Lot of talk about one of our midfielders being offered a senior contract with the NIX, which is awesome... except they are now on the world stage with nothing locking them into us.
If we do go into the next rounds and do well, then the likes of Conchie, Karunaratane, Manuel etc will get sniffs from overseas and we could be in the position of not getting any of our first picks.
Would have been better to have them locked in - even if on a scholarship deal or something. That way we could at least sell them. As it stands, all of them bar Surman could leave for nothing, correct?!
If we do go into the next rounds and do well, then the likes of Conchie, Karunaratane, Manuel etc will get sniffs from overseas and we could be in the position of not getting any of our first picks.
Would have been better to have them locked in - even if on a scholarship deal or something. That way we could at least sell them. As it stands, all of them bar Surman could leave for nothing, correct?!
I wondered this too. Why not at least have some of these guys on scholarship deals.
Who are currently on scholarships? And when do they expire?
Manuel is contracted? Karunaratane also? Though Karunaratane's already rumoured to have signed overseas.
Looking back to Des's 2019 U20s, Singh signed for Bayern in 2019 after that U20 WC. Cacace signed for Sint-Truiden in 2020.
The Nix had 4 starters in that 2019 team - Elliot, Stensness, Libby, Sarpreet & Waine. Max Mata & Zac Jones were on the bench. Bell (ex Nix) at his US College.
So Nix managed to sell 3 of those guys for healthy transfer fees. Not bad.
As usual guys like Conchie need to way up, are they better to try and build 2-4 solid seasons of ALM football (as Singh, Libby & Waine did), and then try for Europe around age 23-25. Or the more riskier route of heading up there with no senior pro football behind them.