Mike Dodds reckons young keeper Matty Young could go "all the way to the top" after a successful loan spell at Darlington.
WHY NOT?
“Can Matty [Young] come back and challenge for a first-team goalkeeping spot next season? Yeah, why not? Chris Rigg is a first-year scholar, and I’ve played him against Southampton, Leicester and Leeds this season. I know people might say that the goalkeeping position is a bit different, but the ball is always in the player’s court. If he comes back and is unbelievable, then one thing that this football club has shown is that under this model and this ownership, they will give young players opportunities and will not be scared of that. If he comes back, and he’s better than the current number one, whether that be Patto [Anthony Patterson] or whoever, then he’ll get an opportunity to play. If that opportunity is not there, then maybe it’ll be a case of looking at another loan."
HARDER FOR KEEPERS
"I understand the argument that goalkeepers can be hard debuts to give just because of the nature of the position or the pitch. But if you’re asking me from a personal perspective, then if I felt Matty was ready, psychologically and mentally to play at the Stadium of Light as a 17-year-old or 18-year-old, I wouldn’t have any qualms at all about playing him. The ball’s in his court."
GOT A REAL CHANCE
"It depends on how good he is when he comes back in the summer, but he’s a wonderful player, and I think Matty Young has got a real chance. I think he could go all the way to the top, but like all young players, that’ll ultimately be dependent on how he manages his head."
11 LOANEES
“Sometimes, with the loans, going and experiencing a different environment and not doing well can still be a positive. It’s not always about a player going somewhere and scoring loads of goals and doing really well, and you automatically thinking ‘They’re the one’ when they come back. Sometimes, going out, learning things, thinking, ‘Okay, I need to be better at this’ and then having that reflection time can be really important for a loan player. Some of them have gone and played regularly, some of them have been more in and out, but even for the in and out ones, I think they’ll have had some really important experiences. All the ones that have gone out are young players."
POINTS TO PROVE
"They’ll all come back in the summer, and they’ll all have an opportunity to show us that they’ve got a case for being in the squad or the team. If they have, great, we keep them in and they become a first-team player. If they haven’t, then there’s two routes for them."
OPTIONS IN THE SUMMER
"I mean this respectfully, but you then either move them on because the club want to progress and get better in that position, or you loan them out again and say, ‘Right, you’re missing in these areas, so you need to go and get game time’. I wouldn’t say there’s anyone in particular I’d pick out at the moment. The one I’m always interested in seeing when the loan players come back in the summer is whether they come back a little bit more mature and have a better understanding of what professional football is all about. It’ll be a really interesting summer for those ones who are coming back, and you normally see a slight difference in their character, which I think is really important."
