Re: Undervaluing our own produced players : Wed Mar 07, 2018 4:47 pm
I think the threads drifted slightly and away from what I was getting at.What happens to the players at say 22/23/24 when they may want to move elsewhere and if we should resign them etc if they do eventually want to come back is a slightly different point.
Originally I was trying to get at the investment in youth that the club seems to make on many various levels from the scouting, education of, background medical care and other stuff that goes unnoticed along with the attitude the club has over the last 10years or so of paying players their worth at all levels up to and including their first senior contracts and then if they progress paying them accordingly. (Steve hand in said his lad came to Wigan as they look after an better than anyone else, and not just in a money way).
That long term view has definitely brought a lot of success bringing players through and that is the comparison o as making with the Wire thread that short termism and getting excited over 3/4 supposed big names and paying them big no ey seems to be coming at the cost of the youth and it's development.
Now on what happens on the relevant merits of those players maybe wanting to move on, whether we make it easy for them or whether we should sign them back is a slightly different debate imo
However I do feel that on that part a lot of players are getting slightly unjustifiable criticised because of fans frustrations and not necessarily their contributions in some instances.
Tomkins- injuries have affected his contribution and I think this marquee tag is used as an unfair stick (he's had a really good start imo to the season)
Budgie - I think he was ok last year and very good early on until injury amd positional shift forced on us let to am average back end. Marshall.comimg through has put a lot more pressure on but looking at last Friday when I thought he was very good he is still a tremendous player.
Williams - ditto sam regarding the marquee tag. However I still would reckon every club in the league would have signed him this time last year and rightly so. Id hazard a guess that every club in the league would probably still do so.
Gildart - makes a couple of errors (he's 21/22 for crying out loud so what so we expect) and makes a comment that imo is nowhere near as bad as people are making out and some fans imo then try and overstate how poor he's been to get back at the comments.
Back on track
My point is that all the above and almost countless others are testament to what a great system/job the club is doing. I just think it's very easy to clammer for 3/4 Big name signings and forget that if we follow that path it may come at a cost.