The
Whirligig of Football
Compensating
Small Clubs
The Derby Daily Telegraph
Saturday October 2nd, 1926
There is
hardly a League club in the country that would not jump at the chance of
signing up a young player who showed outstanding promise. It is notorious how clubs are scouting
everywhere, and almost tumbling over themselves in their anxiety to discover
young lads, and yet, if the whole story were to be told of what happens once
the youngsters are discovered and signed, it would be equally notorious how
unsympathetically the big clubs treat the small clubs, whose work has been to
find, teach, and develop.
I am urged
to a discussion of this topic because of some facts placed before me by the
Secretary of the Barry Town club, an organisation which plays in the Western
Section of the Southern League. Last
season Barry had a most successful campaign, and, naturally, the scouts of the
League clubs took an interest in their performances. These scouts found much to interest them, for
of last season’s Barry team no less than six players have been persuaded to
join the professional ranks amd try their luck in the League.
Here is the
list of the players and the clubs to which they have gone;
Arthur
Doncaster, inside left, to Bolton Wanderers
Walter
Moyle, half back, to Cardiff City and later transferred to Manchester United
Dai Jones,
goal, to Stockport County
Harry
Hopkins, centre forward, to Crystal Palace.
Ivor
Hinton, full back, to Newport County
Bernard
Condon, outside right, to Swansea Town
There is a
mistaken idea abroad that small clubs make a fortune whenever they sell a young
player to a wealthy League organisation.
This bubble is exploded in the case of Barry Town, for the six players
named above have brought them in the sum of £400, made up of £300 paid by
Bolton for Doncaster, and £100 paid by Cardiff City for Moyle.
The other
four League clubs have not made Barry Town any monetary compensation in any
way. It might well be said that these
clubs took the players without as much as a “By your leave,” or having taken
them, without a “Thank you.” Barry Town
do not grumble; they simply set forth the claim that the League clubs might
show a little more consideration.
I think the
average follower of the League game will sympathise with Barry, and will also
regard the niggardly policy of some of the big clubs as distinctly belonging to
the penny wise and pound foolish school.
These smaller clubs have their own worries in finding players, and once
found they have all the trouble of developing them. It is most discouraging when, just as a club
is reaping the reward of its enterprise and patience, a wealthier and more
fashionable club should come along and march off with its best players.
Were the League clubs to compensate the smaller
clubs like Barry Town then these small clubs could carry on, eager to find more
players, and only too ready and willing to help the big clubs that have helped
them. I do wish to emphasise that some
of the League clubs are very, very sympathetic and considerate, and that this
reference to this matter is not a general condemnation, but is merely to set
forth hard facts in the hope that a more generous spirit will pervade the whole
League circle.
