Nothing to do with the number of his players sent out on loan in this window?

I suppose, if you think about it, Derry may have said: why loan an Arsenal player who's hardly played and not been great - instead of using say Ozoh. He may also have said: why pay 10.5 mil for pretty raw talent, again not exactly massively featured instead of promoting from within? And I guess they are genuine questions. If either does not play well, or isn't used, then these questions will come up again. It's not like our signings have played much more than our own academy players. I guess Derry could have thought this was a poor message for the club to give to promising youngsters in the area.
Add to that the Irish and Scottish lads and suddenly there doesn't seem to be that much of a point in the academy. You can get a loan to League One, or go somewhere else play a few games and then we buy you for ten mil as a raw talent.

Red and Blue Army!

I get it - it's not exactly loads though is it? Nor the other fella. I'm not making a value judgement on these players - they could be great. However, Ozoh may be just as good once we start using him (if ever). Plus, would academy players think nothing of this? And their parents/ agents? Personally, I would be a little disappointed if my son were there. I hadn't really thought about this way until today. I was just as caught up with wanting players in as anyone else.

Red and Blue Army!

But if you see the interviews with the acadamy lads they do get to train with the first team fairly regularly and for most of them it will be a gradual progression. Unless someone is showing young Wilf qualities there's no point throwing them into the first team and hoping for the best. It may well be that Ozoh is going to be good enough to step up but at the moment he's not even at the Killian Phillips or John-kymani Gordon level. The JKG interview when he scored his first for Carlisle is well worth a listen if you want to appreciate what the young players think.

I understand what you say Syd, but did he actually say anything.

“That’s a joke son, I say, that’s a joke.” “Nice boy, but he’s sharp as a throw pillow.” “He’s so dumb he thinks a Mexican border pays rent” “ “Son… I say, son, some people are so narrow minded they can look through a keyhole with both eyes.”__ Forhorn Leghorn

It's interesting because there's clearly a story here. Parish is rightly big on promoting from within, and I believe when PV was hired having an existing member of the club coaching team was more or less imposed on him so I don't imagine if Derry was fired, it would have been done without a good reason. And if he left voluntarily because he has a manager's job or something else lined up, you'd usually say that; "one of our coaches is moving up the career ladder" is broadly good publicity. So you have to think there's an "adverse" story somewhere in here somewhere. Plus, as I said, Derry has a history of being a man who does things his own way.

TBH, on a personal level I'll miss him because I like continuity in the club and I always liked Derry as a player. But I'm inclined to think from a pure coaching standpoint, it's no great loss. And I presume that's how PV feels too, as we haven't had the obligatory press release thanking Derry for his services, and noting how much he'd contributed to the club. Possibly even, we've weeded out a bad apple.

What I do think is, as I've said before, things were going stale. We've looked out of sorts for some weeks now. We needed a shake-up and some refreshing...needed it badly...and two new players and presumably a new voice in the coaching team if Derry is going to be replaced is in my view, a good start and no bad thing. I'll be interested to see if we push on and show a little more life over the next few weeks.

Sydenham by birth. Selhurst by the Grace of God.