The Mick Jones Blog
In my last blog I spoke about how the players were preparing to have their hearts monitored by Nigel and a team of specialists. Nigel insisted all of the playing staff have the tests because it is an important part of a player's fitness as well as an essential precaution.
We weren't expecting to find any problems because it is extremely rare for there to be any, but as we have all seen from some high profile examples, problems can and do occur and they can be deadly. So by having these tests done we can make sure that all of our players are in good health.
But all that was last week and this week we have been busy preparing for our game on Saturday. On Tuesday we had a full scale match, which was effective for us.
Like all of these practice matches though you might as well go and get a cup of tea for the first ten minutes because it usually takes that long for them to get going, but by the time the manager and Keith had finished with them training was in full swing and everybody was champing at the bit.
The players were rested on Wednesday and were back in today for more preparation work and then we will travel up to Coventry after training on the Friday. The journey is not too bad for us so we will be going on the coach.
Other than that not much has been going on at the training ground this week. We didn't organise a behind-closed-doors match this week like we did against Spurs because the Reserve league is now in full swing, but we will definitely be looking for a game next week.
There is actually the possibility of moving our home Reserve game against QPR to next week. They approached us about it because they have a blank week, we have a blank week and it seems daft that we play them in the last two games of the season. At the moment it is now down to whether we can agree on a date and kick off time, but if it doesn't work out then we will look at another option.
Matthew Wright returned to us this week from his loan spell at Maidstone United where he did okay. He didn't tear up any trees but he did okay. I will be honest, I went down to the Horsham game on a horrible night, I didn't fancy going too much but I jumped in the car and drove down and I wish I hadn't bothered because Matt didn't do well and had not put himself about enough.
He has been reminded of the levels we expect from any player going out on loan. He is representing us, Crystal Palace and if his standards drop and they certainly did that day, he will be reminded of it and he certainly was.
But he has been told about his performances and his fitness levels because he is a player who needs to be fitter to be better.
The thing with Matthew is that I sense, and it is only a sense, he is very home sick. He is a Plymouth boy, he is away from home and it is natural for him to feel that way; we all understand that, nobody more than me.
When I was 15 years old I got on a steam train on my own from Sunderland to Derby which took nine hours. For the first three months I would have given anything I had if they had torn my contract up and sent me back home.
I remember my 16th birthday sitting on my own wishing I was somewhere else - I didn't want to be in Derby sat in my digs on my own, but you overcome it and like all of these things once he cracks it and gets down to work things will look up.
It is just a sense I have with Matthew that his mind his somewhere else and it is something he has to conquer to become a professional footballer. We have given him the opportunity because he is different to every other player at the club. We have got lots of sharp players who can operate around the box, we have wingers, we have forwards coming out of our ears at youth level but we haven't got an archetypal centre forward.
For him now it is important that Ronnie works with him on lots of penalty area work, making runs in the box and getting on the end of things. Ronnie has got to come up with a programme where he makes the same run probably 50 times in every training session.
So rather than trying to find the ball in the box, he needs to make the same runs and let the ball come to him because you are only going to score a goal in certain areas.
As I said last week, it gets on my nerves to see coaches work on one-twos on the edge of the box, rifling balls in from 25 yards. Granted it looks spectacular but true goalscorers very rarely score from outside the box, they will always be between the penalty spot and the goal line and that is the area Matthew needs to work in.
At Sheffield United we had Brian Kidd who was tremendous with forwards and Dave Kelly who was the same, and they both never worked outside the box with strikers because they knew true strikers should come alive inside the box.
And, to be fair to Matthew one of the things we checked when we brought him in was that he had a good goalscoring record at Swansea youth level and that is something you can't put in to people, you just have it.
An interesting thing I heard this week was that there are rumours of Sean Scannell going out on loan, which will not be happening. We will not be sending any of the kids out on loan. They need to develop with us.
We kept an eye on Sean on international duty and I thought he was very unlucky because he did very well in the 45 minutes he was on. But he just felt a tightening in his hamstring and it was a decision made by him and the Irish staff that he would not carry on and also miss the second game, which was the right decision.
As for Kieran Djilali we let him out on loan because it is the right time in his development. There were a number of clubs interested in him but Chesterfield asked for him, simple as that really.
It is a good move for him because we were feeling that Kieran was not getting near the potential he has shown.
Neil, myself, Keith and Ronnie have worked him hard in recent months and it has been done for a reason because if he didn't respond to us four you would have to wonder where he was going in the game.
We knew that if he came through it and showed that he has a bit of character then he would have every chance. And while we have been hard on him - and we have definitely been hard on him - somewhere down the line the penny dropped and he got rid of this hardness in his character and has come out the right side. In recent weeks he has shown in the Reserves that he is potentially a really good player.
When John Sheridan came in for him we were delighted to get him out there, because now that he has cracked it in training with us and in reserve games he now has to go up to another level.
The same might apply to Kieron Cadogan. There has been some interest shown in Kieron and I think he is an exciting prospect, but with him you could send him out too young so we have to be careful, but I think Djilali is ready.
I know John was delighted with him against Rochdale last week when they won 3-2. We had someone at the game and they were also impressed with him.
John told us that he was pleased with his contribution, especially in the second half when they needed to hold the ball and he said he showed a good maturity which is encouraging.
This week we had one question sent it to us from Jane in Keston who wanted to know:Mick, our summer signings of Ambrose, Davis and John all look superb value considering we didn't spend a penny, but how early did the club scout for these players and how early do we start looking for potential bosmans?
