Rage Online

I understand the fee was £8,000.

its a shame that if we keep an eye on our departed as the club always states we do, that we still did not feel he was up to it as a few more goalscorers at the club right now would be handy.

Obviously we might have and he might have told us where to go!

&quotSteppers&quot wrote:its a shame that if we keep an eye on our departed as the club always states we do, that we still did not feel he was up to it as a few more goalscorers at the club right now would be handy.

Obviously we might have and he might have told us where to go!

Hold on - he scored 40 for North Leigh who play several divisions below where we are now and has signed for FGR who are generally fighting to survive in the Conference. Good luck to Matty and I hope he does well but he is not good enough to improve on our current options.

On this logic, we should have another look at Jamie Slabber and Grebis!

Have slobber and grebes ever scored 40 goals a season in nearly two on trot?

I was not saying to sign him to replace beano in the starting line up or to be a first team regular but he is obviously developing well and we seem to be lacking anything prolific in the squad and this would have been a cheap re gamble.

How is woodley doing, r banbury in a higher league?

Best of luck to him, was always a better option than Marvin.

About gambling on 40-odd goal a season strikers. Charlie Austin, at Poole Town, was a step lower than Taylor was at North Leigh when a club down the A420 signed him.

Woodley has two goals in six appearances according to a nicely put together stats file on Banbury website.

&quotSteppers&quot wrote:Have slobber and grebes ever scored 40 goals a season in nearly two on trot?

I was not saying to sign him to replace beano in the starting line up or to be a first team regular but he is obviously developing well and we seem to be lacking anything prolific in the squad and this would have been a cheap re gamble.

How is woodley doing, r banbury in a higher league?

I doubt they have but I was perhaps guilty of using a crass example to make a point. MT's form at FGR will be interesting to follow but I still maintain that he would not be a better option than Craddock when he returns or Franks (given the Boro fans view of him) who has played at Championship level successfully. And so why would MT return here, he wouldn't get a game so I reiterate that to take a chance on MT would not be good for either the player or the club.

Woodley is a strange one given that Aston Villa were sniffing around him BUT the only time I have seen him play in the last two years was in the Didcot pre-season friendly 13 months ago and he was woeful. He would appear to have more of a pedigree than MT but the staff see these guys every day in training and (as ex-professional footballers) can probably spot a talent better than you or I - they clearly don't rate him yet.

&quotSteppers&quot wrote:Have slobber and grebes ever scored 40 goals a season in nearly two on trot?

If Slabber and Grebis have never played at such a significantly lower standard then that in itself probably speaks volumes about their relative merits. I appreciate the point you may be making (i.e. that scoring goals isn't a complex process and you can bang them in given the chances WHATEVER the standard) but comparing stats is not a helpful proof.

Weren't Ben Abbey and Norman Sylla amongst countless others similarly lauded?

We (Football Manager) had reports from paid scouts that Matty was the best finisher at the club when here.

Would be perfect foil for Beano in a 4-4-2....

I doubt they have but I was perhaps guilty of using a crass example to make a point. MT's form at FGR will be interesting to follow but I still maintain that he would not be a better option than Craddock when he returns or Franks (given the Boro fans view of him) who has played at Championship level successfully. And so why would MT return here, he wouldn't get a game so I reiterate that to take a chance on MT would not be good for either the player or the club.

I agree I dont expect him to be better than Craddock or Franks (both out for at least a month) but yesterday for example we did not have them we had Lewis Guy and Pitman (I cant decide on Potter) and I would think he has a chance of being better than them and that was really what I was getting at.

In an ideal world I expect the manager would have the front three as craddock.beano and potter/smalley but I expect we will do well to have more than a dozen times this season.

so someone from the squad will get games and as pittman is struggling we dont seem to have an impact striker in the squad at the moment.

On a different/related point FGR seem to have an eye for a striker, Fleetwood, Stryche etc etc

&quotSwissbloke&quot wrote:We (Football Manager) had reports from paid scouts that Matty was the best finisher at the club when here.

Would be perfect foil for Beano in a 4-4-2....

Yeah, for only eight grand and FGR-type-wages we could have had him. But then we’d need to stick more than one up front...

What is more concerning is what is not coming out of the youth system at the club. It’s been quite a while now since someone half-decent emerged. Is it cost effective? Is it not better to trawl the lower leagues and put the money spent in that area into a decent scouting system?

We've got a striker who's banging in the goals in the conference on our books.

Seems like we're looking a little higher up the pyramid for goalscorers, short-term at least, what with Franks from Middlesbrough and now Hall from West Ham.

North Leigh - midtable Southern League SOuth&ampWest (Step 4)
Banbury - 2nd in Southern League Premier Div (Step 3)

Sylla - last I heard was playing in top division of Dutch league
Taylor - wonder whether the person who told you that Taylor was the best finisher at the club, was the same one that told me that Dwight Ciampoli was the best crosser of the ball we had (which I could quite believe).

My original point is that this is the first time for a while any of our graduates have moved beyond the county border, rather than taking the drop down the divisions to Steps 3,4 and even 5 (Hellenic League) to join other local clubs (Typically City, Didcot, Abingdon and occasionally Banbury).

My question is whether this is all their ability deserves (ie does our system only produce players of local league standard) or whether if there was a better placed local side and/or we developed closer ties with one slightly further afield (eg FGR in Conf, say Maidenhead in Conf south etc) the products of our system might be able to get a chance at this higher level and in doing so not immediately fall into the mire of part-time football and off the radar for future development/progression up the pyramid?

Ideally (and if I ever won the lottery I'd love to pay for), I would have a scheme where we have a development squad of say 4/5 youngsters on our books after graduation, then either have them training with us full-time or out on 6m/season loans with clubs in Steps 1-3 but coming in to us once/twice a week as well. This would mean we do not have to make the final decision on them at age 18, but can keep an eye on them first hand and in the fold for longer as they develop over the subsequent years.

Ah yes. Norman Sylla. According to Ian Atkins, on why he didn't pick him: &quotAll he does is score goals&quot.