Trojan Horse wrote:
I think there’s potential in both and be happy for them to sign. I think Shaw is a player who should follow the path of Eseh this year and if he signs we can loan him out to a good championship club to get that regular experience with a call back clause and a view to him establishing himself in 2024.
I guess we will hear something soon.
Truth is that on here we are trying to decipher the motives of people we don't know but we think we do. For all I know Croft may think that the monies on offer are not not worth staying FT for, and prefer a part time role in the Championship or he may not. Ditto Shaw who may be impressed with glamorous clubs an hard cash, I don't know.
It's a bewildering world at aged 20 even though you think you know it all at the time, well most of us do. Even more so these days when most young people are not making career defining decisions so young. Unless you are going into a profession if you pick the wrong degree or starting trade, you have forty years to rectify it, in RL you may only have a season. That's why I tend to think that signing young players is far more difficult than older ones and why it takes so long even though it appears more simple.
If you say compare Shaw to Morgan Smith it's very easy to work out. Smith has yet to reach what we hope is his potential, but he's still a known quantity. He's clearly good enough not to be at the very least a useful player. Shaw is in most ways still a relatively unknown quantity in SL or first grade RL of any kind. He's played a few times and looked decent, especially against Saints, but not outstanding IMHO, so to commit say 30-40 k over two seasons for a club like ourselves isn't easy, when you can get a known quantity for similar money.
I know I'm repeating myself, but I still think signing up Academy products is very difficult unless you can afford to take a hit, bit like the stock market in a way.
