LOAN WATCH: Sam Long & Charley Kendall | Page 3 | Vital Football

LOAN WATCH: Sam Long & Charley Kendall

Goalscorers are a different breed to any other players. They either have the knack or they don’t. Some contribute very little to overall play, apart from regularly stabbing the ball home from a rebound for example.

While admitting that Kendall has shown nothing while out on loan and clearly nothing in training either, I would have much preferred him to have been on our bench and thrown on for the last twenty minutes regularly.

We would then know, after a season of that, whether he has it in him to score goals at our level. As it turns out, after two poor loans, we still have no real idea.
 
mikeosullivan said:
Goalscorers are a different breed to any other players. They either have the knack or they don’t. Some contribute very little to overall play, apart from regularly stabbing the ball home from a rebound for example.

While admitting that Kendall has shown nothing while out on loan and clearly nothing in training either, I would have much preferred him to have been on our bench and thrown on for the last twenty minutes regularly.

We would then know, after a season of that, whether he has it in him to score goals at our level. As it turns out, after two poor loans, we still have no real idea.
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Doesn’t the fact he’s been unable to score goals in the Leagues immediately below us give a little bit of a clue?
 
I am sure if he appeared at a local park on a Sunday he would look world class. But it doesn’t appear to be the case when you stand him next to league one players.

Perhaps he might drop down to a lower league after us and ignite whatever spark we saw or perhaps he will just fade into obscurity like the countless number of nearly men you see in all parts of the football pyramid.
 
Mattytindraws said:
Doesn’t the fact he’s been unable to score goals in the Leagues immediately below us give a little bit of a clue?
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If only it was that simple. The Sutton loan was a waste of time. He has scored for Bromley.
How many similar loans ( between any clubs) result in a striker having a big impact in a few games. How many strikers have we sent out on loan that came back better players?
Makama got blown out by Brackley. Should he be written off?
Remember Callum Morton had a massive impact at Northampton but has failed to do much since including for us.
Kendall gets a red for a high foot, suddenly he's a crap player. On that basis Freddie Draper must be crap too.

It all seems a far cry from this piece quoted from Lincolnshire live January 29 2022.

'Huge potential' - Lincoln City sign former QPR forward


Lincoln City believe they have unearthed another non-league gem after announcing the signing of Charley Kendall from Eastbourne Borough.

Having swooped for exciting forward Ben House from National League Eastleigh, the Imps have snapped up former QPR youngster Kendall on a long-term contract.

The 21-year-old, who has scored 11 goals in 17 games this season, will remain on loan at Eastbourne, of National League South, for the rest of the season, although he will train with the Imps.

Kendall took the bold decision to leave QPR in September to secure regular first-team football, and his decision has been vindicated.

Imps director of football Jez George said: “Charley is just the type of talented young player that we want to sign and develop.

“We are really pleased to have been able to secure his long-term future with Lincoln City in this transfer window. Charley has impressed us with his character, mentality, technical and physical attributes, work ethic and ability to score all types of goals. He has huge potential, and we are sure that we can help him to develop in our environment.

“We also have big respect for how Charley backed himself to make his own path into professional football by making the decision to leave QPR in September to play first team football at Eastbourne.

“His hunger and desire to succeed is evident when you meet him, so we are really excited that Charley has trusted us with this next step in his career."


I know things don't always work out, but bloody hell he's had a bit of a raw deal so far 'in our environment'.
 
Bucksimp said:
If only it was that simple. The Sutton loan was a waste of time. He has scored for Bromley.
How many similar loans ( between any clubs) result in a striker having a big impact in a few games. How many strikers have we sent out on loan that came back better players?
Makama got blown out by Brackley. Should he be written off?
Remember Callum Morton had a massive impact at Northampton but has failed to do much since including for us.
Kendall gets a red for a high foot, suddenly he's a crap player. On that basis Freddie Draper must be crap too.

It all seems a far cry from this piece quoted from Lincolnshire live January 29 2022.

'Huge potential' - Lincoln City sign former QPR forward


Lincoln City believe they have unearthed another non-league gem after announcing the signing of Charley Kendall from Eastbourne Borough.

Having swooped for exciting forward Ben House from National League Eastleigh, the Imps have snapped up former QPR youngster Kendall on a long-term contract.

The 21-year-old, who has scored 11 goals in 17 games this season, will remain on loan at Eastbourne, of National League South, for the rest of the season, although he will train with the Imps.

Kendall took the bold decision to leave QPR in September to secure regular first-team football, and his decision has been vindicated.

Imps director of football Jez George said: “Charley is just the type of talented young player that we want to sign and develop.

“We are really pleased to have been able to secure his long-term future with Lincoln City in this transfer window. Charley has impressed us with his character, mentality, technical and physical attributes, work ethic and ability to score all types of goals. He has huge potential, and we are sure that we can help him to develop in our environment.

“We also have big respect for how Charley backed himself to make his own path into professional football by making the decision to leave QPR in September to play first team football at Eastbourne.

“His hunger and desire to succeed is evident when you meet him, so we are really excited that Charley has trusted us with this next step in his career."


I know things don't always work out, but bloody hell he's had a bit of a raw deal so far 'in our environment'.
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to be fair it’s his job to say comments like that about a new signing. If it was to the contrary it would be strange.

if he has been given a long term deal I assume we considered him a long term project but there must be a limit - perhaps if he has another season like this the opinion of him will be reevaluated?

there might be a reason why he hit it off at Eastbourne - isn’t it where is he from?

perhaps he just needs more time or perhaps he isn’t a league one player and never will be. Time will tell.

I think the problem this season is that we just don’t have enough strikers which means people are naturally questioning why he isn’t here. If we had 4 experienced strikers (I don’t mean wingers or attacking midfielders) competing for starting positions we wouldn’t even be talking about him he would just be seen as potential.

I wonder if geography is an issue too - Kendall is too good for loans to local non league we send our youngsters to so there is no point but if he went to a league 2 team they wouldn’t really give him enough game time to develop. Years ago we had a reserve team which would at least give him some football but we don’t. Can we loan him out to a premiership or championship u23 team?
 
Bucksimp said:
If only it was that simple. The Sutton loan was a waste of time. He has scored for Bromley.
How many similar loans ( between any clubs) result in a striker having a big impact in a few games. How many strikers have we sent out on loan that came back better players?
Makama got blown out by Brackley. Should he be written off?
Remember Callum Morton had a massive impact at Northampton but has failed to do much since including for us.
Kendall gets a red for a high foot, suddenly he's a crap player. On that basis Freddie Draper must be crap too.

It all seems a far cry from this piece quoted from Lincolnshire live January 29 2022.

'Huge potential' - Lincoln City sign former QPR forward


Lincoln City believe they have unearthed another non-league gem after announcing the signing of Charley Kendall from Eastbourne Borough.

Having swooped for exciting forward Ben House from National League Eastleigh, the Imps have snapped up former QPR youngster Kendall on a long-term contract.

The 21-year-old, who has scored 11 goals in 17 games this season, will remain on loan at Eastbourne, of National League South, for the rest of the season, although he will train with the Imps.

Kendall took the bold decision to leave QPR in September to secure regular first-team football, and his decision has been vindicated.

Imps director of football Jez George said: “Charley is just the type of talented young player that we want to sign and develop.

“We are really pleased to have been able to secure his long-term future with Lincoln City in this transfer window. Charley has impressed us with his character, mentality, technical and physical attributes, work ethic and ability to score all types of goals. He has huge potential, and we are sure that we can help him to develop in our environment.

“We also have big respect for how Charley backed himself to make his own path into professional football by making the decision to leave QPR in September to play first team football at Eastbourne.

“His hunger and desire to succeed is evident when you meet him, so we are really excited that Charley has trusted us with this next step in his career."


I know things don't always work out, but bloody hell he's had a bit of a raw deal so far 'in our environment'.
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I’m pretty certain that if he’d scored for Sutton, he’d have played regularly. Surely the primary contributing factor to his loan being a waste of time was him not scoring and thereby not doing enough to warrant a place in their team?
FWIW, I’ve seen nothing in Freddie Draper so far that makes me think he will ever play regularly for us.
 
Mattytindraws said:
Any chance that going out on loan to clubs lower down the pyramid and scoring goals may have been part of his detailed and planned out pathway into the first team?
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Yes absolutely, he unfortunately got sent to the wrong club at the wrong level as to where within his development he needed to be.
 
Mattytindraws said:
I’m pretty certain that if he’d scored for Sutton, he’d have played regularly. Surely the primary contributing factor to his loan being a waste of time was him not scoring and thereby not doing enough to warrant a place in their team?
FWIW, I’ve seen nothing in Freddie Draper so far that makes me think he will ever play regularly for us.
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he wasnt very impressive at Chippenham - that said most of the imps were crap that day
 
Feel like the Kendall debate will go on for eternity. Perfect storm in some ways:
  • Signed him then banged goals in every week when back on loan
  • Young prospect/seen as something to get excited about
  • I know as above JG *would* say he is good, but if you look at the blurb on him compared to when we say, signed House and the quote from Appleton was just like... pleased to have him but he needs a lot of work/isn't finished article... It is a little bit more effusive in praise / written as a coup for the recruitment team with Kendall. Think when I saw the barber rumour about House and posted it here there was a bit of... is this legit? Forward who hasn't scored many goals in the conference, not expecting much - as opposed to banging them in every week like Kendall.
  • He also signed a long term contract, we paid a fee and the chat about making an impact when he was back (this season) did make it feel like to me the plan was for him to be more involved and not farmed out on loan.
All culminating in maybe higher expectations in reality. I remember someone saying when we signed Kendall that Joan Luque was scoring goals at that level - there weren't expectations of Luque when he was here in L2 and House in some ways felt more of a punt.

It's hard to know without all the detail / how he was in training / if there are some other circumstances as mentioned resulting in going to clubs back towards where he was playing before... but my hot take is probably that the jump was too big and was a punt that hasn't really come off for the recruitment team. I guess also if as per the comment in the thread earlier that he's "a long way short of League One standard; what have you seen about Kendall that Kennedy has missed?" I guess the flip side would be what did the recruitment team see? I know it's not quite as simple as that, but that'd be my counter point if he is a long way short.

Regardless it seems unlikely to me that he will be back playing regularly here based on what MK has sounded like (and to me based on the loanees we've given a go ahead of him...) but who knows.
 
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House and Kendall were both signed as mid to longer term prospects from similar level clubs and at similar ages.

But would House have made the same progess if we had sent him out on meaningless loans like Kendall, rather than gradually given him time from the bench and occasional starts as we did?
 
mikeosullivan said:
House and Kendall were both signed as mid to longer term prospects from similar level clubs and at similar ages.

But would House have made the same progess if we had sent him out on meaningless loans like Kendall, rather than gradually given him time from the bench and occasional starts as we did?
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House is league one ready that's the difference - perhaps its age
 
With Kendall, I’m wondering if it’s an attitude problem.

I didn’t post this at the time as I didn’t want to write the lad off instantly but might as well share now he’s not going to get a game at this level…

A day or two before Eastbourne’s play off defeat Kendall was out clubbing in Newcastle and I had a message from my brother in law (no interest / knowledge of Lincoln at all and a Man City fan) telling me Kendall had gone over to his table for a phone charger and had been bragging about being a professional footballer for us, how much he was on and how much he’d been spending on a vip booth. Said he was a bit of an *expletive*.

Seems to me that anyone preparing for the biggest game in their clubs history by partying it up hasn’t got the minerals to play in League One. Let alone thinking you’ve hit the big time sitting on Lincoln’s bench!
 
Londonimp12 said:
With Kendall, I’m wondering if it’s an attitude problem.

I didn’t post this at the time as I didn’t want to write the lad off instantly but might as well share now he’s not going to get a game at this level…

A day or two before Eastbourne’s play off defeat Kendall was out clubbing in Newcastle and I had a message from my brother in law (no interest / knowledge of Lincoln at all and a Man City fan) telling me Kendall had gone over to his table for a phone charger and had been bragging about being a professional footballer for us, how much he was on and how much he’d been spending on a vip booth. Said he was a bit of an *expletive*.

Seems to me that anyone preparing for the biggest game in their clubs history by partying it up hasn’t got the minerals to play in League One. Let alone thinking you’ve hit the big time sitting on Lincoln’s bench!
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if that is the case I should imagine his imps career is near over
 
bristolimp said:
House is league one ready that's the difference - perhaps its age
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But would House be league one ready if he had been sent out on loan to gain "experience" like Kendall. House certainly wan't league one ready when he was signed. Neither was Kendall.

Two very similar signings who have gained their "experience" in two totally different ways. One is now a league one regular. The other is apparently nowhere near.
 
mikeosullivan said:
But would House be league one ready if he had been sent out on loan to gain "experience" like Kendall. House certainly wan't league one ready when he was signed. Neither was Kendall.

Two very similar signings who have gained their "experience" in two totally different ways. One is now a league one regular. The other is apparently nowhere near.
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house played games last year too. Kendall by the judgement of the club has not simple as that
 
bristolimp said:
to be fair it’s his job to say comments like that about a new signing. If it was to the contrary it would be strange.

if he has been given a long term deal I assume we considered him a long term project but there must be a limit - perhaps if he has another season like this the opinion of him will be reevaluated?

there might be a reason why he hit it off at Eastbourne - isn’t it where is he from?

perhaps he just needs more time or perhaps he isn’t a league one player and never will be. Time will tell.

I think the problem this season is that we just don’t have enough strikers which means people are naturally questioning why he isn’t here. If we had 4 experienced strikers (I don’t mean wingers or attacking midfielders) competing for starting positions we wouldn’t even be talking about him he would just be seen as potential.

I wonder if geography is an issue too - Kendall is too good for loans to local non league we send our youngsters to so there is no point but if he went to a league 2 team they wouldn’t really give him enough game time to develop. Years ago we had a reserve team which would at least give him some football but we don’t. Can we loan him out to a premiership or championship u23 team?
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that’s half the point, we don’t have 4 experienced strikers
 
House is far more physically developed than Kendall and a better all round player.

In hindsight, maybe his first loan should have been to the NL, then up to L2 but given Kendall's age, given the length of contract, it kinda made sense to try a loan spell in L2 first IMO.
 
mikeosullivan said:
But would House be league one ready if he had been sent out on loan to gain "experience" like Kendall. House certainly wan't league one ready when he was signed. Neither was Kendall.

Two very similar signings who have gained their "experience" in two totally different ways. One is now a league one regular. The other is apparently nowhere near.
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Only similar in terms of position and coming from non-league. In terms of physicality, the type of attacker etc etc they're pretty different and I'd also suggest that House's football brain is superior as well.

Part of the deal with Kendall was allowing Eastbourne to keep him on loan for the rest of the season, so yes, perhaps that time would have been better served here but that wasn't part of the deal to sign him.
 
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