So, looks like RDS didn’t drink his milk after all.
The will-he-won’t-he saga is finally over, and he’s swapping the cosmopolitan lights of downtown London town to go oop Norf t’whippet country. Aye, FC Stanley of t’Accrington no less. T’team that wouldn’t die, our lad, and once had that David Bumble Lloyd from t’Sky cricket playing for them. Course, he were no bloody good….
OK, enough stereotyping, although I’d love to see Roscoe with a pint of Thwaites and a flat cap. I have to be honest and admit I was shocked at the news. While I wanted him to stay, and genuinely thought that going to Torquay would be a massive step, this is one leap further than any of us imagined.
Relatively speaking, this is the biggest transfer in the AFCW era. True, we’ve had player come on loan from Palace, Brentford etc, and a couple of our players have had trials elsewhere in the country, but a formal transfer to a professional outfit is something else.
Remember what I said a couple of days ago about how such transfers can boost a stature of a club? Again, there must be players now like Robin Shroot, or Fergie, or anyone else you care to mention who are capable of playing far higher than the Ryman. You want them to stay with us, but now they might think “Hang on, if I knuckle down, get AFCW motoring and look good in the process, I could get pro level football soon”. Again, the door is not closed, and indeed pro clubs are looking at this level more and more for cheap players good bargains. News reaches SW19 Towers that Chelmsford’s Fiston Manuela is on trial at Millwall. Let’s hope he’s found guilty…
OK, I shouldn’t be almost encouraging our players to bolt towards bigger clubs as soon as the wallets open. But realistically, it’s something we’ll have to put up with for a while. It’s a bit Catch-22 : if we have a good team, we get looked at by scouts. If we don’t, we drift in Turdeyland. I suppose we must be doing something right though.
What I hope we do do is to ensure that we start getting fees for our players. If there’s a way of ensuring we get fees for another RDS style transfer then we must do it. We did it with Shane Smeltz anyway. Unfortunately, DA’s policy of only offering contracts to the youngsters has bitten us in the arse this time. Though whether that may have been down to financial constraints is anyone’s guess (and TBH that was probably a club decision as much as his). Now, it’s not so much can we afford to put our players on contracts, it’s can we afford not to.
Speaking of money, we clearly have some now, and we have to move forward. I get the feeling TB would be happy to lose RDS if we get the elusive big target man in. Maybe a shit-or-bust bid for Hockton? Although allegedly Goldberg Bromley are offering £15k for him, and it’s a lot of money for a 28 year old on his 9th club, apparently. Watch the Bromley fans claim he won’t be moving for the money, unlike if he joined us.
As for RDS, it’s the dream move he wanted. And only the most churlish would begrudge him that – christ, he’s ex-Palace youth, he’s had to drop down to the Conference. He then had to join us because his injury, and had to take employment from Croydon Council to boot. Can you imagine any pro footballer worth his salt wanting to do that? So I don’t blame him one bit for getting back into full time football (even for just 12 months to start off with).
Besides, we want him to do well, don’t we? We especially want him to have the games of his life on the 8th of December, 2007 and the 24th of March 2008…..