Quote Originally Posted by Rjk View Post
I think there's a bit of revisionism going on as I've seen it mentioned in another article that we "let Spence go" because we had Colwill coming through, whereas I'm sure I also remember reading that we offered Spence a contract and he turned it down.
That's correct-Sion Spence was offered a 1 year deal, along with Sam Bowen. This was when Neil Harris was in charge, and he basically said to Sion, I wont be using any youth players in the first team. Sion decided to try his luck elsewhere, and Sam Bowen stayed. When Bellamy was still there, towards the end of Warnock's reign, he was constantly pushing for both to be given the opportunity in the first team, he felt they were ready. Warnock wasn't interested and batted him away with, "put them in the U23's". I don't think Bellamy was a fan of U23 football at the time, so kept them with him in the U18's. I suppose its a sliding doors moment, and Sion might have been wise to stick around, but he was desperate for first team football.