Freedman Keeping Faith With The Academy

Dougie Freedman has said sometimes you have to let players leave so you can allow others to progress and develop further.

Speaking to the Croydon Guardian Freedman said of the departures of Lee Hills, Sean Scannell and the future departure of Nathaniel Clyne, that he has faith that there are lads ready to step up and help fill the gaps next season from our youth set up.

'You have to move people in, it's as simple as that. From a fans point of view I understand there are favourites, but they also have to put a lot of trust into the academy and myself. Not for one second would have let Hills or Scannell go if I hadn't looked at my board to see the amount of young players that will be pushing for the squad next year.'

Freedman continues to say that he wants to see the likes of Matty Parsons, Kyle de Silva, Jonny Williams, Ryan Innis, Alex Wynter and Reise Allassani get more good pitch time next season to further their progression as he believes the crop we have coming through now are the best yet.

'I have got seven or eight players who need to be given a chance. Someone has to make a decision for the next generation coming through and that someone is me. On one hand you have decent players on your books and on the other you have the unknown. We need to see what the unknown is like.'

In finishing Freedman confirmed that the club are close to signing one more player who expects to be in before the end of the week.

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