Burnley Football Club have decided that the remaining second and third year apprentices will not be offered professional contracts at Turf Moor for next season.
The players involved are Cayne Hanley, Nicky Platt, Martin Reilly, Mark Crossley, Rob Henry and Marc Pugh, whose names have now been circulated to all clubs.
Although I have not seen most of these players in action I was led to believe that Marc Pugh in particular was doing well and seemed a good prospect with most of the others being on the periphery of the first team. Hanley,Crossley and Reilly have all featured at some point on the bench although in the case of Hanley this was last season only and he was injured for a time.
Very surprising decision in some cases so do you think that this has more to do with balancing the books rather than letting go of youth players on technical skills and potential grounds?
What are your comments on this overall decision? Were you surprised or did you half expect it?
I wonder what motivation this gives the kids coming through in the first year when they see all these faces leaving. Secondly, does it mean we are not getting our youth policy right if we have to let go of so many? Thankfully Lafferty and McCann have made the grade so that will have to be the taken into consideration also but it still seems wrong to be saying goodbye in particular to Marc Pugh after all the plaudits
Please discuss
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