St johnstone youth


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I should have added in do you think youth will be given a chance

If and when they are good enough, yes.  At the moment, other than Kane and to a lesser extent Thomson, we've no-one good enough to displace those in the squad - who, let's not forget have been in very good form.  Kane and Thomson have been unlucky in that the players they need to displace (Cummins and O'Halloran) have been two of our best players this season.  Caddis needs to move on now.  He can no longer be considered a youngster and hasn't done enough to warrant another contract.  Scott Brown I think will be a very good player in the future - hopefully for us.  Don't know enough about the other lads on loan, but hopefully a couple of those will make the breakthrough.

 

ETA - if in the next couple of years, Clark, Brown, Thomson, Kane and a couple of the others currently out on loan break through, then I would consider that a very good return on our investment in youth.

 

Edited by jhq
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One goal at Parkhead and a pen in a shoot-out?  He needs to show a lot more than that Sixties.  He didn't set the heather alight when out on loan.  It's not a case of "needing" a run in the first team - it's a case of "earning" it.  Liam clearly hasn't done enough to to this at Saints and needs to move on.

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Going out on loan is where these boys are supposed to stand out and make TW and his team take notice. By all accounts, Caddis hasn't done that at all. He's looked like an average Championship player in average Championship sides. In reality, that's probably what he is.

He may improve with 3 or 4 seasons at lower levels and eventually be good enough for this level (eg Chris Millar) but we're at a level now where we can't be bedding them in and giving them those 100-150 games of experience.

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Agree that Liam should move on for his own sake, but have repeatedly said he needed a run in the team not the occasional start and 15 minutes off the Bench, the same could happen to Brown. 

I think Liam has to move on. If he cant get into the team in midfield in front of a full back ,especially after a good 15 minutes the week before then he never will.

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Indeed!

I noticed a tweet from Perth Academy, saying that one of their 4th years played the full 90 minutes against Stranraer for our U20s on Saturday. 4th year at high school would be 14/15 I think, seeing as we're not quite into the new year yet. Apparently another one made an appearance in the match too. I looked a little bit further back, and another Perth Academy pupil (a 14 year old) made the bench against Hearts in our U20s win against them.

I've had a couple of conversations with people at the club in the past about youth development and the focus has been on getting young players involved in the more 'senior' youth sides earlier. They also wanted a bigger presence of Perth kids in the team. Probably a good thing as I think we have missed out on these guys at a young age.

Saints have spent a decent amount of money on youth development and facilities etc for them and it's great to hear good things about the u15 and u17 sides. Fingers crossed we can get some more players into the first team squad over the next few years, even make some more money on fees in the future. Certainly seems to be a few boys at the club (Hurst, Thomson etc) who are emerging as potential first team players and even more out on loan.

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My lad signed this season for the  15s but has played four games for the 17s. Already, he's a local lad  but was signed for Falkirk last 4 years, he's really enjoying it and it's great that young boys if good.  Enough are. Getting the  chance to go up a level 

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If and when they are good enough, yes.  At the moment, other than Kane and to a lesser extent Thomson, we've no-one good enough to displace those in the squad - who, let's not forget have been in very good form.  Kane and Thomson have been unlucky in that the players they need to displace (Cummins and O'Halloran) have been two of our best players this season.  Caddis needs to move on now.  He can no longer be considered a youngster and hasn't done enough to warrant another contract.  Scott Brown I think will be a very good player in the future - hopefully for us.  Don't know enough about the other lads on loan, but hopefully a couple of those will make the breakthrough.

 

ETA - if in the next couple of years, Clark, Brown, Thomson, Kane and a couple of the others currently out on loan break through, then I would consider that a very good return on our investment in youth.

 

Its been recently publicised that chelsea have a system where they loan players out, with the belief that they will be ready for the first team around the age of 24. I am in no way trying to liken tommy with mourinho, but it seems to be fairly clear he wont play youth for the sake of it, and needs to trust and feel the player is good enough. perhaps that is the way he is viewing things, in terms of when clark, thomson, brown, caddis, kane, hunter, mclaren and perhaps even puting brad mackay in this ( even though he is a senior player ) when they turn 24 we will see that mckay, anderson, mannus , macca, millar, muzz, craig, will be edging towards retirement age, and a mixture of 5-10 senior appearences with loan spells in the championship will see them primed and ready for the premiership and having had a lot of experience in being round the st johnstone camp.

Its worth noting that germany decided in 2002 that something had to be done about the youth set up and are now starting to see the benefits, similar to spain back in the late 90's , we have been really focussing on this for about 3-4 years,, give it time and we will see the benefits.

 

as for caddis, he needs one lst make or break loan move, surely he would be better playing in a successful team even at a lower level, i.e dunfermline, building confidence and showing what he can do, rather than sending him to alloa, dumbarton morton ect where they will be up against it in most games.

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