⭐Langstaff makes National League history...

[applepie2]

It was rather different back then. Turnover of players was much lower, and it was far more common for a player to stay with a club for five years or more. Jimmy Sirrel’s record was pretty good; there were some players like Eddie Cliff who were just cover (for Ray O’Brien in his case) but I don’t recall many complete duds. Of course some players lost form or didn’t really come back successfully from injury (Eric Probert, iirc).

Having a proper reserve team had some benefits - a more helpful path for up and coming youngsters, and a gentler reintroduction for players returning after injury. I used to enjoy watching the reserves, a cheap afternoon out when the first team were away, and a chance to see a fringe player’s potential.

[crazyfists]

It was rather different back then. Turnover of players was much lower, and it was far more common for a player to stay with a club for five years or more. Jimmy Sirrel’s record was pretty good; there were some players like Eddie Cliff who were just cover (for Ray O’Brien in his case) but I don’t recall many complete duds. Of course some players lost form or didn’t really come back successfully from injury (Eric Probert, iirc).

Having a proper reserve team had some benefits - a more helpful path for up and coming youngsters, and a gentler reintroduction for players returning after injury. I used to enjoy watching the reserves, a cheap afternoon out when the first team were away, and a chance to see a fringe player’s potential.

I agree, I used to watch alot of reserves as a kid with the A4 printed team sheet. Got to see the players coming back from injury and some good ones coming through. Still was one of my favourite moments when Chris Short said cheers to me when I threw him the ball at the front of the old Sirrel stand. I was made up!

[SwalePie]

£20m for Macca. Seems reasonable to me.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/63228884

[countygump]

£20m for Macca. Seems reasonable to me.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/63228884

Liked this bit:



With Langstaff catching the eye of his head coach during a media interview, County boss Luke Williams joked that the striker was worth "in the region of £20m", before going on to say it would take a "staggering figure" for them to consider selling him.

"We are fortunate that we don't need to raise capital, so we would be foolish to let Macca go for anything less than what is a really incredible sum," Williams said.

"He is playing his part in a team performing to a very good level, and at this moment we sit top of the league.

[Notts78]

Liked this bit:



With Langstaff catching the eye of his head coach during a media interview, County boss Luke Williams joked that the striker was worth "in the region of £20m", before going on to say it would take a "staggering figure" for them to consider selling him.

"We are fortunate that we don't need to raise capital, so we would be foolish to let Macca go for anything less than what is a really incredible sum," Williams said.

"He is playing his part in a team performing to a very good level, and at this moment we sit top of the league.

Hasn’t priced Wrexham out of though has it?

[MAD_MAGPIE]

Great to see, and brilliant recruitment by Football Radar.

For many years I used to wonder why other clubs managed to unearth the Charlie Austins and Jamie Vardys of this world, but never us.

Well, now we do!

The problem we used to have (It sounds good saying that in the past tense) is that for many years we were either a pension home that signed players based on what they had done in the past and not by their potential. By the time they came to the club their best days were behind them or nearly close to being behind them.

Then we had the opposite end of the scale whereby we would bring in a few young players below say 22 but they would rarely show signs of being able to play at a higher level, or never got played and almost became stocking fillers.

Now we are more aligned to bringing in players that have had a few seasons experience and have shown they are capable at this level or higher but still are yet to reach their peak, or they have had a good footballing education at academies at the highest level, or they have excelled in the league below.