The success of our younger players heading out on loan last season was a particular positive, with the likes of David Fisher and Jack Currie both being nominated for Conference South Young Player of the Year.
Here, Loans Manager Michael Hamilton outlines the ‘Transition Phase’ and explains the process behind loaning out our young talents.
As soon as the final whistle was blown in our league game against Accrington Stanley, the staff within the ‘Transition Phase’ were already reviewing the 2021/22 season and planning for how we can improve our programme.
The ‘Transition Phase’ is the group of players on their first professional contract that have ‘graduated’ from the Academy and are transitioning from youth to senior football. As Academy and Loans Manager I led on this review and was assisted by Jack Matthews (Development Coach), Billy Firminer (Loans Analyst), Martin Davidson (Physical Performance Coach) and Matt Flynn (Lead Therapist).
It’s my responsibility to bring all elements of a player’s programme together - managing the transition from youth to senior football, ensuring all areas are aligned and his loan is suited to his developmental needs.
There is a view that unless you’re playing at a certain level by the time you are of a certain age then you won’t make it - of course the odds do alter depending on the level of loan etc – but development and progression isn’t always linear – hence why you build the programme around the player and his needs.
In League One/Two I can think of a few players that played step seven in their late teens such as Diallang Jaiyesimi (Charlton Athletic), Panutche Camara (Plymouth Argyle) and Josh Davison (Swindon Town). Then you have closer examples such as a certain two young players in our first team - who had a breakthrough season last season in our first team but, based on the opinion of certain non-league managers, weren’t capable of coping with the demands of senior football.
I won’t say a season or an event has been a success, as that will be measured in time, however the most important KPI is players breaking through into the first team (which we have started to see) and I am more than confident that certain milestones that have been achieved will now enable us to build from that.
The Key Points:
- A total of 24,542 playing minutes were achieved by players on their first professional contracts (11 players).
- Total games: 313, with 32 goals and 43 assists.
- David Fisher and Jack Currie were nominated for Conference South Young Player of the Year.
- Dylan Adjei-Hersey and Alfie Bendle made their league debuts.
- Luke Jenkins, Huseyin Biler and Isaac Olaniyan made their senior debuts.
- For the first time ever we had first year scholars go out on loan and experience senior football.
