Losing Flanagan Jnr is a bit disappointing but he's hardly proved himself at all and for £85k it's a massive gamble by Hudders. I thought Oliver Wilson looked far more ready when he went.
I can understand the point about why are we developing players if we never see any benefit on the pitch before they're sold. We don't pay our money to watch a balance sheet. As I see it the academy is there to help produce players. For everyone that goes we hopefully keep some others. Having an academy is integral to getting a higher licensing grade and with the ground and crowds as they are we need all the ticks we can get.
Let's face it we're not going to get promoted on the field until we're a fulltime outfit and that isn't happening anytime soon. In the meantime we need to become more like Batley on the field and become really hard to beat and punch above our weight. That can be done with smarter recruitment and a better culture.
We still need some backs to be able to push into the top 6 with any confidence.
