MattCL Who would you sign from the current trialist? Has anyone caught your eye? Trialist’s as it stands ⬇️ Will Lannin-Sweet - (Ex Arsenal Academy) Kian Hill - (on work experience loan Bristol Rovers Academy) Brad De Jesus - (Ex Fulham)
Balchi I’ve not seen enough of them to make a fair judgement, so I’m interested in hearing reports from those who’ve been at the games. On paper, the academy backgrounds are encouraging, but we’ve all seen plenty of ex-Premier League youngsters who haven’t quite made the step into senior football. Trial games can be deceptive, so I’d rather sign one player who genuinely improves the squad than several who are just “good enough”.
MattCL I think this year feels slightly different, usually I’d say yes sign what improves the team as there is normally very obvious in balance somewhere. I don’t think anyone we sign now will be at a calibre of what’s already here in that position already and if they are would they want to come and be rotational or sit on the bench? I think the players who may be willing to do that are the youth boys who don’t want to fall out of football and have a chance to get minute at senior level or even just be at a club and go out on loan for a year and see what happens. If that makes sense.
admin MattCL Hill must have something about him. Pretty sure he was the only one in his year at Rovers that got a deal.
MattCL admin he got their academy player of the year so yeah, but hasn’t played many minutes that I’ve seen as I didn’t go to Merthyr, looked alright against Cardiff 21s but again that’s against people he’d be used to not men. Like I said probably can come in as a number but won’t be expecting much more than that, if I’m honest I have no idea what position he actually is primarily
MattCL admin I’m almost certain the back 3 will be ayina gubbins Norville Williams.. then you have Kingdon and Joy who I think would be fancied over Ellison. I still don’t see a world where he’d be happy staying when he would easily go play for any NLS team and probably quite a lot of NL teams. Not one of Billy’s signings so would be suprised if he wasn’t sold or loaned. I think Will Sweet would probably be more open to being a player who gets minutes here and there
MattCL admin yeah I think so - not sure you do the whole pre season if you’re not fancied and he has the potential for big upside given the pedigree. It wouldn’t suprise me if Ellison salary was rather large and could facilitate both Sweet and De Jesus who would add a bit more rounded depth across the back line. With it being plausible that both one day could be worth a bit of money. To be clear I’ve seen de Jesus play for 20 minutes, Sweet I think looks really good on the ball which we know Billy will like. It’s just his phys at the minute which is where I think he may struggle.
admin MattCL Agree, also nice to be in the position where we can add 'Ones for the Future', rather than necessarily needing to improve the first 11.
GoalHanger I'm not expecting us to sign Brad De Jesus. He was just playing for us to keep in shape before he goes somewhere permanent, and it suited us to have another player play so we could manage the minutes better for our own players. Finances are probably an issue too. Will Sweet played well for us against Melksham. I was less convinced against Cardiff u21s. I like him but I'm not sure he has done enough to get a deal this year. Healey, definitely not. We'd just be paying his wages and his physio/medical bills for as long as the contract lasts.