Another Promising Kid Looks Set to Leave

[Batch]

"Chelsea's transfer embargo will force them to miss out on Swindon's teenage winger Alex Henshall, clearing the way for Premier League rivals Manchester United and Everton.
Full story: Daily Mirror"

On the old BBC gossip column today

Except the BBC also claim Chelsea may be allowed to trade under appeal of their charges.

[pauld]

And their original source is the Mirror who follow all the other redtops in printing utter shite about lower league sides

[jonny72]

Crewe have reported a Premier League club for an illegal approach to a 15 year old.

Following what happened to Chelsea I reckon we could see a flood of similar complaints from smaller clubs against bigger clubs. Which could be good news for the smaller clubs as it could make bigger clubs act a lot more carefully when it comes recruiting younger players.

[Power to people]

I'm sure they will still try and ride roughshod and approach the youngsters and look for a way around the rulebook.

The premier clubs think they have the right to pick the cream of the crop regardless, and then crush them years down the line by releasing them as they have bought so many foreign imports they are no longer deemed good enough.

[Arriba]

swindon do the same

[Saxondale]

I was thinking the same.  I saw a poster for swindon youth academy against Corsham youth academy.   If Corsham magically have any decent youth, I suspect swindon will have them.  Doesnt make it any less annoying, especially when it a youngster you've put a lot of time and training into.

[jonny72]

That's an interesting point about non-league clubs. If one of their youth players leaves for a league club do all the same rules still apply, is some form of payment still required?

I'm guessing in reality it probably doesn't matter too much. The sums of money involved would be peanuts even for a club like Swindon and its not like a player could develop that much at a small local side and so would need to move on anyway if they had any real talent. And wouldn't a club like Swindon have a good relationship with all the local sides as well?

You can also look at it the other way round. I'd imagine a lot of players that go through the youth ranks at Swindon who don't make the grade end up at small local clubs - so in effect they're getting a player for free.

[reeves4england]

I think the important point that people are missing is that the rule-breaking is not about morals, it's a contractual thing. Therefore, if we steal somebody from Corsham youth, we'd only be doing anything wrong if we encouraged them to break a contract with Corsham. There's nothing wrong with what we did with, say, the Plymouth kiddies. They were offered deals by us and chose to come here rather than extend their deals at Plymouth.

[adje]

99% of our "promising youngsters" seem to lose their promise.

[STFC_Gazza]

Get in, The Football League rebels against the greedy Premier League Cunts

[Summerof69]

Henshall has made the England Under 16 squad :

http://www.thefa.com/England/MensUnder16s/NewsAndFeatures/2009/Squad_Wales.aspx

[Fred Elliot]

IIRC the last one of ours to do that was Rideout

[Barry Scott]

I thought Leigh Mills was U16 Captain?

[Fred Elliot]

I thought Leigh Mills was U16 Captain?

I though it was U15 BS

I could be wrong mind, the old grey cells are not what they were

[Peter Venkman]

I think barry is right mate -

A central defender who joined Tottenham as a first-year scholar in the Spurs Academy in July 2004.  Leigh was previously on the books of Swindon Town and he represented Hampshire at under-15 and under-16 level, captaining the England under-16 side, but he had not made a first team appearance for the Wiltshire club.  He has been capped for his country at under-17 level and went straight into the under-18 side for Spurs.