*Brown was basically swapped for King with Barnet.
One other thing to remember is what happens to young players that we release. Most have to drop down the pyramid into part-time football, which then means decisions need to be made about whether they can continue to go all out to make as a pro footballer or whether they have to move into another career and just stay part-time.
With the advent of the regional second tier of the Conference, plus certain local sides (eg City) moving up the payramid, there are now more opportunities for leavers to get into a reasonable level of non-league which can give them a small window of opportunity to do what Cundy has done, whereas even just ten years ago there were no other Oxon sides above the 4th level of non-league which prettymuch sealed the fate of any player released unless they were able to finance a move away (eg Alex fisher who moved to Holland to get pro football).
To be fair to Kassam, although he wanted to scrap the youth system entirely, he did relent when challenged both internally and by a fledgling OxVox/U's yOUth group and left the core structure just about intact (albeit funded at the bare minimum allowed). This actually was crucial because it meant that key people in todays setup were retained, and some of those to come through eventually (such as O'Dowda) remained in our system and not someone else's. Wycombe lost their system entirely and have struggled to put anything back in place since. Ours only took off again, once the Lenagans got involved, but at least they had something to work with.
I also think the story of Sam Long is an interesting one, because he only got to stay on because the Dev Squad was formed the year he graduated, and every summer since he has been in line for the chop (certainly from a fans perspective), yet here we are with playing an important part in our end of season rise from the depths. So, given time then we will have more people come through than say when the likes of Matt Taylor were coming through and the budget/manager/wage cap/etc dictated that all young players needed to be first team ready by 18 or 19 or they were out, which is why he left, and maybe one or two others who could have succeeded too. Let's face it, given the criteria that were in place for retention at some points, O'Dowda would have been released along with the rest of guys he graduated with - it was only because we were able to introduce him gradually (and had managers that were willing to do that) that we saw him come to the fore.
So, this is a really exciting time for the club, because we have a very promising cohort coming through, a system (with a number of very talented staff) which will allow them to develop at their own pace over the next couple of years, a chairman/board who are fully supportive of the system, and a manager who is willing to give them opportunites when others might not. Long may it continue (or is that may Long continue?)
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