While the international break offers some respite from the rigours of league action for the majority of our squad, there are several of our players on duty for their countries this weekend.
Representing your nation at any level is what the majority of players aspire to and it’s also an honour for their parent club.
We of course will be looking out for Jake Turner and Josh Cullen who will be playing for England under 19s and the Republic of Ireland under 21s respectively and we wish them well.
Looking towards the younger element of the club, Luca Connell will also earn a cap at under 17 level, while Max Broughton recently captained England under 17s.
Credit must be given to our Academy and Development staff for the continual progress they are making which will ultimately benefit the first team going forward.
Recently, Jeff King made his league debut for the club, after earlier playing in the Carabao Cup against West Ham alongside fellow young professional Jack Earing.
Alex Perry, Ryan White and Harry Brockbank have also trained with the first squad in recent weeks. The manager sees the players train on a regular basis and has no hesitation in including each of them into both his training sessions and first team squad selection.
I'm optimistic that this small group of development players will continue to work hard and push hard to earn first team involvement as the season progresses.
Work has also commenced on the indoor dome over at our Lostock training ground, which will not only benefit all the age groups of our Academy but will also provide opportunities for our local community. We look forward to updating you on the progress of this over the coming weeks.
A number of our players who have been out injured in recent weeks are making steady progress and should be in contention for inclusion in the first team squad when they return to action against Sheffield Wednesday on Saturday 14 October. Hopefully, our squad will be at full strength for what will be the first time this season. A tremendous amount of work has been put in by our Medical Team, which is led by Matt Barrass, to rehabilitate those players whose season has been curtailed by injury.
Finally, I’d like to note that having seen the recent Supporters’ Direct statement neither the club nor l will be making any further comments until the outcome of the ACV hearing is known. However, I do wish to point out there being a number of inaccuracies and out of date information referred to in the statement and l have already made my position about the Supporters’ Trust clear in earlier notes. For the sake of clarity, I feel it important to reiterate that the sale of club assets and loans secured against club assets occurred prior to my involvement with the club.
Unfortunately, it appears to me that a number of people who are or have been involved in both of these organisations enjoy commenting generally on club matters that they have little or no knowledge of, as has clearly been seen in various comments made by the Trust over the last few months.
I do wonder sometimes why they don’t take the time to check the facts with the club or myself before making inaccurate statements.
All l can tell you is that since l have been involved with the club, the Trust has done very little in assisting the club in any shape or form.