You’re too small!

[CountryRoyal]

After the slight Vickers scoring the winner after hugely impressing this season, it got me thinking about academies releasing players for being “too small”. Some of the ones have been well documented, Austin, wickham etc but recently saw that we released Eze for being too small. Does anyone know why when the decision is almost always made before puberty has either started or finished? Is it just a weeding out process because there’s too many kids?

[Snowflake Royal]

After the slight Vickers scoring the winner after hugely impressing this season, it got me thinking about academies releasing players for being “too small”. Some of the ones have been well documented, Austin, wickham etc but recently saw that we released Eze for being too small. Does anyone know why when the decision is almost always made before puberty has either started or finished? Is it just a weeding out process because there’s too many kids?

Stupid coaches?

Thinking saying we think you're too short is nicer than saying we think you're not good enough?

[WestYorksRoyal]

Outdated British attitudes to football. I think Lineker recently said in his pod that this is the only country in the world that would say heading is a weakness in Lionel Messi's game . Think it hits the nail on the head.

[Sutekh]

Outdated British attitudes to football. I think Lineker recently said in his pod that this is the only country in the world that would say heading is a weakness in Lionel Messi's game . Think it hits the nail on the head.

If a player has the ability then who cares how tall he is or how old either.

[Snowflake Royal]

Outdated British attitudes to football. I think Lineker recently said in his pod that this is the only country in the world that would say heading is a weakness in Lionel Messi's game . Think it hits the nail on the head.

If a player has the ability then who cares how tall he is or how old either.

It's a physical game, and size does matter. As does experience.

Mistakes happen. Poor choices are made. And lots of smaller players will never make it.

[Ascotexgunner]

Outdated British attitudes to football. I think Lineker recently said in his pod that this is the only country in the world that would say heading is a weakness in Lionel Messi's game . Think it hits the nail on the head.

If a player has the ability then who cares how tall he is or how old either.

You listened to a Gary Lineker podcast ? :snigger: :snort:

[WestYorksRoyal]

Outdated British attitudes to football. I think Lineker recently said in his pod that this is the only country in the world that would say heading is a weakness in Lionel Messi's game . Think it hits the nail on the head.

If a player has the ability then who cares how tall he is or how old either.

You listened to a Gary Lineker podcast ? :snigger: :snort:

Rest is Football with Shearer and Micah Richards. Well worth a listen

[URZZZZZZZZ]

After the slight Vickers scoring the winner after hugely impressing this season, it got me thinking about academies releasing players for being “too small”. Some of the ones have been well documented, Austin, wickham etc but recently saw that we released Eze for being too small. Does anyone know why when the decision is almost always made before puberty has either started or finished? Is it just a weeding out process because there’s too many kids?

How do you know any of those players were released for being too small?

[CountryRoyal]

After the slight Vickers scoring the winner after hugely impressing this season, it got me thinking about academies releasing players for being “too small”. Some of the ones have been well documented, Austin, wickham etc but recently saw that we released Eze for being too small. Does anyone know why when the decision is almost always made before puberty has either started or finished? Is it just a weeding out process because there’s too many kids?

How do you know any of those players were released for being too small?

Eze said himself, word for word.

[skipper]

After the slight Vickers scoring the winner after hugely impressing this season, it got me thinking about academies releasing players for being “too small”. Some of the ones have been well documented, Austin, wickham etc but recently saw that we released Eze for being too small. Does anyone know why when the decision is almost always made before puberty has either started or finished? Is it just a weeding out process because there’s too many kids?

How do you know any of those players were released for being too small?

Eze said himself, word for word.

I like you, so don't take this personally - As I mean it generally, but we need to stop saying things like "They said...."

If you believe something to be true, just share the link to where you found out the information. A podcast, a youtube, a tweet, a local paper article.

In this day and age, it isn't enough to simply say "they said so."

Show us!!

[SCIAG]

Wickham wasn’t released, his family moved out of our catchment area so we weren’t allowed to keep him.

I can believe that Austin and Eze -and Shandon Baptiste were all told that they were too small, but I don’t think that was the real reason. I think it’s just a nice way of saying “not good enough”.

In Austin’s case we’d just signed Simon Church from Wycombe who is nobody’s idea of a big guy but played in the same position. We also signed tiny Jem Karacan about the same time.

Baptiste was the same age as Liam Kelly, Tariqe Fosu and Aaron Kuhl.

Eze was the same age as Ryan East and Josh Barrett. We’d sign Omar Richards not long after Eze left.

Clearly we had no fear of short players, so the likelier explanation is that the coaches misjudged their potential.and thought “too small” would be easier to hear than “short”.

That said, Barcelona gave Messi HGH so even they think that it’s possible to be too small.

[URZZZZZZZZ]

Wickham wasn’t released, his family moved out of our catchment area so we weren’t allowed to keep him.

I can believe that Austin and Eze -and Shandon Baptiste were all told that they were too small, but I don’t think that was the real reason. I think it’s just a nice way of saying “not good enough”.

In Austin’s case we’d just signed Simon Church from Wycombe who is nobody’s idea of a big guy but played in the same position. We also signed tiny Jem Karacan about the same time.

Baptiste was the same age as Liam Kelly, Tariqe Fosu and Aaron Kuhl.

Eze was the same age as Ryan East and Josh Barrett. We’d sign Omar Richards not long after Eze left.

Clearly we had no fear of short players, so the likelier explanation is that the coaches misjudged their potential.and thought “too small” would be easier to hear than “short”.

That said, Barcelona gave Messi HGH so even they think that it’s possible to be too small.

Great post!

It’s hard to believe that those people who dedicate their career to finding and nurturing talent have a blind spot where they can’t see past someone’s size (no pun intended).

What SCIAG has said regarding misjudging potential is much more likely, an unfortunately without a crystal ball can be awfully difficult to judge.

The hall of fame example for RFC is Michael Antonio, who has forged an unbelievable career for himself after being deemed not good enough whilst with us - much to the annoyance of some of our fans. What I would say though, is who can truthfully say they saw he would go into the player he has become based on the performances we saw in our shirt? Not me. I remember one match in particular when we lost to Stevenage in the cup, and he was quite frankly abysmal. Add the fact that we had the impressive Kebe and McAnuff alongside an emerging HRK, and you can see why he was shifted off to pastures new without too much of a second thought. The fact he has become the player he has is great testament to Antonio and really maximising his potential.

Sorry, I’ve gone massively off topic there, but just got going!

[Royal_jimmy]

Wickham wasn’t released, his family moved out of our catchment area so we weren’t allowed to keep him.

I can believe that Austin and Eze -and Shandon Baptiste were all told that they were too small, but I don’t think that was the real reason. I think it’s just a nice way of saying “not good enough”.

In Austin’s case we’d just signed Simon Church from Wycombe who is nobody’s idea of a big guy but played in the same position. We also signed tiny Jem Karacan about the same time.

Baptiste was the same age as Liam Kelly, Tariqe Fosu and Aaron Kuhl.

Eze was the same age as Ryan East and Josh Barrett. We’d sign Omar Richards not long after Eze left.

Clearly we had no fear of short players, so the likelier explanation is that the coaches misjudged their potential.and thought “too small” would be easier to hear than “short”.

That said, Barcelona gave Messi HGH so even they think that it’s possible to be too small.

Great post!

It’s hard to believe that those people who dedicate their career to finding and nurturing talent have a blind spot where they can’t see past someone’s size (no pun intended).

What SCIAG has said regarding misjudging potential is much more likely, an unfortunately without a crystal ball can be awfully difficult to judge.

The hall of fame example for RFC is Michael Antonio, who has forged an unbelievable career for himself after being deemed not good enough whilst with us - much to the annoyance of some of our fans. What I would say though, is who can truthfully say they saw he would go into the player he has become based on the performances we saw in our shirt? Not me. I remember one match in particular when we lost to Stevenage in the cup, and he was quite frankly abysmal. Add the fact that we had the impressive Kebe and McAnuff alongside an emerging HRK, and you can see why he was shifted off to pastures new without too much of a second thought. The fact he has become the player he has is great testament to Antonio and really maximising his potential.

Sorry, I’ve gone massively off topic there, but just got going!

I wouldn't say we released Antonio because he wasn't good enough, we released him because we were a premier league club at the time and he wanted more game time which we wouldn't give him. If we hadn't gone up that year but gone up the following season we might have had a hell of a player on our hands.

[Snowflake Royal]

Wickham wasn’t released, his family moved out of our catchment area so we weren’t allowed to keep him.

I can believe that Austin and Eze -and Shandon Baptiste were all told that they were too small, but I don’t think that was the real reason. I think it’s just a nice way of saying “not good enough”.

In Austin’s case we’d just signed Simon Church from Wycombe who is nobody’s idea of a big guy but played in the same position. We also signed tiny Jem Karacan about the same time.

Baptiste was the same age as Liam Kelly, Tariqe Fosu and Aaron Kuhl.

Eze was the same age as Ryan East and Josh Barrett. We’d sign Omar Richards not long after Eze left.

Clearly we had no fear of short players, so the likelier explanation is that the coaches misjudged their potential.and thought “too small” would be easier to hear than “short”.

That said, Barcelona gave Messi HGH so even they think that it’s possible to be too small.

Great post!

It’s hard to believe that those people who dedicate their career to finding and nurturing talent have a blind spot where they can’t see past someone’s size (no pun intended).

What SCIAG has said regarding misjudging potential is much more likely, an unfortunately without a crystal ball can be awfully difficult to judge.

The hall of fame example for RFC is Michael Antonio, who has forged an unbelievable career for himself after being deemed not good enough whilst with us - much to the annoyance of some of our fans. What I would say though, is who can truthfully say they saw he would go into the player he has become based on the performances we saw in our shirt? Not me. I remember one match in particular when we lost to Stevenage in the cup, and he was quite frankly abysmal. Add the fact that we had the impressive Kebe and McAnuff alongside an emerging HRK, and you can see why he was shifted off to pastures new without too much of a second thought. The fact he has become the player he has is great testament to Antonio and really maximising his potential.

Sorry, I’ve gone massively off topic there, but just got going!

I wouldn't say we released Antonio because he wasn't good enough, we released him because we were a premier league club at the time and he wanted more game time which we wouldn't give him. If we hadn't gone up that year but gone up the following season we might have had a hell of a player on our hands.

This.

If we hadn't gone up, Kebe would almost certainly have left, we wouldn’t have signed McCleary and Antonio would have played regularly for us in the Championship before being bought by a bigger club a season or two later.

[paultheroyal]

“Academy” levels below pro status it’s all about size. Certainly from u11s to u15s. I know of one team who have recruited in summer based on size ie above average height for early teens, all with the eye on success and winning things this year.

[CountryRoyal]

How do you know any of those players were released for being too small?

Eze said himself, word for word.

I like you, so don't take this personally - As I mean it generally, but we need to stop saying things like "They said...."

If you believe something to be true, just share the link to where you found out the information. A podcast, a youtube, a tweet, a local paper article.

In this day and age, it isn't enough to simply say "they said so."

Show us!!

I saw it on that south of the river docu-series (Netflix) either episode 1 or 2 can’t 100% remember which.

[skipper]

Eze said himself, word for word.

I like you, so don't take this personally - As I mean it generally, but we need to stop saying things like "They said...."

If you believe something to be true, just share the link to where you found out the information. A podcast, a youtube, a tweet, a local paper article.

In this day and age, it isn't enough to simply say "they said so."

Show us!!

I saw it on that south of the river docu-series (Netflix) either episode 1 or 2 can’t 100% remember which.

Thanks man. That looks good, I'm going to watch!

[3points]

There's a BBC3 series at the moment called Boot Dreams, about academy players who have been released and being given a chance to get back into full time football. There's a few on that who appear to be "small" in stature, even though they look pretty decent players (hard to tell from an edited docu-series). Worth watching though.

[Millsy]

Cureton, Lefondre et al wouldn't be anywhere near as effective if they weren't the 6'3" Absolute Units they were.

[Dirk Gently]

It just means they have to develop other skills to compensate.

Nicky Shorey was pretty small, but he had learned to jump and time his jump to perfection, so he was easily as good in the air as a lot of other taller players.

Compare and contract with Peter Crouch, who'd always had a height advantage and so never really had to learn to time his jump - if you look at him when he's going for headers where he has to jump, the way he jumps and his accuracy at getting the ball is pretty rubbish.