Sam Surridge

paul49

UTC Legend
Our youngster, on loan at Poole Town, scored a hat-trick yesterday.

Would do Afobe and Grabban well to go out on loan.
 
He certainly pops up in the goals pretty much every game for the U21s.

Don't think I've seen much of him in the flesh though. If we're safe with a couple of games to go this season, it might be good to give him a run?
 
Eddie thinks so certainly. He trains with the first team and Grabban was allowed to leave because of Surridge's development.

Still expect us to target a striker signing in the summer but Surridge appears to be the most likely of the youngsters to come through the ranks.
 
I'd expect Quigley next, got his first league goal last weekend, but hopefully Surridge can get a loan out to play league football somewhere next season, and it's great to feel like the conveyor belt might have caught up a bit

Hard to tell from U21 games because we aren't playing in the Premier League junior thing, hopefully we can start to get the academy uprated to allow better competition for our youth players
 
I don't have any faith with our recruitment programme so these guys coming through are probably our best chance. Let's give them some run outs in the 2017/2018 pre-season games and see.
 
I thought that on Saturday def - he's a very raw version of King who seems to have the same qualities. The pair of them could be devastating together.
 
No faith in our recruitment programme?
We have no home grown players in our team, sometimes one on the bench. We must have recruited quite well over the past half a dozen seasons as we are in the premier league.
 
You could argue that the issue is not our recruitment, more so our academy position and situation... Any player that is not currently playing in our starting XI is basically not playing... OK they get to run around sanford against Lg2 opposition at times, but their development is not happening...

I am sure if the likes Gradel, Mousett, Ive, Mings et al had quality opposition to play against, on a regular basis, then this players would be a lot further forward, with respect to where Eddie needs them, than they currently are...

It's a vicious circle as they need match minutes, but they're not good enough to play match minutes as it stands...

That is what needs sorting ASAP...
 
northstandmark - 11/4/2017 16:26

He certainly pops up in the goals pretty much every game for the U21s.

Don't think I've seen much of him in the flesh though. If we're safe with a couple of games to go this season, it might be good to give him a run?

The new Pitman?
 
This is an interesting approach from Brentford https://www.theguardian.com/football/2017/apr/05/brentford-ditched-their-academy-premier-league-outcasts
I know its only friendlies but if they are playing against the likes of Bayern then its obviously a better standard than what our U21's are facing.
 
We could also play the same opposition, if we paid for it, and agreed to play youth players etc. However these would seem like revenue generators like the Madrid, Milan games in recent years, rather than player development opportunities

We can organise friendlies against whoever we want but once again without any form competition it's not the same as paying competitively. I definitely think our players would learn more from a full season at Poole or Wimbourne Town than one meaningless match against Marseille, Palermo, or Ajax

Games like that have their place and would help to keep players motivated, maybe raise their expectations of where they shuold be playing but friendlies are exactly that, and as we saw in the cups this year, no preparation for real football
 
SlowDownDerek - 11/4/2017 18:41

Mousset looked lively on Saturday - hopefully he'll get more chances. Got a lot in his locker if you ask me.

He certainly has all the tools - always saw him as a signing not for this season but to future proof against losing Callum.

What none of us can know on here though is whether he has the mentality to really fulfill his undoubted potential as he matures. Our history with French signings is not good.

The mentality question can also be leveled at Ibe.
 

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