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Non League talent

Bill Garner was signed a month before his 22nd birthday for £12,000 from Southern League Bedford. 6ft 1in tall he only played 24 games for Bedford scoring 16 goals. Barry Fry was a team mate at Bedford.
Bill started at Notts County then drifted into no league football playing for three different clubs before coming to Southend , it took him nearly a season and a half to find his feet , then he really took off .
 
On technical ability maybe. His fitness and stamina probably not.

Stamina can be built, fitness sadly cannot... at least, not to get to the high level of fitness needed to be an elite athlete.

As a player I was told often that technically I could play at senior football level and for 1/2 a season in the mid 1980's I trained with Leyton-Wingate, then in the Vauxhall Opel league. They were promoted to the Premier the year I joined ahead of teams like Woking, Grays, Boreham Wood, Basildon, Leatherhead, Oxford City, Billericay and Stevenage - so it was a decent standard. The year before, they got to the first round of the FA Cup and lost 2-0 to Swansea at the old Vetch Field.

There were players there who - ability wise - could have all played in the football league. In fact, pretty much all of them had been with London clubs like Charlton, Arsenal, Crystal Palace and West Ham. However, it was either fitness or mental strength that was their barrier.

Fitness did for me. I got as fit as I could get, but it was never fit enough. I had back issues (had done since I was 21) and was not quite quick enough either... probably as quick as I could be, but not to the level needed. Niggling injuries always held me back. In the end, I gave it best and came back to the local league (Borough Comb).

Then, about 5 years ago, a chiropractor explained that my spine was slightly out of alignment and had a slight twist. He explained that I had almost certainly been born that way and I asked if that was why I could never get super fit as a younger man? He said it probably was.

So a promising career as a budding footballer, destined to become a future International (obviously!), was ended by a quirk undetected from birth. That clearly is the reason I never made it.

Or, could it be, as the late John Adams once said to me... "There's only one thing stopping that lad becoming a world class player, and that's a complete lack of ability".

Nah. I'll stick to the spine story if that's ok...
 
And yet, for all the success with bringing players in and all the transfer fees, they still find themselves in league one.

(Granted that is a damn sight better than we find ourselves but still!)

Do Peterborough really want to go up? Would their raw forwards score 25 goals in the Championship and become £10m players
 
Do Peterborough really want to go up? Would their raw forwards score 25 goals in the Championship and become £10m players

Peterborough the business, I'd imagine not.

Peterborough the fan base I'd imagine would love a stint in the Championship.
 
Peterborough the business, I'd imagine not.

Peterborough the fan base I'd imagine would love a stint in the Championship.

A couple of years back a few of us when into one of their pubs after the game and thats exactly what they were saying. They didn't seem to get excited by 'stepping stone' signings......I guess no fan is ever happy.
 
I like these kind of signings if Rowe is true, could be a flop could be a legend in the making but won't cost us the earth
 
Maybe this is a bit of a stretch but new Man City signing Kwadwo Baah from Rochdale was released from Palace and signed for Whytleafe...

I thought Ricky and co were quite keen on exit trials. Maybe it's just Arsenal youth players we sign.
 
I wonder if MM has run the rule over Joe Quigley, the Yeovil striker. Extremely tall, apparently good in the air, scored 7 goals in 13 appearances this season and at 24 will probably get better. Interestingly, Quigley was previously at Bournemouth.

Now you say he was at Bournemouth, he must have considered him!
 
Chris Haigh was outstanding for Concord Rangers today
not sure is for us, concord had doubts with him this season and got a loan keeper in to replace him at one point, he is a great shot stopper I must admit, seen him a few times.
 
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