Opinion: Should Storer Be In The Squad?

When Jack Storer burst onto the scene in this years pre-season games, I was hopeful that he would have the same impact as Marcus Rashford did for Manchester United. I don’t mean in terms of such a meteoric rise and such, but just he would give us that lack of fear going forward and be able to scare defences. I thought that he may be able to really kick on and introduce himself with a bang. He introduced himself with a bang alright; a headbutt to earn him a red card and a ban.

Now, I am a player for a football team and I have been set off and had to face a ban. After that ban was over, the management enabled me to come back into the side straight away. But I am a defender and it was a last ditch tackle, it wasn’t malicious or violent in any way and this was shown by a reduced fine. In Storer’s case, it was aggressive and it was completely the wrong way to handle the situation. The red mist came over the young footballer and he unfortunately resorted to Zidane tactics.

The thing that I am most disappointed with him was his reaction to the sending off. Yes it was in a derby which I love to see passion in. But we want to see the passion when he scores a goal via a crazy celebration or by a well timed but physically strong tackle. Not by a head butt. In fact, he let his side down as we were pressing for an equaliser. He made the game harder for us with 10 men and that kind of selfish play needs to be dealt with and he needs to learn from it quickly.

So is his ban from the FA enough punishment? I don’t think so. I think he needs to be left out of the squad for a couple of games just to show him that he let the side down and that he can’t let those things affect him. I’m sure he will learn from it and I am more than sure that he will produce good performances for us this season but he needs a sharp talking to.

If he is left out of the squad, it will be good for other players. Lukas, Che and Clayton all play in the same position as Jack so it is not like we are short on numbers and all 3 are very different. Donaldson is aerially good and Che is strong but also quick. Lukas I have seen a few times and is a good finisher. So maybe by Jack being excluded it will give them all a chance to show what they can do rather than relying on Jack all of the time.