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A few years back I did some research on our non league gambles to see which worked and which didn't. A "good" aquisition would be a player that became a first team regular or better (i.e. sold on) and would include people like Tilly, Eastwood, Hall etc, and obviously one that didn't would be someone who was sporadic first team or less, for instance Scott Forbes, Micky Welch etc.

I think I went back about 30-40 years and the results were almost 50/50. The chances of getting a gem were about evens. Incidentally, Kightly would not be our success. We moved him onto Grays, so for us he didn't work out. The fact that he has become a Premiership player now we can't take the credit for.

Thats a good bit of research, but worth adding that it's 50/50 following an assessment of professional football scouts / managers / others. It's not just a random some lad scored a few in the Essex senior, we should sign him up. If you included all players mentioned on a fans forum, it's probably 2/98
 
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Yep with 14 so far this season, 42 last season and 52 the season before. Everyone I've spoken to at that level reckons he's not good enough to be pro despite that record, which might explain why nobody has picked him up

I saw him at Lewes last season and was very underwhelmed. He must have something to be fair but I didn't see it.
 
A few years back I did some research on our non league gambles to see which worked and which didn't. A "good" aquisition would be a player that became a first team regular or better (i.e. sold on) and would include people like Tilly, Eastwood, Hall etc, and obviously one that didn't would be someone who was sporadic first team or less, for instance Scott Forbes, Micky Welch etc.

I think I went back about 30-40 years and the results were almost 50/50. The chances of getting a gem were about evens. Incidentally, Kightly would not be our success. We moved him onto Grays, so for us he didn't work out. The fact that he has become a Premiership player now we can't take the credit for.

Thats a very interesting piece of research fbm! Thanks for the info. I would take a one in two chance any day to produce the gems you highlight, but as stated by others, the frustration is that we just don't do it often enough! What exactly would we have to lose ? Not as if they are on high wages, can even come on trial , and be shipped out if not up to the mark pretty sharpish!
 
Interesting stats

Eastwood second time here....11
Barney second time here.........2
Shaq....................................4
Woody..................................2
Freedman"...............,............6
Goater"................................11
Mooney.................................1
Hunt.....................................2
Pigott...................................9

Total 48..........Eastwood first time here straight from non league 53,Freddy scored 5 more than that entire list combined.
 
Interesting stats

Eastwood second time here....11
Barney second time here.........2
Shaq....................................4
Woody..................................2
Freedman"...............,............6
Goater"................................11
Mooney.................................1
Hunt.....................................2
Pigott...................................9

Total 48..........Eastwood first time here straight from non league 53,Freddy scored 5 more than that entire list combined.

And Mark Salter was a 40 goals a season striker at Frome.....

I woould be interested to see how many of our Non league sucesses came from just one division below.
Freddie and Gower were playing Conference when we signed them in league 2, for example,
the step up was just one division.


correction. Freddie was signed the year Grays won the Conference south..
 
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Non league talent is out there. Simon akinola looks decent at braintree. Capable of scoring outrageous goals and is strong and tricky. Caused our defence a lot of problems pre season.
 
Non league talent is out there. Simon akinola looks decent at braintree. Capable of scoring outrageous goals and is strong and tricky. Caused our defence a lot of problems pre season.

Yeah, he is very highly rated at Braintree.
 
Interesting stats

Eastwood second time here....11
Barney second time here.........2
Shaq....................................4
Woody..................................2
Freedman"...............,............6
Goater"................................11
Mooney.................................1
Hunt.....................................2
Pigott...................................9

Total 48..........Eastwood first time here straight from non league 53,Freddy scored 5 more than that entire list combined.

It is a list of just a few of our strikers. So what?
 
As good as our youth policy is ,,,, one criticism ( from a couple of recent ex players i know ) is that we rely too much on taking in those players rejected from Arsenal & Spurs youth teams at the expense of the real local talent that lives right on our doorstep....
 
As good as our youth policy is ,,,, one criticism ( from a couple of recent ex players i know ) is that we rely too much on taking in those players rejected from Arsenal & Spurs youth teams at the expense of the real local talent that lives right on our doorstep....

I'd assume that the view is a young player from (say) Arsenal is going to have had a better grounding than a player at (say) Burnham Ramblers, all else being equal.
 
Interesting that Bournemouth have invited Dumebi Dumaka in for training. Also, West Ham and Ipswich monitoring him. I really would like to think that we are checking on him as well..as he is on our Doorstep!

That Being said I wouldn't of thought we would be able to compete with the above teams.
 
Interesting that Bournemouth have invited Dumebi Dumaka in for training. Also, West Ham and Ipswich monitoring him. I really would like to think that we are checking on him as well..as he is on our Doorstep!

That Being said I wouldn't of thought we would be able to compete with the above teams.

Saw him play for Grays against Welling, when Welling (from two levels higher) gained a late equaliser to earn a scarcely deserved replay.

Dumebi Dumaka had an interesting game displaying some excellent touches, mainly in the middle of the park. He's certainly got something about him. His finishing once again disappointed, putting a close range header straight at the keeper and blasting what would have been a match winning second goal for Grays against the bar. Welling promptly went up the other end and equalised. Think someone will take a chance on him.
 
Saw him play for Grays against Welling, when Welling (from two levels higher) gained a late equaliser to earn a scarcely deserved replay.

Dumebi Dumaka had an interesting game displaying some excellent touches, mainly in the middle of the park. He's certainly got something about him. His finishing once again disappointed, putting a close range header straight at the keeper and blasting what would have been a match winning second goal for Grays against the bar. Welling promptly went up the other end and equalised. Think someone will take a chance on him.

i saw them do something pretty similar against Lincoln the other week.
they seem to pass it around then actually take a chance when it comes along.
sort of the opposite of us
 
Zone optimists on twitter??? :winking:

 
Zone optimists on twitter??? :winking:


ah yes, those players who have gone on to be world beaters after we couldn't see their obvious world class talent.
i'm not having a go at them, they're better than me, just that giving every random player 5 games on the off chance seems to be a bit silly. training, loan spells etc
 
FFS get him in now and stop being so SLOW at everything. Slow to get talent these days from lower league, slow to get players in at the end of season, slow to pay taxes/ wages. mega slow to build a stadium, cmon Ron roll the dice !
 
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