Neil Ruddock: Introduce a ‘two-year loan’, scrap six-month deals
Speaking to NewBettingOffers.co.uk, former Premier League centre-half – whom Venables re-bought three years after a lower league stint – points to Chelsea and Tottenham as proof that short-term loan deals do not work.
Neil Ruddock has told NewBettingOffers.co.uk that two-year loans should be implemented as standard – and six-month loans have no impact for anyone – with the transfer window just days away from closing.
Read more on what he had to say below.
Introduce two-year loans and scrap six-month loans
Ruddock firmly believes that the six-month loan – a popular move during the January transfer window – should be abolished, and instead replaced with a two-year loan.
Do I see the value in a loan for six months? Not at all. I’m all for longer loans. I’d rather loan moves be made for two years, so you can really make your mark at a new club. I don’t think many players can improve in six months at a lower-league team.
At that younger age, most players would have been playing in the under-23 league – against the same players for five or ten years. They’re playing the same kids they’ve been playing since they were 16, 17, 18. They’re not going to improve.
I think anyone up to the age of under-23 should, as standard, have a two-year loan. It’s going to help the player, it’s going to help the club that’s loaned him out, and it’s going to help the team he’s going to as he’ll be serving there for a longer time. Everyone knows where they stand.
A longer loan is not only beneficial but it’s more stable for the player too. If you’re at a new place for two years, you can bring your wife or girlfriend, you can call a place home, and you’ll be much more settled. I’ve always said a happy footballer is a better footballer.
A six-month loan will show little impact – look at Chelsea as a club, or Spurs’ loanee Alfie Devine
To illustrate his point further, Ruddock put forward examples of Chelsea’s loan system, as well as calling on the example of Tottenham’s Alfie Devine – recently signing on loan to Championship club Plymouth Argyle after a stint at League One’s Port Vale.
How many Chelsea youngsters have gone away on six-month loans and improved to the point where they then play, and make an impact, at Chelsea? None of them.
Take in point also that Tottenham lad, Alfie Devine. He’s been given six months to go to Plymouth and six months at Port Vale. He’s definitely had more game time by dropping down to League one then the Championship – but will that improve him? Could that improve anyone? No.
The loan system feels now like a case of keeping youngsters happy, having a short stint then returning to their parent club, but ultimately you want to improve them. It took me three years to really feel, and show my manager, that I’d improved. Six months is not enough time.
Terry Venables bought me back after successful three-year lower-league stint
Razor says that he sees value in dropping down the leagues for game time – and, as he recalled with his time as a young player under Terry Venables, if you put the work in then the rewards can show.
When I was a kid at Tottenham, I was fifth in line. Terry Venables, the manager at the time, said he had no option but to sell me. There wasn’t a loan system back then as much as there is today.
Southampton came in for me, and I prepared to move. Venables said to me before I left, ‘Go to Southampton, improve your game, grow up as a footballer, grow up as a man. If you improve, I’ll buy you back.’
At the time I just assumed he wanted to get rid of me. But in those three years, I played my heart out, got called up to England’s U21 team, and I improved. True to his word, he bought me back.
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