New Loan Signing

Bobby Dale 18 year old striker from Cheltenham.

Hmmm, who is he going to displace? His manager is looking for him to have game time.

Generally we are expected to play loanees. presumably there is a feeling that we are creating chances and not converting which is why he has been brought in.

It seems a shame though to disrupt the team even further.

It is extremely difficult to predict what the team might be.

To me, he is a sub for Pratt and, in which case, drops Jennings further down the pecking order. I would have thought there was a case for Jennings going out on loan himself.

Guess you mean Hemmings

Ha ha, he has been a bit anonymous.

Marc Monitor wrote:To me, he is a sub for Pratt and, in which case, drops Jennings further down the pecking order. I would have thought there was a case for Jennings going out on loan himself.

I agree.

davebart wrote:Generally we are expected to play loanees. presumably there is a feeling that we are creating chances and not converting which is why he has been brought in.

It seems a shame though to disrupt the team even further.

It is extremely difficult to predict what the team might be.

We are told that those in the under 21 team would prefer to get regular football at the likes of Shepton Mallet rather than warming the bench at Hayes. So we say a probable goodbye to those youngsters we have put time into developing and yet take on other clubs' probable neverwillbes. I hope to be proved wrong with this latest quick fix but I would argue it's a crazy policy...

I rather agree with Comrade. Very rarely over the years have loan signings of young strikers proved successful. The only one i can think of who made an instant impact was Bobby Zamora and as he was only here for a month he didn't really influence the seasons outcome. The lad we had from Gloucester last season was very poor and also, with the acquisition of Reid for a while, only went to prove what a very poor decision it was to release Charlie Griffin, who even this year i would much prefer to have in the squad than Hemmings.
I wonder how much in this case it was Cheltenham asking us to take this player on loan rather than us actively seeking another striker, when it is a replacement for Walsh that we are more in need of.

Some very good points made in these last two posts.

It does seem rather odd that with Phil Walsh probably out until February, Frankie Artus for a couple of weeks and Dan Ball doubtful for tomorrow we sign a striker, particularly one with no proven experience.

Comrade Powell's point is very valid - we produce players through our youth system, don't give them a chance in the first team and let them go off to other clubs (Jordan Ricketts is a good example) and then sign a youth player on loan from another club. Does seem a strange policy.

And another loanee from Newport.

We have to accept Zamora was the exception. Rarely do loan signings make a significant impact, bolster the squad and who knows the odd goal, assist or clean sheet is the benfit.

I was talking to a Rovers fan during the game and he said Rovers academy is exactly the same. Players brought through the system are few and far between.

thought he looked good when he came on
also won us the pen

Micawber wrote:The lad we had from Gloucester last season was very poor and also, with the acquisition of Reid for a while, only went to prove what a very poor decision it was to release Charlie Griffin, who even this year i would much prefer to have in the squad than Hemmings.

So would I! What was particularly annoying was the fact that we didn't make a move for Charlie when he became available last season. He's scoring regularly for Gloucester and is the Conf North player of the month...

http://www.gloucestercityafc.com/?p=5421

I have followed trends on the Youth subject for some time. My son is one who has left the 'Academy' to play in the Southern League. He was enticed to join the club with promises of first team access and regular games at Bishops Sutton (we are not naïve, and realise that you have to earn a place, but if good enough for Southern League at 18 surely good enough to be involved in training!) but he got one session and no involvement in pre-season. He along with some of his friends previously mentioned on this forum have no trust in the current regime and feel better served by going elsewhere. I raised this issue last year with Manda Rigby that if the youth aren't encouraged, and don't see a pathway, they will leave. Needless to say I didn't even get the courtesy of a reply.
It appears to me to be clique, almost a private members club for the gratification and ego of the few and the Academy is there simply to generate an income and not development. You only need to look at the record of who has come through despite undoubted talent. I only write this because of our disappointment, my son only wants to play football, no interest in money, and has loved playing for Bath at Twerton in the u18s.

Disappointed wrote:I have followed trends on the Youth subject for some time. My son is one who has left the 'Academy' to play in the Southern League. He was enticed to join the club with promises of first team access and regular games at Bishops Sutton (we are not naïve, and realise that you have to earn a place, but if good enough for Southern League at 18 surely good enough to be involved in training!) but he got one session and no involvement in pre-season. He along with some of his friends previously mentioned on this forum have no trust in the current regime and feel better served by going elsewhere. I raised this issue last year with Manda Rigby that if the youth aren't encouraged, and don't see a pathway, they will leave. Needless to say I didn't even get the courtesy of a reply.
It appears to me to be clique, almost a private members club for the gratification and ego of the few and the Academy is there simply to generate an income and not development. You only need to look at the record of who has come through despite undoubted talent. I only write this because of our disappointment, my son only wants to play football, no interest in money, and has loved playing for Bath at Twerton in the u18s.

I've heard the same regarding a number of u18 players. Very sad.

This is not something that I have heard widely but I did follow what went on with Bradley Norris the season before last. I think that he started two games (Somerset Cup) which is possibly fair enough at his level and scored a couple of goals. He was an unused sub for 9 games and came on, usually for 15 minutes at the end for four games. I saw him a couple of times and he looked OK but, fairly obviously, a bit off the pace coming in at that stage of the game. As we know, Stearn finds it hard to be effective coming off the bench at the end so it is hardly likely that a kid will be any better. He went out to Paulton and is now at Larkhall. Now I am not saying that the lad should be in the first team and I have no idea whether there were other reasons due to his attitude or whatever why he was let go. All I know is that he was obviously deserved a place in the first team squad, sat through a lot of matches as an unused sub and didn't get a huge amount of playing time to show himself. Even then, he looked reasonably bright.

The thing is that Bath City have to be very careful with promising players in this area. Southampton have been rapacious for ages - just in this week's Chronicle, you see that they took Jake Sinclair and Tyrone Mings from under our noses - and obviously City and Rovers are going the same way with the latter getting Scott Sinclair. I wouldn't mind but Mings went from Yate to Chippenham to Ipswich and Ashley Barnes went from Paulton to Plymouth without us even picking up on them. What did Yate, Chippenham and Paulton see in these youngsters that we didn't?

We have got to make Bath City a desirable destination for the players that are now coming through U-16s, maybe even U-15s and U-14s. I don't mean tying them up to contracts now necessarily - it's something I don't agree with - but we should at least know about them and be in a position to give them trials and bring them in for training as soon as possible.

I have a lot of time for our management but this is one area that I'm becoming increasingly concerned about. Disappointed is not the first to express concerns at how his son has been treated and what worries me is that word gets around that we are not a club known for developing (and benefiting) from young, local talent. I hope the lad signed on loan this week is the last and not first of the season and that we actually start utilising the under 21 set up. Otherwise what is the point of it?