The (Not so) Great Debate on Brent's Herald

X Isle wrote:

Angry wrote:

Sheridan does give youth a chance. Bentley being the latest. Harvey was kept on when many thought he would be let go last summer and Young being given a contract so he must see something in Harvey to do that. Not to mention Lecointe was given a new 12 month contract after missing a year with the knee injury to give him a chance to show what he can do and to earn a longer deal. Not many managers would do that with money being very tight.
Also worth mentioning Sheridan was a youth team manager at Oldham where many made the grade there.

The problem is with youth not cracking into the starting 11 or featuring more on match days is the sheer lack of U21 development games aka reserves.
One game every 2 months is not enough to give First year pros or YTS players who are in that years pick to earn a pro contract in May the opportunity to play/learn/develop and show what they can do and more importantly keeping fit so when the call comes they can make the most of it.

Having the likes of Allen and Bentley sit on the bench and never play and then play them after a very long period of inactivity is not going to have an impact that it could have if they where kept active and fit playing reserve games more often.

Mind you, this could also be the case for a few in the first team squad like Thomas, Morgan, Banton, Bittner, Norburn for example who arent playing as much too. i'm sure they would benefit more from playing than sitting and waiting.

I hope John Sheridan addresses this for next season and has our reserves more active then they are now. We dont have to play a full 46 games a season schedule but 2-3 games a month would do.

Wot 'ee said

Judging by some of the players who played yesterday they agree too.

Just a crying shame they won't play for another couple of months