The Young and the Restless

The Young and the Restless

ARGYLE boss Derek Adams is keen for his younger players to go out on loan to gain valuable game time and match experience - but not just yet.
Young squad members Aaron Bentley, Callum Hall, Tyler Harvey, Ben Purrington and Louis Rooney all came through their apprenticeships with the club to be given professional contracts, but due to the level of quality on show by Derek’s featured players the youngsters have found it hard to get game time and put their own stamp on his game plans so far.

Adams is keen to let these promising Pilgrims out on loan to get a taste of league action either in the Vanarama National League or Sky Bet League 2, but with the Pilgrims nagging injury list remaining sizable, the manager is reluctant to let them go at this point. Should the fitness situation improve, Derek remains open to the idea come the New Year.

He said: “It’s important that at their age that they’re pushing to play in first teams and I think that [going out on loan] could help their development in the near term.

“Louis Rooney has come from under-18 football and now he’s into full-time football. They are developing as players. Training with the first-team everyday is a different avenue and we’ve seen that from the likes of [Callum] Hall, [Aaron] Bentley and you’ve got [Ben] Purrington, [Tyler] Harvey.

Ryan Lane also trains with the first team every day, having been granted an extra year as an apprentice due to a knee injury that kept him off the pitch for a long time. “He’s been given an extra year because of his knee injury and he’s still paid as an apprentice,” explained Derek.

“He’s been given an extra year to try and get him back on track; come the summer we have to make a decision if he’s worth, like the rest of them, a new contract to be a first-team player.

“We’ll continue to judge everybody. They have to now push and be ready to play in the first team on a consistent basis but before you can do that you need to play well in the reserve games and development games on a consistent basis.

“All these players that I’ve mentioned need to be top performers on a weekly basis and then when they come into first-team training they have to then stand out as well. Until they do that they’ve got to push on.

“It’s not easy when you’ve got a good group of players like we’ve got.”