by hector » 02 Apr 2014, 19:21
Matt Hockley was probably the last home-grown product who became a first-team regular.
John James was brilliant for us because of his Birmingham connections that brought a whole host of good players from Sharpe to Moore to Curran to Darby followed later by Thomas, Gregg and Bedeau plus the likes of Gary Monk and Mike Williamson.
To think that could have been supplemented by Dan Gosling, Keiffer Moore and Jamie Reid locally had the youth system not been scrapped.
People have suggested that the youth system has not produced anything yet but it is less than 7 years old. It was around this time that year that there was the big meeting at the Riviera Centre that Keith Richardson - in his role as Chairman for the day, or whatever - organised and it was during that that there was talk of the link up with Paignton Community College, a project that I think Richard and Debbie Hancox were possibly involved with, because I seem to remember they were there handing out leaflets.
So, at the time, the best young players (probably anyone 11 and over) would have already been snapped up, so the best local talent (the youngest of whom) would only be 17 or 18 now, would still be elsewhere - not at Torquay. We will have always had, up to now, players that other clubs did not want or somehow overlooked.
It would be players who are now in that 15-16 age bracket, that you would hope that we would have on a par with other clubs, so still another 3 or 4 or 5 years before we have likely first-team players emerging from the Plainmoor youth system. What non-league football is going to do to that prospect, I suppose is the concern. Youngsters are not going to rushing to join a non-league team, even if we can run a youth system.
Matt Hockley was probably the last home-grown product who became a first-team regular.
John James was brilliant for us because of his Birmingham connections that brought a whole host of good players from Sharpe to Moore to Curran to Darby followed later by Thomas, Gregg and Bedeau plus the likes of Gary Monk and Mike Williamson.
To think that could have been supplemented by Dan Gosling, Keiffer Moore and Jamie Reid locally had the youth system not been scrapped.
People have suggested that the youth system has not produced anything yet but it is less than 7 years old. It was around this time that year that there was the big meeting at the Riviera Centre that Keith Richardson - in his role as Chairman for the day, or whatever - organised and it was during that that there was talk of the link up with Paignton Community College, a project that I think Richard and Debbie Hancox were possibly involved with, because I seem to remember they were there handing out leaflets.
So, at the time, the best young players (probably anyone 11 and over) would have already been snapped up, so the best local talent (the youngest of whom) would only be 17 or 18 now, would still be elsewhere - not at Torquay. We will have always had, up to now, players that other clubs did not want or somehow overlooked.
It would be players who are now in that 15-16 age bracket, that you would hope that we would have on a par with other clubs, so still another 3 or 4 or 5 years before we have likely first-team players emerging from the Plainmoor youth system. What non-league football is going to do to that prospect, I suppose is the concern. Youngsters are not going to rushing to join a non-league team, even if we can run a youth system.
