players come through, which makes the current situation so much more refreshing.
Where did those players end up?Quote:
Originally Posted by Bobby Dandruff
This is no surprise to me, I know of one player who came through the system and ended up playing for Wales in the not too distant past who was the least talented of the youngsters at the time and yet was given a lucky break. Other far more talented youngsters were rejected at the time and were never given the chance to show their full potential. I remember some of the first team players at the time being amazed that he was chosen over some of the others. A terrible waste of talent.
I'm not very good at these guessing games.Quote:
Originally Posted by guzz
Who is the player exactly... Darcy Blake?
It would not be fair on him to say as he made a decent career for himself, but he was nowhere near the best youngster at the club at the time. This was around the early 2000's. No not Darcy.
Talent is just a part of it. Got to have the mentality and the discipline too. Mark Pembridge wasn’t as naturally talented as Jason Bowen or another local lad called Julian Barsi, who was with Luton as a youngster, but he worked 10 times harder than them and had a stellar career.Quote:
Originally Posted by guzz
South Wales is full of should haves and could haves, not just football but rugby too. There’s still
people in Merthyr who say Pembridge isn’t better than Julian Barsi even though he’s played for the clubs he has and has over 50 Welsh caps. :hehe:. Julian only ever played Welsh league.
When Julian was down town as a 16 year old on a Friday night Pembridge was up the hockey (a local pitch) working on his game with his old man.
James Collins I assume you mean. Around his age in the early 2000s LS was the one tipped for big things and was seen as the better centre half of two and most likely to make it into the first team, but he unfortunately didn’t have the discipline or mentality of Collins.Quote:
Originally Posted by guzz
I heard an interview with Gary Neville where he said he'd hear loads of players who were good up to a certain age saying that they were good enough, they just didn't have the discipline and he'd say well then you weren't good enough then. The ability to play is only part of itQuote:
Originally Posted by J R Hartley
Yeah, I’ve seen him on the overlap saying him and his brother were not the most talented but they had discipline and the mentality to keep working hard ever single day. Contrast that to someone like Ravel Morrison who had all the ability in the world but, in Sam Allardyce (his manager at West Han) words, he didn’t have the mental capacity to be a professional footballer. Same as Leon Jeanne really.Quote:
Originally Posted by delmbox
If we are discussing players who’ve made the most of their careers by matching limited ability with hard work, discipline and mental strength, then we can add one of our former players, Josh McGennis.
Started his footballing days as a keeper, before becoming a striker.
A career spanning 25 yrs, playing for at least 10 clubs, and getting over 80 caps for Northern Ireland, and scoring 12 goals for them.
He still going, and scored today for Exeter City.
Confirmed ineligible for Wales years ago.Quote:
Originally Posted by Armitage Shanks