Snowflake RoyalVisionSnowflake Royal Loader got 12 appearances, and 8 of them came under Bowen. Boye only started 5 games.
Richards started on 22 October, 9 November and 23 November, so three of Bowen's first 5 games in charge. The bit about leaving for free makes no sense seeing as Richards left while Paunovic was here and Bowen wasn't. Unless you're mixing up your paragraphs and went back to Loader.
Loader's 12 appearances included 1 League start before Puscas, Joao and Boye were signed. He never started a single League game after that splurge or after Bowen took over. 5 of those 12 appearances you mention were in the cup and the remaining ones combined a total of 43 minutes (20 of those came in Bowen's first home game against Preston which we won while he was on the field) playing time over 7 games mostly as a late time wasting substitute .
If we're comparing just by using your "Appearance" metric, Boye made 24 appearances in total that season. We can argue the "wheres and whys" but it's patently obvious that Loader did not get the pitch time (post Puscas etc) to progress as his pedigree would suggest he might. Of course there may have been other reasons, he may have been shit in training but whatever the reason he just didn't get on the pitch enough.
The time for the Richards contract to be renewed was before Pauno's season started. Once Richards got noticed due to his performances that season he was never going to sign with less than a year left and bigger clubs sniffing around.
And after that game in late November he didn't start another League game until Sheffield Wednesday on February 15th.
I vividly remember a game away at Derby County early after the Covid break where he had, in my opinion, his best game for us but was substituted and dropped from the next game. It may be that my opinion is skewed by that recollection and it was probably a fair enough decision since we beat Luton 5-0 lol. I suspect that Bowen had probably made the decision to rotate his squad for those final post covid games anyway and that the team selections were to some degree pre-chosen.
However it still goes back to my feeling that there was not enough faith shown in him, for him to sign any new deal at this stage. By the time he developed into a good player (or a manager cottoned on to how good he could be if used correctly) it was too late.
You can keep changing your story to fit your narrative all you want, but Loader under performed in his pitch time and didn't deserve more. And Richards in no way stood out from the alternatives until Pauno, when there were none, and was objectively not 'immediately dropped' by Bowen as you claimed.
Not sure I've changed any story, just directly responded to what you wrote.
I've just shown that Loader did not get enough pitch time in the league after the Puscas/Joao/Boye splurge which was my original point that you argued with.
Fair enough i'm wrong about Richards - I also think it was actually from early December to February when he didn't start a League game . As I said I think my opinion wrt to Richards is probably skewed by that Derby game I mentioned but clearly we didn't know what we really had in Richards until someone else got it out of him. By then it was too late as far as him signing a contract was concerned.
But that's always the conundrum with young players. Someone has to gamble a little on what they will be rather than what they currently are when it comes to contracts.
