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O'Neill: Developing Our Young Players Remains Our Focus
Monday, 8th Feb 2021 17:22

General manager of football operations Lee O’Neill says the Blues remain committed to bringing through their own youngsters, despite the January transfer window having seen them make four loan signings, taking their total to six, three of them youngsters from the Premier League or Championship.

O’Neill says the situation in January was far from ideal due to the financial impact of Covid-19 and the League One salary cap.

“I made the statement and Paul made the statement, it wouldn’t be our preference, we would prefer to have our own players to develop because you’re only ever develop players to go on to other areas, whether that’s the Championship or the Premier League,” O’Neill told TWTD.

“But the landscape has changed over the last 10 or 12 months. Two things, the Covid situation, that has affected the financial structure, and secondly the salary cap, that has massively changed the ability for teams in League One and League Two to look at [permanent deals].

“Where a lot of clubs would probably have done permanent deals in the last window, some 70 per cent of clubs are doing loans now.

“That’s just how the landscape has changed and we’ve got to adapt to that and use it as best we can to support the current squad.”

But he reiterated that the club’s long-term plans are still in line with the Five-Point Plan released in 2016 with young players being developed at the heart of the thinking, pointing out that plenty of Playford Road graduates have been involved this season.

“Absolutely, we still had four or five people play against Crewe, if you include subs coming on, there were a few more, from the academy,” he said.

“If someone had said a few years ago that you’re starting some games with 50 or 60 per cent of the squad homegrown, it’s a good achievement from the academy staff that are working very hard to continually develop players and a credit to the manager for putting them in.

“We’ve got some very good minutes in League One with academy players playing. If we’re not top, we’re definitely one or two in this league in terms of minutes played by young players.

“Last week we had Myles [Kenlock], Woolfy [Luke Woolfenden], Andre [Dozzell], Flynn [Downes], Teddy [Bishop] came on and all of a sudden you’re looking at five players. Aaron [Drinan] came in later but there’s another player there, so that’s encouraging.


“We’d love to get more through, I’d love to have a team with more academy players, homegrown players coming through, it’s about getting that balance right.

“Some are ready now, some are going to need a little bit longer, some need that loan to go out and get some senior men’s football as well in order to come back, as we did with Flynn and Woolfy.

“Andre didn’t need that, Andre came straight into the team and he played regularly, so it’s getting the balance right with those options that we had.”

Reflecting on the additions of Luke Matheson, Troy Parrott, Josh Harrop and Luke Thomas during the window, he added: “In the first half of the season, as you know and as has been well-publicised, we had a lot of injuries and it was very difficult to field the team that the manager wanted to field.

“From one aspect that was really good because we had a lot of young players go on and make their debuts and get appearances.

“I think going forward, calculating today, 12 games in five and a half weeks, Saturday-Tuesday, we’ve got to make sure we can sustain that and have the squad that’s going to be able to compete.

“So that was one of the reasons we looked at certain areas to try and strengthen, and add competition for places as well.”

The additions look like a financial vote of confidence in the manager from owner Marcus Evans, backing up his public statements.

“Yes, I think that the finances are tight like every other club at the moment,” O’Neill continued. “I think everyone’s trying to do the best they can with what they’ve got and we’re no different.

“Marcus has been very good in allowing us to try and strengthen the squad and obviously our main aim is to towards those top spots, so in order to do that we felt we needed to make some additions, so we were very supported by Marcus through that process.

“It was incredibly difficult with the cap because of our limit, we can’t do anything with the senior side of things, so we had to be quite calculated in relation to who we could bring in and the experience we could possible attract in that window.”

O’Neill admits Town aren’t where he hoped they would be at this point in the campaign. The Blues moved up a spot to 10th via Saturday’s 2-0 home victory over Blackpool but are still four points off the top six, although are now only nine points off Hull City in second following the Tigers’ shock 1-0 loss at Burton at the weekend.

“I think we would definitely love to be higher and we’re trying very hard to get back to [where we were]. The early stages of the season were promising, we obviously got a run of results when everyone was fit and we were playing some good football.

“I think that has been a challenge for us over October, November and going into December, it’s been a lot tougher.

“We recognise that and that it’s a tough job ahead and Paul and the staff are working very hard to get things back on track to where they were at the start of the season when we had a few back-to-back wins and some good performances.”

Lambert recently said that he wasn’t ruling the Blues out of the automatic promotion running despite the current position and recent form.

“I don’t think you can rule anything out in this league, if you look at it everyone is beating everybody,” O’Neill concurred.

“What we will have to do is take points off people who are above us, that’s pretty simple and easy for everyone to understand. If we want to be in and around it, when we play those head to head games, we’ve got to get some points on the board.

“Yes, it’s definitely an aspiration for us to look for automatic promotion, that’s where we would want to be and obviously at the very least the play-offs.”

O’Neill was one of the 11 players and staff who tested positive for Covid-19 over Christmas and along with manager Lambert was affected worse than most, but the 39-year-old says he’s all but over it now.

“I’m feeling much better, as normal as we can be getting back to work,” he said. “Health-wise, the virus situation is a lot better than it was around Christmas time. I’m well, thank you.

“To be honest with you, as much as I want to get out and do exercise, I haven’t done that bit yet. Work has been taking up most of my energy at the moment, so it’s all been focusing on that.

“I think that’s the next stage that I’ll try and hit now that the window’s finished, we’ll concentrate on getting myself fitter and healthier ready for the summer. But I definitely feel better than I did, that’s for sure.”


Photo: TWTD



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rabbit added 14:50 - Feb 9
BeattiesBackPocket, it really is difficult to decipher your long rambling posts, but be that as it may you seem to be asking "what makes me think that you are talking about me".
Lets just examine that, firstly, your first word in the post is Rabbit, suggesting you are commenting on what I have posted, secondly in the sentence regarding your woodwork comment you pose the question to me asking if I will defend the owner after another loss against a top eight side, quite self evident really.
In respect of you finding scathing insults acceptable it is again quite simple, you disagreed with my post that said:
" Jumping to personally insult individuals is both unwanted and cowardly, it detracts from the relevance of this excellent site and I'm afraid being a youth is no excuse."
So by definition you must find it acceptable.
By the way still no mention of the evidence you claimed to have?

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BeattiesBackPocket added 14:58 - Feb 9
Rabbit who's rambling now!?? Where did I say it was acceptable?? And where did I personally insult you??? I'll wait?? I disagree with your support for evans never have I said I agree with personal insults as I say reread it. Your the person who comes on and insults other posters who don't agree with your views? If I'm rambling it's due to being a key worker and doing this in a break on a phone!! Also I'll answer you when you answer the many points I've put across that question evans tenure! 😂
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BeattiesBackPocket added 15:01 - Feb 9
I'd suggest rabbit you look up the word ‘libellous‘ Or ‘slander' before making accusations of things I haven't said regarding personal insults. This I will kick off about trust me so take your accusations about something this serious elsewhere
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rabbit added 15:46 - Feb 10
BeattiesBackPocket, I did know that you are a key worker you have mentioned it a few times previously on this site, I also understand that if you are at work trying to write on social media it can be quite confusing.
Any work that I do is by no means as vital as that of a key worker but during my daily work I tend to stay away from any form of social media such as this until I am on my own time, but hey, we are all different.
Regarding your post, I replied quite simply because you took it upon yourself to launch into a random attack on me, by and large unrelated to anything that I had written, something, over the last year, you seem to have done with ever increasing regularity.
My original post was accurate in the first part and I think to most right-minded people, reasonable in the second, you chose to mark the post down and as such clearly disagreed with what I had written, your prerogative, no problem there.
You suggest that I look up the meaning of slander and libel, I do not need to, I am very well aware of their meaning, but I am not sure that you fully do.
I can only assume that by using such language you feel that you can bully others, on this occasion me, into some form of compliance to your will, good luck with that, I await, with interest, the writ.
Finally, you request that I give you answers to your many repetitive questions, before you are prepared to publish the evidence you claim to have, interesting that you have not mentioned this condition before and now for some reason best known to you decide to move the goalposts, I have my theory for it.
However please feel free to publish this evidence straight away because I have given you my detailed opinion, on all your questions the first time you asked, it is certainly not my fault you choose to ignore my responses and continue make spurious allegations as to how I think.
For the record the article was last May and was on a thread regarding the wealth of Marcus Evans, try reading it, rather than keeping up your incessant vilification of me in particular and in general those that do not share your opinion.
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BeattiesBackPocket added 19:29 - Feb 10
Rabbit I was not attacking you or calling you anything so please stop with the constant accusations that I am accepting of personal insults as none were given to you at all other than mentioning people coming out of the woodwork.
The guy who told me about the funds put in by Evans is in his 80's just recovered from covid just had to give up his business Mr Pools in ardleigh it was called and his names john he has been a season ticket holder for about 60 folds years and gone to many away games taking me when I was in my teens. He bought shares when they were available before administration and as such receives yearly updates the clubs finances since. By all means write to him if you want to see the paperwork if he still has it but I'm very inclined to believe a guy who has supported evans in the past like I did until the past three years when enoughs enough! However he made this claim before he had to stop going to games and before starting to disagree with where evans has taken us.
You may very well be happy with where evans has taken us his employment of constant failed managers taken us to our lowest point in over 60 years and taking us only one way. In the time evans has been at the club Wimbledon have been through the lower leagues and competing in the same league as us now so where does that factor into the wonderful world of Marcus evans ‘improvement' and ‘be careful what you wish for' he has lied, sold off assets and replaced them with poor players, sold off the assets cheaply and given away players for nothing which will happen again in the summer, players we paid some money for going for nothing he is directly responsible for our debt at a time Peterborough can pay for the top striker in the league with a gate of 7000 yet we can't afford that with a gate of 20000 simple math really. By all means carry on your support of him and the current regime but most are now realising what evans HAS done maybe it'll take non league for you to realise this who knows.
I have mentioned many point none of which you have been able to answer and to be honest I have better things to do. There is no more vilification towards you than there is you towards others YOU also don't agree with so please take your hypocrisy somewhere else I'm bored of it.
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BeattiesBackPocket added 19:37 - Feb 10
And rabbit don't ever accuse me of accepting ‘scathing personal insults' when I have not once said that and the many times about how unfair it is chambers or whoever gets called names for playing etc whether I think those players are any good or not I don't agree with the PERSONAL insults full stop. it appears to me most of the insults come from certain people on here on both sides you saying you included and you have nothing to back up I was insulting you accept saying I don't live in wood and calling THAT an insult! 🙄 anyway I'm done with this conversation now so please by all means continue talking to yourself but maybe realise how YOU a come across sometimes and how you can make remarks to people. If I'm attacked yeah I'll attack back
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rabbit added 08:46 - Feb 11
Yes I did assume you would not wish to comment anything further on this matter, although your final rant is quite extraordinary in that you still have not bothered to read the answers to questions you perpetually ask me, even after I have told you where to find it.
With regard to insults the phrase you used refers to unpleasant insects or animals that tend to hide in the woodwork of a building, if you did not consider that an insult you simply did not know its meaning, probably best to start refraining from saying anything about things you do not understand.
For the record I have copied and pasted the last paragraph of my two paragraph post, which you attacked me on, and, you down marked it and thereby disagreed with it:
"Jumping to personally insult individuals is both unwanted and cowardly, it detracts from the relevance of this excellent site and I'm afraid being a youth is no excuse."
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