>>[Roy of the Rovers!] CESA recruits a number of CFC players on an annual basis and this has a significant impact on the Carolina FC teams.<<
I wanted to give this one a few days to see if anyone else would pick up on it.
I know that I'm in the distinct minority here, but my first reaction in reading this was incredularity. It's not that I'm trying to defend CESA from "ethical recruiting" (i.e., recruiting players when the affiliating organization says it's okay.) It's that I don't see many/any clubs, including CESA, doing much recruiting. I'd personally like to see clubs do more of it.
Again...I'm not trying to defend CESA. Heck -- I hope that they are "ethically recruiting." I hope Bridge and CUFC are as well.
What I do see are lots of players and parents who approach club coaches. I get that -- and I'm sure it's occurred from the beginning of time. But how many players/parents are "cold-called" in terms of being recruited from their existing club team to another club team? Is it really occurring a lot out there? If so, who is doing it and who is being recruited? It's not like there's a stigma to this if it's being done "ethically."
There is a tremendous tendency for parents to tell their club coaches that their kid is being recruited when in fact they and their kid approached another club and asked about a playing position. In my experience, once you delve into this kind of thing, that's what you find. But I know I'm probably missing something.
