Doth Darcy do or die?

By: Martyn | July 14th, 2008

Youngster Darcy Blake has played in a wide variety of positions since signing a full-time professional deal, but it remains to be seen whether he will ever establish himself as a foolproof member of the side. Sure, he has potential: One game against Hull City in the 06/07 season resides in my mind when he didn’t allow Ray Parlour a single solitary sniff in the centre of midfield. Equally, Colchester startlet Medy Elito recalls him as one of his stiffest foes when he came up against Blake in the fullback position. Sadly, surely all City fans recollect the promise Joe Jacobsen so resplendently displayed before he was offloaded to Bristol Rovers.

If Blake does leap up to the podium, not only would we have another great local player on our books but a flexible, versatile livewire to boot. That is, not another bland linear option with little impact value. We’ve had enough of them for a lifetime, thank you very much!

This season may well be do or die then for Blake. I believe there lingers the strong possibility that Dave Jones may justifiably sell or release him next summer should he not make the long-awaited breakthrough. Our manager has shown the stern line he takes on floundering youngsters by releasing the previously mentioned Joe Jacobsen, as well as the likes of Matt Green, Andrea Ferretti, and a ton of academy players in recent seasons. Correspondingly, the persistent benching of Chris Gunter and Aaron Ramsey also showed DJ won’t be swayed by public clamour for the local lads to be given the shirt when times get tough.

Ok, so the benching policy was also a sign of naivety and stupidity as our best two prospects in years never got the chance to play as often in the City shirt that they should have done. But undoubtedly, a policy like this will ensure no youth player develops an ego or think he is the Big Cheese.

In any case, so long as Blake continues to show the same spirit, determination, application and potential - and making everyone believe he is filling the latter - on the training ground as he does when given the opportunity for us or the Welsh U21 side, then you’d like to believe that unquestionably, Dave Jones won’t take the option of treating a rough diamond with a smash-and-destroy policy.