Development Squad News 2017/18


Radford 72
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14 minutes ago, sasha said:

Er no? Also another player being released in which a lot of time and effort has been invested in the club. Once dubbed as the "next Andy Robertson"

The majority of Scottish clubs play at youth development. 

Would you say Saints were a success when only one player in the last four years has signed a pro contract? Smoke and mirrors.

Hurst, Mclean, Hendry, Hunter, Landers, Robertson etc all joined from other clubs without being fully brought through by the Academy.

Scotttish football is old fashioned so unless their is a change of attitude at the majority of clubs by the hierarchy and fans we will never develop Scottish youths. We will delve into English football for the cast offs because they are deemed better. 

Scottish players are lamented down South, some come back because they don't have the technical ability to hold down a place and don't develop. That's not their fault it's how they are coached up here.

The introduction of the reserve league next year shows this. It is for managers and second rate journeyman who are on that perpetual wheel of winning nothing rather than develop youth. Keeping first team squad players fit for the first team.

In what other job would you push your kid into where they are treated like crap, scrutinised every training session, every game? Had to eat right, sleep right, behave right and not interact with social media? Miss schooling, birthdays, family functions etc? Where being a good kid becomes second to neds who have an attitude, are a "challenge"  with a wee bit more playing ability? 

All of this for as little as ÂŁ100 per week? Welcome to the "dream" that is full-time football.

One minute you are the next big thing then you are on the scrap heap. Kids and parents get smoke blown up their backsides only to get them to sign up to one club rather than possibly make it elsewhere. 

Brutal but true.

 

 

 

Totally agree. Must be frustrating watching these young guys giving it their all through the youth teams only to be discarded. Hopefully a few will get team in lower leagues but have a feeling some get dispirited & lose interest.

All teams have a scattergun approach,hoping to pick up a couple of gems out of the masses.

Must be a shit time of year for all footballers.

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Interesting and clearly passionate post from @sasha above. Only one professional contract in four years doesn't read well.

You clearly don't need to answer if you don't feel you can but who makes these calls on the guys at the end of their second year? Is it still AS and AC or does the manager have to decide if he feels they can step into his first team squad? That confuses me as he regularly talks about guys at 21/22 as being young but Jamie Docherty has been let go as a 1999-born player.

Assume Cammy Thomson is the other player you are talking about and guessing Lumsden will be away too.

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Sasha raises a lot of good points about youth development but ultimately it's up to the first team coaches to choose which players, if any, they want in their squad. They're obviously going to base this on solely selfish reasons as it's their jobs on the line, which we could spend years debating is right/wrong.

Regarding Maddison, Doughty and Edwards there were valid reasons for the club not keeping them. In the Doughty case he was never even our player :lol:. 

 

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why are hearts playing 16/17 year old in first team games ,because they know the boys will learn quicker ,plus they are looking ahead if the boys handle it and improve then hearts can sell them and add in sell on clauses thus making money .

there is so many points on here i could talk about and would love too ,but with a son in the academy who loves it at saints and to be fair im so glad he is at saints i might come across biased or in some ways a pissed of parent ,which i am certainly not  .

but i will say this scotland has to change its attitude towards technical good youth players and not coach it out of them ,i want to go to a game and watch players that excite me that make me go wow did you see that .i drove to elgin on Sunday and missed the old firm game .not because i knew we would get humped and celtic would win league ,but because i love watching the 17s play and my lad does make me go wow with some shit he does ,but the players around him allow him to be able to do those things ,hopefully this will continue , clubs in Scotland need to produce these types of players again so young kids want to be like them and fans will come back to watch games .not coach it out of them or discard them because they are not six foot odd and built like a tank .

hopefully saints will go more down the youth route now ,which is good news for the kids and specially the fans ,if you all came to a few youth games you will be able to form your on thoughts on the future of saints and the players they have  for the future .

 

 

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1 hour ago, sevcozombie2 said:

why are hearts playing 16/17 year old in first team games ,because they know the boys will learn quicker ,plus they are looking ahead if the boys handle it and improve then hearts can sell them and add in sell on clauses thus making money .

there is so many points on here i could talk about and would love too ,but with a son in the academy who loves it at saints and to be fair im so glad he is at saints i might come across biased or in some ways a pissed of parent ,which i am certainly not  .

but i will say this scotland has to change its attitude towards technical good youth players and not coach it out of them ,i want to go to a game and watch players that excite me that make me go wow did you see that .i drove to elgin on Sunday and missed the old firm game .not because i knew we would get humped and celtic would win league ,but because i love watching the 17s play and my lad does make me go wow with some shit he does ,but the players around him allow him to be able to do those things ,hopefully this will continue , clubs in Scotland need to produce these types of players again so young kids want to be like them and fans will come back to watch games .not coach it out of them or discard them because they are not six foot odd and built like a tank .

hopefully saints will go more down the youth route now ,which is good news for the kids and specially the fans ,if you all came to a few youth games you will be able to form your on thoughts on the future of saints and the players they have  for the future .

 

 

great post dude.

I also  think you  could be the next sevco manager.ha ha

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Some good points being made. Personally I would scrap the whole pro youth set up below under 16. Let kids develop and play with their pals and for the top ones go into training sessions with clubs. 

Worked well in the early 90s when I started coaching. We had one local league under 12 and 14 side in Holland that year on a tournament and Caldwell brothers McHale Darren hill big boy Malcolm to name but a few all went on to play pro football. 

 

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Guest ScottMann
4eQ0jtX4_bigger.jpgSt Johnstone 1884‏ @stjohnstone1884
FollowingFollowing @stjohnstone1884
Andrew Robertson, far right, third row down, watches Saints clinch European football in 2013 as a guest of the club. He then made the silly decision to sign for Dundee United. Wonder what happened to him?
BiSmnyQCcAA65V1.jpg
 
Looks like the Robertson family came up to see Saints themselves if Lomas was still in bed.
 
He has said he turned down Saints as he felt he'd get more of a chance at United.
 
Would have hated to have seen exactly how bitter Sacha was in the past if this is him over it.

 

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1 hour ago, ScottMann said:
4eQ0jtX4_bigger.jpgSt Johnstone 1884‏ @stjohnstone1884
FollowingFollowing @stjohnstone1884
Andrew Robertson, far right, third row down, watches Saints clinch European football in 2013 as a guest of the club. He then made the silly decision to sign for Dundee United. Wonder what happened to him?
BiSmnyQCcAA65V1.jpg
 
Looks like the Robertson family came up to see Saints themselves if Lomas was still in bed.
 
He has said he turned down Saints as he felt he'd get more of a chance at United.
 
Would have hated to have seen exactly how bitter Sacha was in the past if this is him over it.

 

They were meant to be meeting Lomas the next day and it didn't happen. They then travelled to St Andrews to meet McNamara, was shown around the facilities and had lunch at the  old course to tie up the deal. 

So did he pick the right team to develop at?

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Guest ScottMann
2 hours ago, sasha said:

They were meant to be meeting Lomas the next day and it didn't happen. They then travelled to St Andrews to meet McNamara, was shown around the facilities and had lunch at the  old course to tie up the deal. 

So did he pick the right team to develop at?

Yes, of course that happened.

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I take things with a pinch of salt but the Robertson/Lomas story wouldn't surprise me. Alistair Stevenson did the hard sell at the match (understandable - the management team would be otherwise focused) and Lomas, the story goes, was gone within minutes of the whistle, never to be seen again.

I think the posts from @sasha have been a valuable contribution to the thread.

 

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On 02/05/2018 at 7:56 PM, mainstand said:

Some good points being made. Personally I would scrap the whole pro youth set up below under 16. Let kids develop and play with their pals and for the top ones go into training sessions with clubs. 

Worked well in the early 90s when I started coaching. We had one local league under 12 and 14 side in Holland that year on a tournament and Caldwell brothers McHale Darren hill big boy Malcolm to name but a few all went on to play pro football. 

 

that would be a massive mistake to scrap pro youth,times have changed boys club players have phones,ps4 etc etc now and are more into them than football ,coaching at boys club level is poor ,parents attitudes are worse than at pro youth ,pitches are crap refs are crap ,but i will salute every person that helps in boys club football ,but see if there were more people helping and they all worked together and all stuck by the rules ,and parents lazy ass attitudes changed  or the bloody know all ones changed then boys club football in perth would be top notch which in turn would be good for saints and there would be just to many players to pick from for saints ,

but in saying that there are good local boys in the saints youth ,some very good players and id love to think that they will have a future but who knows 

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On 7/31/2017 at 1:31 PM, HOODLUM65 said:

Jeanfield game was a good result, coming from 3-1 down, (mainly due to a couple of defensive errors which were duly punished) to win 5-3, with some great passing and movement.

Good workout, just what they needed against bigger and stronger opponents. 

Missed a few more, tho' to be fair Jeanie keeper made a few blocks when faced with 'a one on one'.

Good luck in the coming season and look forward to watching their progress.

One to watch out for is Alistair McCann, tho' Cameron Ballantyne took the eye yesterday.

McCann mentioned end of July '17 as one to watch.

Edited by HOODLUM65
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35 minutes ago, sasha said:

Heard that Saints are not putting a team into the reserve league next season. 

Well done Project “Brave”,  helping clubs have an excuse to save money on youth football.

Is it not a pre requisite of of premier league membership? Sure Rangers got a 1 year dispensation from playing in development league. 

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On 12/05/2018 at 7:52 PM, sasha said:

Heard that Saints are not putting a team into the reserve league next season.

Not particularly encouraged by that as it will surely create a huge leap between the new U18s league and the first team. Would Ali McCann have pushed himself into the fringes of the first team if he had only been playing against other guys his own age all season? I'd hoped the new reserve league would also keep guys like Comrie and Gordon match sharp for if they needed to step in.

Would help explain the release of the players that were let go though and obviously there could be financial/logistical issues at play, especially if the U18 league is to be midweek as well.

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2 hours ago, Radford 72 said:

Not particularly encouraged by that as it will surely create a huge leap between the new U18s league and the first team. Would Ali McCann have pushed himself into the fringes of the first team if he had only been playing against other guys his own age all season? I'd hoped the new reserve league would also keep guys like Comrie and Gordon match sharp for if they needed to step in.

Would help explain the release of the players that were let go though and obviously there could be financial/logistical issues at play, especially if the U18 league is to be midweek as well.

It is a regionalised league though.

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