Training Photos

[KBB]

Probably wrong but it looks photoshopped a little bit. Could just be the quality of the image isn't very good 

[Carnero]

5 minutes ago, Topram said:

who’s this next to Wazza? Seen a few saying Josh Sims?

Zak Whitbread 

[Ghost of Clough]

21 minutes ago, Carnero said:

Yeah I've seen him play a few times, just didn't recognise it as being him!

He'll replace Archie next season won't he.

I expect so. WGP to fill in at LB or CB depending on who's in the first team squad that week

[Jimbo Ram]

3 minutes ago, Carnero said:

Zak Whitbread 

 Not old enough…

[Topram]

5 minutes ago, KBB said:

Probably wrong but it looks photoshopped a little bit. Could just be the quality of the image isn't very good 

Could be right 

[Carnero]

4 minutes ago, Ghost of Clough said:

I expect so. WGP to fill in at LB or CB depending on who's in the first team squad that week

Think he'll end up as a CB won't he given his size.

[JfR]

8 minutes ago, KBB said:

Probably wrong but it looks photoshopped a little bit. Could just be the quality of the image isn't very good 

Yeah, it's someone having a laugh

[Eric the half a ram]

Not photo related, but Wayne said the team are going down South for a training camp, anyone have any idea how far down South they mean? I'm on the South Coast, so might try and see them train if it's fairly close! 

Thanks. 

[DCFC1388]

Just now, Eric the half a ram said:

Not photo related, but Wayne said the team are going down South for a training camp, anyone have any idea how far down South they mean? I'm on the South Coast, so might try and see them train if it's fairly close! 

Thanks. 

A week training camp wouldnt be cheap, surely if we're that hard up for cash & Mel doesnt want to spend any money we would have just stayed at Moor Farm?

Answer to your question, not sure anything has been said in regards to where.

[ColonelBlimp]

7 hours ago, Eric the half a ram said:

Not photo related, but Wayne said the team are going down South for a training camp, anyone have any idea how far down South they mean? I'm on the South Coast, so might try and see them train if it's fairly close! 

Thanks. 

https://www.thedonkeysanctuary.org.uk/ 

Edited July 7, 2021 by ColonelBlimp
donkeys

[Ravabeerbelly]

14 hours ago, Topram said:

Seen Bobby Ducan is back with the academy after training with the first team last week

Bobby Duncan, Isaac Hutchinson and also Martell Taylor Crossdale in this photo of the 23s training which seems odd on all 3 counts.

 

[kevinhectoring]

On 02/07/2021 at 11:55, Leeds Ram said:

Bird, Knight, Buchanan, and Sibley are unknowns

Find this an odd comment.

If they are complemented by the right incoming players some of them - and Watson - will be important. Want to see them developing more than they did last season 

[Ghost of Clough]

36 minutes ago, Ravabeerbelly said:

Bobby Duncan, Isaac Hutchinson and also Martell Taylor Crossdale in this photo of the 23s training which seems odd on all 3 counts.

Hutchinson - Struggled to get in Forest Green's side in L2, so it's not too surprising that he isn't part of our first team. I imagine he'll be out on loan again this season
Duncan - Hasn't proven himself in the U23s yet and will be 4th choice CF at best by the time the new season actually starts
Taylor-Crossdale - If it is him, then it's likely similar to the Hector-Ingram signing. A bit of a cheap punt on someone who at some point showed great promise (20 goals in 21 U18 games in 16/17 and 6 in 8 U23 games in 17/18)

 

10 minutes ago, kevinhectoring said:

Find this an odd comment.

If they are complemented by the right incoming players some of them - and Watson - will be important. Want to see them developing more than they did last season 

Leeds Ram just doesn't rate any of our academy players 

[angieram]

1 hour ago, Ghost of Clough said:

Duncan - Hasn't proven himself in the U23s yet and will be 4th choice CF at best by the time the new season actually starts
 

I agree and if Bobby Duncan is as good as his publicity, he will soon be bossing the under 23 games and pushing for a call to join the first team squad.

Credit to the young man for working hard to get fully fit over the close season. If that is all that was holding him back we will soon find out.

[Sparkle]

9 hours ago, Eric the half a ram said:

Not photo related, but Wayne said the team are going down South for a training camp, anyone have any idea how far down South they mean? I'm on the South Coast, so might try and see them train if it's fairly close! 

Thanks. 

Loughborough ?

[RoyMac5]

1 minute ago, Sparkle said:

Loughborough ?

I kinda believe that. ?

It's not is it?

[Sparkle]

2 minutes ago, RoyMac5 said:

I kinda believe that. ?

It's not is it?

Dunno but it meets the budget ?

[RoyMac5]

3 minutes ago, Sparkle said:

Dunno but it meets the budget ?

Ahh, I bet Mel has put his Sandbanks gaff on Air B&B! We're off for a week there. ?

[Duracell]

I remember when I was 15, I convinced my mate from Market Harborough to get the train up with me from Kettering to watch Nigel Clough's Derby train at Loughborough.

Took me 90 mins to get there. Watched the squad run around for a bout 10 mins, then Robbie Savage gave me a look which said "wtf are you doing here?" and in that moment, I thought "I genuinely don't know what I'm doing with my life" and I went home.

From that moment on, I vowed never to spend my pocket money on watching Conor Doyle and Saul Deeney run around a university campus ever again.

[Ravabeerbelly]

34 minutes ago, Ghost of Clough said:

Hutchinson - Struggled to get in Forest Green's side in L2, so it's not too surprising that he isn't part of our first team. I imagine he'll be out on loan again this season
Duncan - Hasn't proven himself in the U23s yet and will be 4th choice CF at best by the time the new season actually starts
Taylor-Crossdale - If it is him, then it's likely similar to the Hector-Ingram signing. A bit of a cheap punt on someone who at some point showed great promise (20 goals in 21 U18 games in 16/17 and 6 in 8 U23 games in 17/18)

I only suggested it was odd, for a variety of different reasons.

Taylor Crossdale is nothing like JHI. He’s older than when JHI joined for a start. He’s a ‘99 born and therefore the same age as Cam Cresswell who was 23s top scorer and been here since he was 8(?) and was released at the end of last season. Taking Taylor-Crossdale on trial for the same group, who plays in the same position makes no sense. Add that to the fact he’s had recent trials at two Cat 2 academies and not been taken, using your logic for Hutchinson, means he must struggle at Cat 1? His last recorded goals were u18s three seasons ago! He’ll be 22 before xmas.

Duncan, I never felt is close to first team and have stated several times he needs games and goals for the 23s this season to stake a claim. It was odd, IMO, to have included him with 1st team the first week back and then to send him back to the 23s a few days later. Not sure how that makes a player feel?

Hutchinson, whichever way you want to slice it has a lot of first team experience in the EFL for his age. He’d racked up 40 games (30 league games in league 1) while still a teenager, shortly before we took him having lost half a season through Covid and another 12 in league 2. That’s over 50 first team games in since he was 18 despite losing half a season to Covid and half a season with our 23s. Add to that another 23 as an unused sub (transfer market). Impact player or squad player, that’s a substantial amount of first team experience - even if only around the squad all week training - for a young player to have, which makes it odd to me that at 21 (same year group as Cresswell) and with a threadbare squad that we aren’t at least seeing him at training?

Im not suggesting for a second that he’s a first team player or would make match day squads but at a time when we are ‘looking at’ so many young players from the 23s it’s odd that he’s not one of them.

As for the struggling on loan, that doesn’t wash with me or tell me too much without knowing the nuances of the situation. Judging a young technically based player on his success in league 2 is, as the saying goes, akin to judging a fish on its ability to climb a tree! 

We have a number of young players currently training with the first team, none of which have had a loan spell or experienced adults football other than the Chorely game which highlighted just how difficult that can be and they were two leagues below league 2!

Of McDonald, Ebosele, Watson, JBrown and Stretton, only Stretton has experienced any loan time, sadly cut short by injury but even despite scoring 2 goals he only averaged 30 mins a game and only started once? That’s not to criticise him at all, he has a big future and I’m a huge fan, but that was in the Conference and at his age they only really saw him as an impact player which is understandable, by the same age Hutchinson had made 30 league 1 appearances. 

Of the others, there’s a number of reasons why the others haven’t been on loan….Watson could be argued that he was a regular on the bench and so was needed to stay here, but if he was to be dropped into league 2 right now he’d be lost without trace. Physically he’d be eaten alive and his technical attributes would be wasted as he watches the ball getting smashed around 40 feet in the air for 90 mins!

Festy much the same (and also had injuries of course) but size wise he’d find lower leagues a struggle especially if played as a defender.

I really like Jordan Brown but he’s 20 and not played any real adults football. He should probably experience a loan this season. The problem I’d imagine will be finding a club that could assure reasonable game time for an untried academy player. 

Of the others, Solomon, Cashin, Bardell, Williams, Dixon, Wilson, Duncan and Plange all of them currently training with the first team (except Duncan now), I don’t see any of them being capable of going into league 1 or 2 and being able to get many minutes, let alone establish themselves with regular football. It’s brutal! 

 Like I say, I just find those three players current situation odd. That’s not me saying they should or any of them should be a first team player at all.

Sorry to waffle….I hope that’s not seen as argumentative….I enjoy your posts and knowledge of the 23s and 18s is fantastic and insightful, I’m just saying what I see given the current situation and player shortage….I’d be taking a look at as many options as possible.