Views from the Sieve

We need to remember that for a club like ours we have two choices when signing players. They are either players who aren't playing competitive football for their teams at all (some for extremely long periods for varying reasons) or we try and find gems in non league. That in itself is a risk whether they can make that step up to regular league football.

Let's all be honest, if we were offered Kane Ferdinand 3 years ago, we would of ripped their hands off. He is the prime example of what not playing regularly can do to a player.

We are not a club that signs starters so each season we need to build these players up. It can't be easy to manage with your hands tied that much. I'm sure Wayne would love to sign players on 3-4 year contracts but unfortunately we can't.

I can completely understand people's frustrations. No one likes standing there watching some of the dross we've been served but the last 5 games I've seen enough to tell me that we'll be fine. And to be honest, even if we're not, I, like most of you, will be back over there supporting them.

Dr Monkatron wrote:We need to remember that for a club like ours we have two choices when signing players. They are either players who aren't playing competitive football for their teams at all (some for extremely long periods for varying reasons) or we try and find gems in non league. That in itself is a risk whether they can make that step up to regular league football.

Let's all be honest, if we were offered Kane Ferdinand 3 years ago, we would of ripped their hands off. He is the prime example of what not playing regularly can do to a player.

We are not a club that signs starters so each season we need to build these players up. It can't be easy to manage with your hands tied that much. I'm sure Wayne would love to sign players on 3-4 year contracts but unfortunately we can't.

I can completely understand people's frustrations. No one likes standing there watching some of the dross we've been served but the last 5 games I've seen enough to tell me that we'll be fine. And to be honest, even if we're not, I, like most of you, will be back over there supporting them.

Lets not forget we apparently are banking on the Academy too. Lets hope Burnett and Hackett Jr are chips off the block.

As for the Non League players, we seem to have stopped that for now, just as the country celebrates Jamie Vardy being the next coming. Why are we not looking for the next Sam Saunders, Paul Benson, CMS, etc. etc.

I think when you have clubs like Peterborough, who hoover up promising non league players and then keeping them a few years then releasing them, means that these talents are not getting the chance to develop their game naturally. Vardy was lucky as Halifax and Fleetwood gave him game time to develop. And now the press is talking all about getting non league players in, you'll see premier league teams picking up 18 year olds because they had a good 6 months in the Conference. Making it harder for clubs like ourselves to get these players in to give them game time.

He finds his own way to the ground, but I hear someone takes him home !