Snowflake RoyalYorkshireRoyal99Hound
Yep the Stam era was incredibly damaging long term
From misjudging the ability of the young players through to signing crap like Aluko and handing out massive contracts
Absolutely disastrous and yet 2 kicks from the PL
I wonder how much of that actually falls on Stam.
It's not like he was reluctant to bring through youth players, he was responsible for Kelly having a very good season in the lead up to our PO season and always looked to bring through the likes of Sam Smith and others.
Of course there are other examples where we probably haven't utilised them as much as we could/should, but if the owners were looking to bankroll to the PL by signing players who don't have the ability to get there and didn't want youth promoting then his hands were tied.
On Stam, there's
Success:
Omar Richards 0(0) / 9(4) - unqualified success long term.
Mixed:
Liam Kelly 21(9) / 28(6) - great first season, poor second season.
Tom Holmes 0(0) / 1(0) - I'm not sure we can call one appearance much even though he's been a long term success.
Dominic Samuels 6(3) - got a chance and let go, not proved thay wrong
Tennai Watson 0(3) / 0(0) - plagued by injuries, not developed
Sam Smith 0(0)/ 4(4) - didn’t really look good enough, L1 at best
Failure:
Jake Cooper 0(3) / - let go and has arguably passed us
Rob Dickie - let him go, arguably passed us
Dominic Hyam - let him go, arguably passed us
Jack Stacey - let him go, passed us
Tarique Fosu-Henry - let him go, passed us for a while
Now, I may be slightly out and some left us not on Stam's watch, but I've probably missed someone we let go.
For a centreback, Stam seemed to be utterly clueless about what made a good CB, rejecting Cooper, Dickie and Hyam, and bringing in Ilori, Blackett, Oxford and Elphick FFS.
So basically on youth, Stam unjustifiably loved Kelly who was the exception, and otherwise gave out a few cameos and ignored our actual talent.
Goes back to my point about the change in culture once Dai came sniffing around. Pretty much all of those players you list , left after January 2017.
Of course not all of them would have made it under Stam (or anyone else ) but they had no chance once we became a “promotion or bust” club .