Reading the local rag today regarding the Liam Harris story, and it’s another Scott Taylor scenario that Rovers have found themselves in unfortunately again.
It’s a shame that the club have ploughed plenty of money to develop players that have always had their allegiences somewhere else. Only for our neighbours to step in when the timing is right. When I see players choose this path it makes me sick to the stomach. I’d imagine the likes of Hudge and Crossland wouldn’t be too happy either.
When taking lads on into our joint academy, would it not be worthwhile to ask if their die hard F.C. or Rovers fans so it saves wasting money over a number of years making them into players only for our neighbours to benifit from?

First of all, I wouldn’t get wound up by the partisan coverage in the Mail. We’ve got trolls enough on here.

What we need to try to do is make ourselves an attractive option for players. We don’t own the players we develop - if we expect rather than persuade players to stay, we’ll disappointed more often as well as more deeply.

I wouldn’t need any persuading to play for Rovers MR, but neither would Harris or Taylor for F.C. ,
Fc was always a final option for those players. Finding players allegiances would imo be a better bet financially in the end.
Otherwise what’s the point in ploughing money in when your not going to benifit from it.

It's generally about the money. T Lee is as black n white as they come but he likes a pay cheque more. Certainly a plus if your local lads have the club at heart and that is where Radford and FC have another advantage over us although we do have youngsters coming through in Oakes and Dagger but they came from other academies.Would be nice to see a good few local lads make step up from COHA and iv read there are a lot with potential? Also works over way in Hodgson and Lawler we took in after they were deemed not good enough for FC? Funny how it works out,We gas Ellis Clark and Green and they are signed up by Cas.Same with Cook and Webster?

Difference was we wanted Harris and Taylor to stay.

[quote="Hessle rover"]Difference was we wanted Harris and Taylor to stay.[/quote]


I just think it’s a coincidence with these two there’s been plenty of Hull fans playing for Rovers and vice versa to me and you we wouldn’t dream of playing for Hull but we’re not professionals and I think it’s different for them they just want to play professionally so the choice of club doesn’t matter in most cases if you look at 3 of Liverpool’s biggest stars over the years Ian Rush ,Robbie Fowler and Michael Owen they where all diehard Everton fans

What if you were offered £30k per year for two years by Rovers and another SL club, more certain of retaining that status and that wins more often, offered you £45k per year for 3 years?

I know, I know... Paul Fletcher.

I remember reading on hullkrfans, a fan had met Phil Hogan at a Barrow game during our NL years. The fan found it slightly strange that when they were chatting, Hogan referred to Barrow as ‘we’ and Rovers as ‘you’. Professional and personal loyalties can differ. I remember seeing Taylor celebrating a Rovers derby win just as heartily as the rest at Magic one year. My non-evidence-based suspicion is that he might have been a little more open to a new Rovers contract if we’d have looked more stable and ambitious at the time.

I’m not saying that Taylor and Harris aren’t sincere - but it is PR as well.

Also, Harris is still only a fringe SL player at this stage. He might be another Josh Hodgson, or he might not.





The joint academy sort of solves that problem. And players will probably have the sense to be non-committal if it halves their chances of a first pro contract.

Your last point is part of why I think player development should be taken out of clubs’ hands. We’d be better with centrally-funded RFL run regional academies as the first step on the player pathway imo.

didn't we get a decent transfer fee from wigan for taylor, at the time it was no big deal letting him go, and harris despite playing a couple of games because of injurys ,wasn't deemed good enough at the time to command a salary he pushed for, only time will tell with harris but think it was the right decision,

Yeah, we got a couple of decent of seasons from Taylor and a transfer fee. If anything, Wigan have more reason to be aggrieved at his determination to play for Hull.

But these things happen, and not just to us. If we want to retain more of the players we want to retain, whether club trained or not, we have to make ourselves an attractive employment option - across remuneration, job security and job satisfaction.

[quote="Mild Rover"]Yeah, we got a couple of decent of seasons from Taylor and a transfer fee. If anything, Wigan have more reason to be aggrieved at his determination to play for Hull.

But these things happen, and not just to us. If we want to retain more of the players we want to retain, whether club trained or not, we have to make ourselves an attractive employment option - across remuneration, job security and job satisfaction.[/quote]


We won’t attract anybody decent until the middle 8s finish as we’ve been in them every season