| For those of you upset about Ben Knight's departure to Man City... 10:11 - Jun 29 with 6395 views | Slambo |
...don't direct your ire at our club. In modern football, we very much live under the yoke of 'divide and conquer'; we're left pointing accusatory fingers at each other, but the fact is the system (EPPP) is specifically and deliberately designed to allow big, rich clubs to cherry pick whatever talent they choose. What's more, it's a myth that Man City will offer Knight a better footballing education: Ipswich has top facilities and an experienced team of UEFA qualified coaches; we can in fact offer youngsters a greater chance of meaningful, first team football. All City have over us are fat wads of Arab petro money to buy off the fruits of our labour. It's deplorable, and has to stop... |  |
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| For those of you upset about Ben Knight's departure to Man City... on 16:05 - Jun 29 with 1259 views | jas0999 |
... providing Evans spends that cash on a top quality addition to our squad ... |  | | |
| For those of you upset about Ben Knight's departure to Man City... on 16:43 - Jun 29 with 1232 views | Freddy |
| For those of you upset about Ben Knight's departure to Man City... on 16:05 - Jun 29 by jas0999 |
... providing Evans spends that cash on a top quality addition to our squad ... |
â€@Stuart_Watson
#itfc and England starlet Ben Knight - only 16 - set to join Manchester City for £1m.
Ruben Flores, 15, could go to Arsenal too.
Premier Lg big boys continue to scoop up young talent. Little can we do to stop it. Told Marcus Evans is not happy. | | | |
| For those of you upset about Ben Knight's departure to Man City... on 16:57 - Jun 29 with 1215 views | itfcjoe |
| For those of you upset about Ben Knight's departure to Man City... on 11:59 - Jun 29 by Slambo |
Exploitation is wrong at all levels of the game and I wouldn't try and justify it if Ipswich was doing the same thing. I would say, however, that Brown and Marriott were playing amateur football. If they indeed wanted to become professional, they'd have to go to a professional set up at some point. The leap from Kettering or Grays to Ipswich is far more extreme than Man City to Ipswich. As I argued in another response, all Man City have over us is the ability to financially guarantee a future for the said player, whether or not they even make it as a pro...
Yeah, maybe we can parlay that million quid into another Adam Webster or something, but this still doesn't address my point about the non-tangible benefits. Even if by 18 Ben Knight was trotting out for us and was the hottest property in the country, being courted for 25 million quid, I'd want him to stay and win stuff for us. It's be an incalculable source of pride and esteem; if at 21 we were going nowhere and he wanted to step up, by all means. That's how it should be... |
Exploiting smaller clubs is just football - we've done it for years with regards to managers, players and youth prospects and we've had it done to us for years by bigger clubs. That isn't going to change.
I think because the majority of fans don't really follow the youths until they are knocking on the door of the first team they only tend to see where they go rather than where they have come from. I think that's only natural - but all clubs are struggling to keep hold of youth players, the big clubs nick them but also get them nicked by foreign clubs or other big clubs. It's a bit hypocritical for us to moan when we do the same to other clubs every year - look a Ben Folami who we moved over from Australia to play for us on his own and put into digs. Is that worse than Man City paying Knight's family a substantial relocation fee so they can all go with him across the country.
Whilst it would be great to see them all stay that just isn't going to happen - I think it is important to focus on the great work being done in the academy, the players that are still here and doing well and wish Ben best of luck for the future. He deserves his chance but it is also an opportunity for someone else to kick on here. |  |
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| For those of you upset about Ben Knight's departure to Man City... on 17:05 - Jun 29 with 1201 views | tractorboy1978 |
| For those of you upset about Ben Knight's departure to Man City... on 16:57 - Jun 29 by itfcjoe |
Exploiting smaller clubs is just football - we've done it for years with regards to managers, players and youth prospects and we've had it done to us for years by bigger clubs. That isn't going to change.
I think because the majority of fans don't really follow the youths until they are knocking on the door of the first team they only tend to see where they go rather than where they have come from. I think that's only natural - but all clubs are struggling to keep hold of youth players, the big clubs nick them but also get them nicked by foreign clubs or other big clubs. It's a bit hypocritical for us to moan when we do the same to other clubs every year - look a Ben Folami who we moved over from Australia to play for us on his own and put into digs. Is that worse than Man City paying Knight's family a substantial relocation fee so they can all go with him across the country.
Whilst it would be great to see them all stay that just isn't going to happen - I think it is important to focus on the great work being done in the academy, the players that are still here and doing well and wish Ben best of luck for the future. He deserves his chance but it is also an opportunity for someone else to kick on here. |
You will know better than me but I get the impression the anger/frustration here with Knight is that we thought we’d done enough to keep him and he seems to have gone back on his word he would be signing the pro contract? | | | |
| For those of you upset about Ben Knight's departure to Man City... on 17:18 - Jun 29 with 1186 views | itfcjoe |
| For those of you upset about Ben Knight's departure to Man City... on 17:05 - Jun 29 by tractorboy1978 |
You will know better than me but I get the impression the anger/frustration here with Knight is that we thought we’d done enough to keep him and he seems to have gone back on his word he would be signing the pro contract? |
I don't think that is the case - more people thinking that he should stay here and only possible reason to leave is money - a few posters even going on about how it is bad parenting!
Some annoyed at modern football, but don't realise we give as good as we get down the food chain. | |
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| For those of you upset about Ben Knight's departure to Man City... on 18:11 - Jun 29 with 1148 views | soupytwist |
| For those of you upset about Ben Knight's departure to Man City... on 13:50 - Jun 29 by tcblue |
Not arguable at all IMO.
Taking off the blue tinted specs for a bit, let's look at the pros for Knight to go:
- Better academy infrastructure setup (argue all you like, it is)
- Cash in case things don't work out for him and he has to drop out of football
- Sports science which is leaps and bounds better than our apparently antiquated approach
- Playing with better youth players, will progress better
Reasons to stay:
- He is more likely to start a game for us than City, if things still go okay
- Because we signed him
I'm not a parent, but if I was, I'm fairly certain I know which I would choose as best interest for my boy. |
I agree with you. Henshall could have stayed at Swindon and been let go at 18/19 and he'd have been straight into the kind of level Tyrone Mings was at when we got him. Henshall's probably far more financially secure than he would have been had he stayed at Swindon and he'll always be able to say he played for England at youth level and for Man City. |  | | |
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