Isle of Wight football blogger, Chris Rann shares an interview with former Isle of Wight footballer Lewis Buxton, who now plays for Sheffield Wednesday. In his own words. Ed
In a rare break from the Saints related subject matter, I was delighted to catch up with newly promoted Sheffield Wednesday star Lewis Buxton.
I am lucky enough to have known Lewis and his family for many years and have watched his career with interest.
Having learnt his trade on the Isle of Wight, a place where not many young kids make the grade Lewis is now enjoying a fruitful career with one of the countries biggest clubs in Sheffield Wednesday.
Not always plain sailing
Sealing promotion to the Championship under new boss Dave Jones, Lewis is looking forward to another spell at the higher level, but it hasn’t always been plain sailing for the Islander.
As one of the few pros to come out of the game on the Island, do you feel that it is a disadvantage for kids here?
LB “It’s a disadvantage, everyone knows that the Island has a low population so competition isn’t as intense as the big cities. To get the best out of anyone in sport you need to be competing against the best opposition, every week from an early age, the last thing you want is a team winning 14-0 for most of the season.
I don’t know what the kids leagues are like now but if they don’t already then it would give the kids a better chance with a structure that has all the current sides feeding one team playing in the Southampton league and one in the Portsmouth league which take all the best players from the existing teams. Kids develop at different rates so some would be dropped out of the teams playing in the mainland leagues and others promoted to them.
This would progress the talented kids quicker and give them the best chance to get scouted for professional clubs at a young age. They would then receive the top quality coaching which they need to move onto the next level.
Continue reading on Chris’ blog
