A tale of two players.

Ashley Barnes getting promoted at Burnley prompted me to read this piece on Scott Sinclair.

The reason? As some of you may know, they both played at Bath Arsenal Juniors, where my son played and I coached , within a year of each other. Sinclair went to Bristol Rovers and was the youngest league debutant at 15 before going to Chelsea (most of the time spent out on loan), signing for and having success with Swansea before, once again, falling for the big money at Manchester City. He was, once again, loaned to West Brom where he has hardly played. He did play for the Team GB team and has the glamourous WAG but can't be happy with the way his career has gone.

Barnes, on the other hand, went to Plymouth Argyle where he actually spent a lot of time on loan as well. However, he then spent a very successful 4 years at Brighton until he signed for Burnley this season and obviously is in the EPL next season.

Out of the two, Sinclair is probably the more talented player and, to be fair, has had a fair amount of injuries but, as the article suggests, he (or, more probably, his agent) has made some terrible decisions - the one of leaving Swansea probably the worst.

What I was coaching and Sinclair signed to Chelsea, it definitely had an effect on Bath Arsenal with Dads bringing their sons and mentioning "Scott Sinclair" with a gleam in their eyes. When our player of the season got a trophy with Sinclair's name on, it caused great excitement. I doubt whether Barnes' name has the same effect yet his career is probably a better blueprint for a young player.

No link to the article!

click the 'this'

thanks! yes, a lot of common sense written there. it's ironic that one of the 2 clubs mentioned there for hoovering up all the young talent, are one of around 4 premiership clubs who start with an english qualified keeper. if hart gets a red card in the opening minutes of the italy match in june, i fear the chickens will really come home to roost!