Gordon Cowans believes that Graham Burke will really benefit from working with Graham Turner during his loan spell at Shrewsbury.
Speaking to the Official Site following his loan until January being confirmed yesterday, Cowans said he felt the spell would give Burke a fantastic grounding that will really help bring him on further in his development.
‘It’s definitely a good move for him. It’s part of his development as a player, he needs to get out there and play regularly and if he does that for Shrewsbury he’ll be playing against good sides. It’s a good standard of football and he will only benefit from it.’
The loan is a youth loan which means that Villa can still call on his services for U21 games and he’ll spend time training with us, as well as Shrewsbury, so we’re not sending the 19 year old off into the wilderness, he’ll still have plenty of contact with the club and support but as Cowans himself points out, the experience of one league game for Shrewsbury is probably worth four U21 games now in terms of his development.
It wasn’t so bad before they changed the ‘reserve’ set up as although the competitive issue wasn’t as strong as a first team game, at least youngsters got to test themselves against experienced players on a regular basis which helped offset the difference, but since the change to U21 only (1/2 exceptions) the difference is immense now.
‘As much as Graham Burke is 19 playing a couple of years above his age group in an U21 league, he’s going to develop quicker playing men’s football at a much higher standard.’
Hopefully Burkey will be the first of many to go out on loan now. It’s something Villa have failed to do often enough in previous years, give real league experience to players under the age of 21, so hopefully this signals a change as it will really benefit those who remain with us in 24-36 months time.
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