Exeter City vs Reading - EFL Trophy - match day thread. 7pm kick off

[SaintJames]

Why ?
City are probably not desperate for money at the moment and he is a vital part of the team.
Surely we should aim to tie him down to a new contract rather wrecking what so far has been a fantastic defence.

Its the age old dilemma of a player almost certainly not signing a new deal - almost certain has been offered a much improved deal but he can treble anything we offer. Therefore, do you choose to get whatever fee we can or keep him for the rest of the season then he leaves on a free. Personally I would keep him and lose the small fee

 

[Radio Free Skaro]

Don't think anyone is saying the academy system is in trouble?

This current crop might not be good enough, they might be - that's the part of the gamble of putting our eggs all in that particular basket. The academy itself has shown itself to be a brilliant producer of young talent but I've always been uneasy about the presumption that we'll always have another good 2/3/4 players lined up to keep us going. League 1 status is going to challenge this even further as they have to hit the ground running at a higher, tougher level.

It's not the academy I have concerns about, it's the fact that we need it to keep producing to avoid the dip we have last time when the production line dried up leaving Tisdale to set us up to essentially sell Grimes. It's a structural issue - and no, it's not all about one game. That would be mental. Hence I said some "potential red flags"... chinese whispers does the rest to posts on here.

They are examples if people saying exactly that
Devon Red said:
All it shows is that Reading's academy lads are far better than ours - it won't affect our season but I totally understand the concerns around where the next academy sales are going to come from if this latest crop aren't up to it, I share those concerns."

There are also people in this thread saying they would be be surprised if Caldwell will still be here next summer and other such nonsense, if that's not an overreaction I don't know what is

 

[AB Ciren]

I was also disappointed with last nights results but a couple of points, these might have already been said, so if so apologies.
Reading Academy is Cat one EFEC is cat three. Arsenal sent scouts to the game to check on 2 Reading youngsters Vickers and Bindon might have helped fire them up. Just saying like

 

[andrew p long]

I think its the total opposite of poor planning. Clearly GC was giving the majority of the first XI a rest ahead of next week where we play 3 games in the week, including a game against Premier League opposition. So whereas I agree that the club has a responsibility to compete in every game, I also think the decision to rest / protect those players is totally justified. I doubt anyone on here would swap our 2-1 win vs Reading in the league for the 0-9 defeat last night in the trophy. Similarly we'd all prioritise three points on Saturday.
I also note we have three games the following week as well, with a midweek trip to Charlton, so starting from last Saturday we have 7 games in 22 days.

What is even more important is that we now play 9 games in 29 days - that's Sat-Tues-Sat for a month. Put that together with lots of new players not having had a full or any pre-season, therefore only able to play parts of games at best, on top of a bit of an injury list.

So I think GC was entitled, even obliged, to protect the players who he will have to rely on in the upcoming fixture congestion. For example he could have done what previous rules might have obliged, and say played Sweeney for 45 minutes and then replace him with Aimson for the second half, rather than the game ending up with defenders who have been involved in conceding 4 or 5 goals in U18 matches this season. But. their workload?

 

[Ex-ciderrr]

It was an extremely difficult watch last night and a tough one to take for the club as a whole imo.

while it goes down in the records for all the wrong reasons it obviously wasn’t an Exeter side that will face Oxford on Saturday however eyes will be on us, after that defeat last night and people Will be looking to see how we get on Saturday (I can’t imagine it will as they are all professionals, but I hope last nights display doesn’t effect too much of the rest of the squad that wasn’t playing mentally) as it was a 1st team fixture in paper with such a heavy loss to its name despite barely any of them playing.

share some concerns about this crop too, 1st/2nd year pros and also the younger ones, bar other than maybe Stephens and maybe Cunningham but far too early to tell who could break into this squad who could be out next 500k/1m player ? The demands have gone up a notch being in league 1, it’s a lot harder to break through and get up to standards, but that’s football.

I trust our process and our youth but there are a few questions/concerns with that step.

Cox another one I feel for him a little having the role he has at the moment as a lone striker, he’s starting to divide opinions across the fanbase, you can see he’s developing physically and with that bringing it into his game too but also he does look somewhat sluggish, and I’ve heard some fans say he’s not good for league 1 but needs a league 2 loan - really can you think of a league 2 club or maybe a conference team that would 1 want him, 2 give him the minutes he needs to develop and a run of games for example, it’s a tough one, what is best for him at this stage of his career? (I’m open minded kind of on the fence at this stage and just wondering what people think) I feel he’s playing for us because he’s had to at the moment weather he was ready or not because of injuries, I wouldn’t have said he’s earnt his spot in our side as if Scott muskwe had been fit or not injured he’d of been loaned or got cameo minutes with us

 

[andrew p long]

...

Cox another one I feel for him a little having the role he has at the moment as a lone striker, he’s starting to divide opinions across the fanbase, you can see he’s developing physically and with that bringing it into his game too but also he does look somewhat sluggish, and I’ve heard some fans say he’s not good for league 1 but needs a league 2 loan - really can you think of a league 2 club or maybe a conference team that would 1 want him, 2 give him the minutes he needs to develop and a run of games for example, it’s a tough one, what is best for him at this stage of his career? (I’m open minded kind of on the fence at this stage and just wondering what people think) I feel he’s playing for us because he’s had to at the moment weather he was ready or not because of injuries, I wouldn’t have said he’s earnt his spot in our side as if Scott muskwe had been fit or not injured he’d of been loaned or got cameo minutes with us

Without wishing to turn this into the Sonny Cox thread , Kidderminster Harriers in the National League would be delighted to land Sonny Cox on loan at the moment.

 

[Grecianman135]

Please can we close this thread and banish it to history... (not like we'll ever forget it)we were even trending on Twitter last night...

I'm sure whatever 11 we can field will respond well on Saturday but there in lies the issue "whatever 11" the club failed to back GC accordingly or his targets fell south of the mark leaving us in this pickle yes the Papa John's,Johnson's paint or whatever it's called this days trophy is for the kids but blame the EFL in short for the introduction of Prem academy's....

If we had more first team fringe players they'd of played yesterday and not all the youth (in such a high capacity) as we did.

Sooner we're out the better,and sooner the trophy is either scrapped or totally revamped will it be even worth the time of day,it only ever benefits the Prem (like all football) so no use crying about it anymore.

I'm upset we lost 9-0 and it's not acceptable kids or not but as long as the young lads learn and adapt then they'll be fine.

A few won't as you could imagine,Daniels is one I could see facing the chop as harsh as that sounds so early in a career,and I hope this gives McDonald a chance to play as I've said enough about Woods on here for the past 24hrs..

Roll on Saturday UTC

 

[fred binneys head]

What we do need to do is give all these young lads our wholehearted and vocal support the next time they play for us. They need us.

 

[Grecianpasty]

I'm concerned about the amount of people willing to bury their heads in the sand, rather than look at where the cracks lie.

It's very obvious those who will defend the academy to the death. However, its no coincidence the year we lose 9-0 with our kids just so happens to be the year where our first manager in over a decade declares that we will not be relying upon them in our seasons campaign....

 

[tonykellowfan]

I think in recent years we have been spoilt by the quality of players that have come out of the academy, I can remember when Key, Collins, Hartridge and Randall all came through at roughly the same time. We simply do not have the same level of talent there at the moment.