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Lower league players making it to the premiership


kerser

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The days of signing players from Accrington Stanley and Chester are long gone. Joe Hart was the last player to move from a lower league side to a top team and I don't see him holding his position in 2 years time. The gap in quality is way to big

Smalling. Although not a direct move.

Struggling to think of any other players who've played first team that came through at an academy in league 1 or lower though. Only guys like Powell who've yet to make an impact.

Shelvey y jenkinson

Few Championship players. Young and Lescott.

That was an interesting discussion going on in the Liverpoool thread, discuss it more here

There's so much talent out there

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Lahi's comment was ridiculous but I felt I made my point well in that thread and anything else woulda devalued it.

 

 

If Joe Hart looses his place he is still capable of playing for a top half team so the thing about the gap in quality is a myth.

 

 

Norwich, Swansea and Soton have proved that.

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There's a decent number who could make it into the higher leagues. 50% is ridiculous though.

Mentioned it on here before that I watch players week in week out who could do a job at the higher levels, (premiership/championship) the things that hold a lot of them back is consistency and temperament.

We have players who on their day and on a good quality pitch can do magical things but in our league some defenders make Stoke city look like a bunch of Red Cross workers playing a non-contact game so this quality isn't evident most of the time.

We also have a certain player who is good enough to be playing academy football but he is a law onto himself and turns up when he fancies it.

When Sainsbury's are selecting Apples they are going to put in a bag and sell they dont necessarily select them based on their sweetness and taste, the main criteria is that they are the same colour and roughly the same size.

If they found a sweeter one who was half the size it wouldn't get in the bag. Same if the colour wasn't right.

Considering the increase in the trend of buying players from abroad and the fact that most top teams have multi-million poind academy and youth set ups I'd say the odds of a non league player catching a break is still relatively decent.

Anthony Pilkington scored a Hattrick against us a few seasons ago, this season he scored against Big United.

It's a boring and mundane conclusion but yet again the issue here isn't scouting but it is the coaching at younger ages because if you went to watch a season of non league, 90% or more of the players good enough to feature at the top league came from Academy's in the first place. Why is a player who played for Manchester United u-18's playing in the evo-stick league. Surely there's enough quality there for then to trickle down in the football league? This is where the issue lies in my opinion.

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I watch League One football (Coventry City) and the gap in quality with the Premiership is tremendous. To conclude this point we had a player David McGoldrick who due to his incredible form was one of the the best strikers in League One with a return of 16 goals in 22 games and was borderline unplayable at this level. He made goal scoring look easy and everything about his play had an effortless quality about it. Previously he had scored 8 goals in 63 games playing in the Championship but such was his form in League One people were saying he should play in the Premiership; how naive I thought. Great as he was in League One he wouldn't of dented defenses in the Prem. He ended up going to Ipswich and back to being distinctly average in the Championship with a return of 4 goals in 25 apperances.

 

This is just my opinion and I'm by no means an expert on this but I think the difference between the leagues is this. In the top league you're looking for a player with all around outstanding qualities, without any glaring weaknesses. Some weaknesses are bigger than most and if they have them in the top league you can expect them to be absolutely exceptional in other areas, an outlier basically. In the lower leagues you're mainly looking for one stand out quality with the rest of his game not being as important or if you want an all around player you just want him to be average at everything. I could go into a lot more detail but I think the people on here are smart enough to understand what I mean. Using McGoldrick as an example; he was blessed with above average pace, decent finishing ability and a bit of skill. What makes him excel is he can finish with his head or both feet. None of that would be outstanding in higher leagues but down at the depths he's like a messiah. 

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There's a decent number who could make it into the higher leagues. 50% is ridiculous though.

Mentioned it on here before that I watch players week in week out who could do a job at the higher levels, (premiership/championship) the things that hold a lot of them back is consistency and temperament.

We have players who on their day and on a good quality pitch can do magical things but in our league some defenders make Stoke city look like a bunch of Red Cross workers playing a non-contact game so this quality isn't evident most of the time.

We also have a certain player who is good enough to be playing academy football but he is a law onto himself and turns up when he fancies it.

When Sainsbury's are selecting Apples they are going to put in a bag and sell they dont necessarily select them based on their sweetness and taste, the main criteria is that they are the same colour and roughly the same size.

If they found a sweeter one who was half the size it wouldn't get in the bag. Same if the colour wasn't right.

Considering the increase in the trend of buying players from abroad and the fact that most top teams have multi-million poind academy and youth set ups I'd say the odds of a non league player catching a break is still relatively decent.

Anthony Pilkington scored a Hattrick against us a few seasons ago, this season he scored against Big United.

It's a boring and mundane conclusion but yet again the issue here isn't scouting but it is the coaching at younger ages because if you went to watch a season of non league, 90% or more of the players good enough to feature at the top league came from Academy's in the first place. Why is a player who played for Manchester United u-18's playing in the evo-stick league. Surely there's enough quality there for then to trickle down in the football league? This is where the issue lies in my opinion.

 

This is a good point. Even if a player is getting picked up from a lower league team he usually from a Premiership or renown academy.

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Same time players who might not stand out in lower leagues can do a job in the prem imo

A lot of times players are just playing in positions cos it looks right not because it suits there ability.

Leon briton is a prime example... Man was in league 2 as a right winger...

If a player in the lower leagues has a good first touch they can make it, shame most players 2nd touch is a tackle cos of the first

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Every footballer originates from a non league background their childhood, think how many blokes in Portugal can say they kicked ball with Ronaldo against Lisbon U7, drug dealers, lawyers, teachers, mechanics, labourers etc.

The only way you can progress is by standing out from the crowd like Leon Brittan who has stood out from the likes of Arteta, Scholes, Gerrard, Carrick, Lampard and even eclipsed them in terms of statistics.

His next step is to see whether he can stand out against Xavi, Schwineatiger, Pirlo, Gonalons, Moutinho etc.

Just needs a someone with faith and confidence in him just like Ranieir and Lampard who was in se situation as Brittian and now one of the worlds all time greats.

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Same time players who might not stand out in lower leagues can do a job in the prem imo

A lot of times players are just playing in positions cos it looks right not because it suits there ability.

Leon briton is a prime example... Man was in league 2 as a right winger...

If a player in the lower leagues has a good first touch they can make it, shame most players 2nd touch is a tackle cos of the first

There is a lot of premiership players like that(2nd touch is a tackle)

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Bolasie started his career at Hillingdon Borough, Rushden were looking at him but didn't take him, 1 of the most skillful wingers in the Champ.

Same with Albert Adomah, box of tricks, started at Harrow Borough.

Yannick had to go to Malta then even then had to have a trial for Plymouth

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