To be fair to Atkins - although he was terrible at giving young players a shot (Simon King was another, and Dexter Blackstock left because he never gave him a run), nobody rated Sam Ricketts when he was with us! He started 35 games for the club; of those, we only won 7. And on 7 occasions, he was voted Rageonline's "Weakest Link"!
There's players who clearly look the part, and don't get a chance because the manager is stubborn, and then it's really annoying when they go on to have great careers.
Sam Ricketts got his chance, looked crap, went to Telford - and then surprised everyone by becoming a PL player and international. Sometimes you just have to hold your hands up and say "Fair play, I didn't see that coming!"