Development of "Youngsters" and the Academy

Donaldo, I always love your "thinking man's" assessments, as you look beyond the immediate reactions to anything. May be it comes from a lifetime of supporting the Rovers and seeing so many ups and downs. I think you may be somewhere near my age of 74, but I hope I'm not insulting you by saying that!
Peter Doherty was player manager when I first watch my beloved Rovers.

I relate my beginnings at Belle Vue to the fact that I never recall seeing Clarrie Jordan of the phenomenal goal-scoring record and he moved to Wednesday in '48 when I was 7. I began going when I was in my early Junior school days, probably in 1948 or 1949. So I am bit older than you.

In those days managers, who probably did not even talk to the press very often, were left to get on with their jobs and team selection and formations were straightforward. Full backs never crossed the half way line and the same applied in reverse to forwards. If a player was injured the man who played in the identical position in the Reserves would take his place.

What little analysis there was was therefore relatively uncomplicated. The big event apart from the match was the announcement of the team which was published in Friday's evening papers, the Yorkshire Evening Post or the Yorkshire Evening News. The Free Press was actually free in those days and stayed so until at least the 60s and I remember reading a Rovers match report in there by someone who I guessed was in my year at DGS. That was in itself not unusual, but I am almost certain that he had no interest in sport of any kind at school.

Perhaps this is a roundabout way of disassociating my ramblings to a historical perspective, because whilst events seemed to move more slowly in those days, the pattern of management seemed somewhat haphazard. Rovers did recruit and develop young players particulary from Northern Ireland in the Doherty era, Len Graham being the first obvious one and there was ven a player who was not even a regular first teamer, Dubois pronounced locally as Dewboys (!) who played at least once for NI whilst basically a reserve team player.

In their dark days in the 4th Division they always seemed to be looking for an experienced "Midfield General" who would be the player manager and none really ever succeeded. Perhaps the philosophy was for him to control and adapt tactics as the game went on which I suppose has some logic. Albert Broadbent was a living example of an effective leader on the pitch in those days and he brought on one or two left-sided young players who went on to play at the top level.

So this is a roundabout way of saying that I doubt whether ancient history ever taught me anything.

I just missed Clarrie Jordan as my first game was when I was 4 in the 1949-50 season. My Dad talked much about Jordan, and I had many old programmes Dad had saved which cover Jordan's time at the Rovers. When I left England in1974 I gave them to my nephew Steven, but I think his mother threw them away as "old rubbish". Steven now is a regular season ticket holder and I'm sure he wishes he still had them. His 16 year old daughter played for the Belles junior teams when 12-14 and now plays for Barnsley U-19s. She thinks there is a better future there than at the Belles - sacre bleu!

Coincidentally the day after I wrote this Article a video interview with DM appeared in iFollow where he explains what is described as a pathway for U23s into the 1st team, It is an integration process which aims to condition the graduates to the first team environment; a step in the right direction.

Comment Deleted by Article Creator

Comment Deleted by Article Creator