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We never take a chance though,Williams cannot do anymore yet cannot get near the first team,Hunt is decent but oh my god that particular gamble(long line of signing these type of guys)looks to being another farce.

No one else has taken a chance on him either, maybe he isnt good enough.

Granted, They don't always workout but...Freddy Eastwood, Ryan Hall, Sean Clohessy, Michael Kightly, Gary Hooper, Steve Tilson, Darryl Flahavan, Simon Royce, Tes Bramble, Mitchell Cole, Mark Bentley and Ben Coker all came from Non-league.

Indeed, we have taken a chance on plenty. Sean Clohessey another.

I dont get why you have to go to non league to "take a chance", we are doing the same with any young player like Pigott etc.
 
Maybe he has a "normal" job and doesn't want to turn pro'.

Exactly, he's not young anymore and could earn a very good salary and just plays football as a hobby on the side. He may well have had offers from higher up the pyramid (not necessarily a League club) and decided it wasn't for him. If I earned say £40k plus and was in my mid-late 20s I probably wouldn't feel that going full-time was in my best interests career wise as I could be on the scrap-heap following a bad injury or a barren season and not get another club. Not worth the risk.
 
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.
 
Could be off to fleetwood, we are always late on these situations regarding local talent:omg:

"Both Grays Athletic and Fleetwood Town would like to set the record straight with regards to Nathan Ferguson, that due to a miscommunication with paperwork Grays did not receive a 7 day notice but this has now been resolved amicably and both parties are happy that an illegal approach did not take place. Nathan remains a Grays Athletic player but a 7 day notice has now been received from Fleetwood which Grays acknowledge "

...... so an illegal approach did take place and Fleetwood have paid Grays some money ?
 
it does annoy me when other teams seem to do so well out of non-league, especially Daggers and Peterborough. I think we should really keep a close eye on all football in Essex to try to get the best non-league talent when we can

Ferguson actually started at Dagenham and was released to go to Billericay where, last season, he didn't impress and was once again released after failing to secure a regular place in their team. Must have come on a lot since then although he didn't stand out when I saw him play for Grays a couple of times earlier this season.
 
Interestingly Grays also have a 21year old striker called Dumebi Dumaka who is now being scouted by West ham. He has Scored 12 goals in 7 games this season.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/fo...gue-striker-Dumebi-Dumaka-Grays-Athletic.html

A lot of credit must go to Ex shrimper Mark Bentley, who is Grays Manager.

Couldn't hit the proverbial "bovine backside" on Wednesday and produced one of the worst penalties I've seen for a while. Strength and pace on occasions looked threatening but no end product in that match.
 
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.

Kightly was not signed from Non League either, didn't we get him from Spurs ?
 
Yes, fair point, he wouldn't have been in the calculation anyway

Nope, I'm right. He was only a School boy at spurs. He left as a youngster. we signed him from Basildon United.
This is career movements..
Club information
Current team
Burnley
Number11
Youth career
2000–2001Tottenham Hotspur
Senior career*
YearsTeamApps[SUP]†[/SUP](Gls)[SUP]†[/SUP]
2001–2003Basildon United
2003–2005Southend United13(0)
2004–2005→ Farnborough Town (loan)11(0)
2005–2007Grays Athletic53(24)
2006–2007→ Wolverhampton Wanderers (loan)5(2)
2007–2012Wolverhampton Wanderers109(21)
2011–2012→ Watford (loan)12(3)
2012–2014Stoke City22(3)
2013–2014→ Burnley (loan)36(5)
2014–Burnley26(1)
National team
"Kightly was rejected as a schoolboy by Tottenham Hotspur"
 
Interestingly Grays also have a 21year old striker called Dumebi Dumaka who is now being scouted by West ham. He has Scored 12 goals in 7 games this season.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/fo...gue-striker-Dumebi-Dumaka-Grays-Athletic.html

A lot of credit must go to Ex shrimper Mark Bentley, who is Grays Manager.

Saw him play Weds and he didn't stand out at all. Admittedly, its the first time I've seen him but I wasn't overly impressed. He's a strong lad, can be decent in the air, but at times I thought his work rate off the ball wasn't good enough and at that level you have to be pretty special to get away with that & he wasn't on Wednesday. Must have something though, just couldn't see what it was.
 
Granted, They don't always workout but...Freddy Eastwood, Ryan Hall, Sean Clohessy, Michael Kightly, Gary Hooper, Steve Tilson, Darryl Flahavan, Simon Royce, Tes Bramble, Mitchell Cole, Mark Bentley and Ben Coker all came from Non-league.

And one Stan Collymore who we as a club were the only ones prepared to take a punt. I'll duck now when I say Moshni worked out reasonably well, until he went coco banana's.
 
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