Summerfield

Looks set to join Cheltenham. I thought he may get a chance at a league 1 club, surprising he has joined a club who will probably fight relegation. I suppose after several knock backs (Doncaster, Shrewsbury), anything will do.

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I'm surprised at the lack of interest. I know he was panned here (local bheys always are) but he did really well at Orient in league 1, even if they couldn't take him i'm surprised none of the other clubs picked him up on their radar.

Too good for Cheltenham.

That's just not true .. local boys are not always slated at home .... lazy posting.
Trigger was extremely popular, Hodges was a class act in the lower divisions and Joe Mason has been continually praised.

And as for Bix, he was pure genius. Yes there's been a few local duffers, but no worse a percentage than all the rest. Rory Fallon didn't come from Plymstock, did he ?
To me, in recent times, the best imports have been the French and worst, the Scotish.

penzancepirate wrote:

That's just not true .. local boys are not always slated at home .... lazy posting.
Trigger was extremely popular, Hodges was a class act in the lower divisions and Joe Mason has been continually praised.

And as for Bix, he was pure genius. Yes there's been a few local duffers, but no worse a percentage than all the rest. Rory Fallon didn't come from Plymstock, did he ?
To me, in recent times, the best imports have been the French and worst, the Scotish.

I hope your sitting down whilst reading this penzance but i 100% agree with you.

penzancepirate wrote:

That's just not true .. local boys are not always slated at home .... lazy posting.
Trigger was extremely popular, Hodges was a class act in the lower divisions and Joe Mason has been continually praised.

And as for Bix, he was pure genius. Yes there's been a few local duffers, but no worse a percentage than all the rest. Rory Fallon didn't come from Plymstock, did he ?
To me, in recent times, the best imports have been the French and worst, the Scotish.

I'll see your lazy posting and raise you a 'rose tinted revisionist' Penz.

Trigger i'll give you, Mase hmmm but then both were very good very quickly, they'd have been the stars wherever they came from. Hodges wasn't a local/youth product .

For every Trigger though you've got two Summers, two Shellys, two James Dungeys, two Ashley Barnes, two Owen Pickards etc, and don't get me started on the shit that Wotts used to get. They get vocal support when they first cut their teeth but once they're regularly in the team they attract a greater share of stick when it goes wrong. But maybe that's just my opinion based on what I have seen and heard .

Some very interesting and impressive info about the young talent:



Luke Was called up for an England under 19s call at an early stage of his career and he was being tracked by a wide range of premier league clubs.

Luke spent a week on trial with champions Chelsea with Dan Gosling.

Journalist Tony Rees placed Summers into the football leagues seven deadly winners article and commented with "rookie with a fine touch, and a Premiership look"

Summerfield had a price tag of 1.5 million along with keeper Luke Mccormick who was at 2 million.

In January 2007, Summerfield was listed as number 5 in The Guardian's ten best prospects to watch out for in 2007.

X Isle wrote:

penzancepirate wrote:

That's just not true .. local boys are not always slated at home .... lazy posting.
Trigger was extremely popular, Hodges was a class act in the lower divisions and Joe Mason has been continually praised.

And as for Bix, he was pure genius. Yes there's been a few local duffers, but no worse a percentage than all the rest. Rory Fallon didn't come from Plymstock, did he ?
To me, in recent times, the best imports have been the French and worst, the Scotish.

I'll see your lazy posting and raise you a 'rose tinted revisionist' Penz.

Trigger i'll give you, Mase hmmm but then both were very good very quickly, they'd have been the stars wherever they came from. Hodges wasn't a local/youth product .

For every Trigger though you've got two Summers, two Shellys, two James Dungeys, two Ashley Barnes, two Owen Pickards etc, and don't get me started on the shit that Wotts used to get. They get vocal support when they first cut their teeth but once they're regularly in the team they attract a greater share of stick when it goes wrong. But maybe that's just my opinion based on what I have seen and heard .

I don't think Connolly was a local boy [presume you mean him when you talk about Shelly's?]-he was a Scouser,i do believe.I didn't hear him get that much criticism from the crowd at HP,nor Barnes,in spite of his rather sad gesture to the crowd when he scored for Brighton last year.And i've never heard a local boy get the stick that people like Stewart Evans,Delve,McCartney or even Rory have received in the past.With Luke Summerfield,i always thought that it was his old man's position at the club which was a greater factor than his birthplace-he should have moved four years ago,IMHO,best for all concerned.Not a bad player but needs to start with a clean slate and get rid of any previous baggage-bit surprised at Cheltenham though,i must say.

cobipafc wrote:

Some very interesting and impressive info about the young talent:



Luke Was called up for an England under 19s call at an early stage of his career and he was being tracked by a wide range of premier league clubs.

Luke spent a week on trial with champions Chelsea with Dan Gosling.

Journalist Tony Rees placed Summers into the football leagues seven deadly winners article and commented with "rookie with a fine touch, and a Premiership look"

Summerfield had a price tag of 1.5 million along with keeper Luke Mccormick who was at 2 million.

In January 2007, Summerfield was listed as number 5 in The Guardian's ten best prospects to watch out for in 2007.

That's the problem, a player gets hyped up and when he can't rise to that hype the fans get on their backs. I really don't think it's just a local thing though, there's been a thousand players from other parts that have taken stick, often justified.

Remember Mike Trusson? He was another one that was going to reach the pinnacle of football but hardly raised an eyebrow outside of the two lowest divisions.

GOB wrote:

cobipafc wrote:

Some very interesting and impressive info about the young talent:



Luke Was called up for an England under 19s call at an early stage of his career and he was being tracked by a wide range of premier league clubs.

Luke spent a week on trial with champions Chelsea with Dan Gosling.

Journalist Tony Rees placed Summers into the football leagues seven deadly winners article and commented with "rookie with a fine touch, and a Premiership look"

Summerfield had a price tag of 1.5 million along with keeper Luke Mccormick who was at 2 million.

In January 2007, Summerfield was listed as number 5 in The Guardian's ten best prospects to watch out for in 2007.

That's the problem, a player gets hyped up and when he can't rise to that hype the fans get on their backs. I really don't think it's just a local thing though, there's been a thousand players from other parts that have taken stick, often justified.

Remember Mike Trusson? He was another one that was going to reach the pinnacle of football but hardly raised an eyebrow outside of the two lowest divisions.

Big Sid! He did take some pongo from the crowd,forgot about that.He actually had won them over but was sold at a Plymouth price to Sheffield United,i think.He was about the same time as Hodges,Cooper,Uzzell,Foster,Hodge and Phillips,all products of the superb Waiters youth scheme.The biggest waste of talent ever at HP was Darren Bastow,limitless ability but no desire,apparently.Sad.

I agree GS, it was the nepotism that did for Summers. Sons playing for their father's team have never been popular in football at any level and he would never have landed that extra contract if it wasn't for his father.

I think also his style and physicality didn't help, again something not universally popular. As for ability, he often tried the pass that wasn't really on, it stands out like a sore thumb, and fans really dont like that sort of thing over many other more in-the-background faults.
I remember the likes of the not very local John Clayton getting a lot of unwaranted abuse and it seemed people just didn't like his physiology and his very white legs .. almost like some poor sod being picked on at school for having too many freckles.

As for the early promise, I just give you one Simon Walton. Many, many youngsters look the bizzo at 16 and just don't mature. Without his father's help, I reckon Summers would not have made it to league football.

Another to add (although not an Argyle youth product) was Cherno Samba who was linked to £1m moves to top Prem clubs at 15- not sure where he's plying his trade now but can't be a high standard (despite being a nice bloke).

Even in Sturrock's successful side of the early/ mid 200Os players were targets for abuse- Gilbert, Capaldi and Wotton (who has just been appointed Yeovil captain [not that it is relevant]). ther locals I liked, included Stevie Adams and I thought he got a bit of unfair stick (but his career did go downhill after leaving us via Sturrock's Sheffield Wednesday). I also liked Bessie- he was born in Liverpool but was brought up in Plymouth- another one whose career went to nothing after leaving us for Wednesday.

Along with Kevin Hodges went David Phillips (Coventry and Man City) and Leigh Cooper and dont forget Colin Sullivan and Norman Piper.

Indeed Pete, I had also thought of Piper and Sullivan.
And let's not forget our Somerset local teenager that made it with us, Nicky Jennings, also in the 60s.
What a delightfully skilled little winger he was ... a real favourite with the fans. I never heard a moan about him ... nothing but praise.

A few others in my time-Richard Reynolds,Mike Trebilcock,Mike Bickle,Steve Davey,Alan Rogers,John Hore,Martin Barlow,Marc Edworthy-good players all of them and i honestly can't remember them being singled out for particular hammer from the crowd,other than the usual moans and groans.Coming back to the original topic,i always thought that Ryan Dickson had more about hm than Luke and was rather surprised when he was released,admittedly after some injury problems.That's not hindsight,either,i said so on PASOTI at the time and it gives me no pleasure to be proved correct.Darren Garner was another who enjoyed a good career after leaving Argyle,one or two are bound to slip the net,i suppose.

Johnny Hoare was a great crowd favourite, being here, there etc. The two most outstanding players of my lifetime time were both Argyle discoveries, Johnny Williams a real local lad and Paul Mariner whose subsequent career with England, Ipswich and Arsenal speaks for itself.

Surely the great John Brimacombe is worth a mention. Part Argyle player and part dockyardie