Case in point of how far behind we currently are as a club (apologies for linking to X, couldn’t find Peter Adeniyi anywhere else).
I think the decline and ultimate loss of the youth academy is a big factor in our demise in first team stature, although latterly it wasn't producing players to become real first teamers, which is perhaps part of the reason the Gavin Rose era ended so ignominiously. It's a massive leap from academy to National South at a club like ours, but even in the previous spell in the Isthmian Premier Division we weren't bringing players through, so my conclusion is that the Aspire academy wasn't really fit for purpose in the end.
Peter Adeniyi seems to favour younger unknown players, while using the Gavin Rose formula of bringing in a few trusted older players he's worked with before, like Sanchez Ming and Fabio Saraiva. I'm not sure whether they have a skinny budget or he's just not comfortable managing the higher profile players. Gavin seemed to lose his way when he was given a bigger budget and started signing lots of players from higher placed clubs each summer, who were effectively stepping down to play for us, even if only within the same division.
The Dartford squad for this game included 3 recent former youth team players (Olly Box, Sam Odaudu, George Whitefield) in the starting XI and another 2 (Jeremiah Pinder, Joseph Kpaka) on the bench, and they're top of the league. They also had Michael Olarewaju, a Hamlet youth team graduate around a decade ago who didn't establish himself with us, then left to join one of Hayden Bird's Gavin Rose tribute squads at Merstham. We had Michael Chambers, who is now aged 30 and has left twice before returning.
National South almost feels like a franchise competition. There's an annual merry-go-round of players switching between similar clubs for the best one year contract they can get, and this league is getting more like it each year amongst the top clubs who have most of their squad under contract, as we do. A large percentage of our current players seem to have played for at least one of Billericay, Dartford or Maidstone, yet all those clubs are much better off than us with the players they now have.
As a supporter, I've found it hard to feel any real affection for most of the players the club has signed since the promotion season. Ask me to name a best XI from the 5 National South seasons and I think I'd really struggle to come up with anyone out of the ordinary for a few positions. I dare say the majority of this season's will have departed by August, and I guess we may also have yet another manager by then, given that Brad's position seemed to be left open ended by mutual agreement when he arrived. Frankly I'm not in a position to evaluate the extent to which he is hamstrung by the players he's inherited, or whether he could reasonably have been expected to get more out of them, but that decision will need to be taken promptly at the end of this month. (Assuming he wants to continue of course.) It must not be allowed to drift for half the summer like it did when Gavin was eventually given that fateful 14th season, only to be sacked 7 games in after 4 consecutive defeats.
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