Young guns still have role to play

ATHLETIC aren't ready to take away the stabilisers from their best young talent just yet.

Sophomore scholar James Tarkowski has just been offered his first professional contract after impressing in his senior outings, while first-year Carl Winchester is also knocking at the door.

Centre-back Tarkowski has shone in recent weeks with his assurance on the ball and a willingness to mix it physically with some gnarled veterans of npower League One.

The 18-year-old from New Moston has made four appearances in total this season, two from the start at Leyton Orient and at home to Brighton before the return to the club of Jean-Yves Mvoto pushed him to the substitutes' bench.

Right-back or central midfielder Winchester has been less involved on the first-team scene of late. After making a confident debut amid an awful overall team performance in the FA Cup first-round tie at Accrington, the ex-Linfield player — who celebrated his 18th birthday on Tuesday — followed that performance with another good one at Dagenham.

He then gave away a penalty with a tired tackle as the team imploded to give up a three-goal lead against Exeter.

More recently, Winchester has had injury problems but has found his way on to the substitutes' bench for four of the last five fixtures without being used.

Winchester's fellow Northern Irishman Kirk Millar has also found first-team action tough to come by.

The prospect of the winger, who has another 12 months of his first pro deal still to run, adding to his five substitute showings this term appear bleak following his red card for the reserves earlier this week.

Dickov explained that one of the reasons behind his prime youngsters not taking to the field lately is being kept a secret.

But he did publicly reveal that reserves and college commitments have restricted the amount of training sessions they are able to take part in.

"With Tarky, Carl and Kirk we rate them very highly and think they have big futures in the game," said Dickov. "What we don't want to do is put them in too early.

"There are lots of reasons behind that, some I won't go into. If we chuck them in, with Tarky — although he is a big lad — and Carl, they are not physically ready to play week-in, week-out.

"This season with the younger kids we are lucky if we get them to train with us on a Monday and a Friday.

"On Tuesday and Thursday they are at college and Wednesday is a day off and a reserves game.

"They are on a programme now and they need to grow up physically before they are ready to play consistently.

"And they also need to train regularly with us as they haven't been able to do that all season."

Dickov also gave an early insight into his plans for getting players fit even before training begins ahead of 2011-12.

Each squad member is to be given a personal fitness regime to complete in the off-season.

"Pre-season next year isn't about getting to know players, it is about hitting the ground running as soon as they come back," he added.