Apparently in the County v Celtic game only one Scottish player started.


 

Tek wrote:

Apologies for posting a video with Kris Boyd in it, but if you ignore his input this is actually a very good discussion.

Very good points made by Gordon Strachan and Craig Levein. 


I'm loathe to say it, but even Boyd makes a good point near the end regarding the 'death of the No.9' in football.

No-one plays with wingers anymore. 
 

 
They all make good points, but, the one which resonates is the failure of “Elite” academies in producing anything out of the ordinary. To me, these places are no more than a racket. Obviously, parents buy into the idea that there are exceptional people involved in physiology, nutrition, psychology and mentoring, but, in reality it is no different from before.

When we signed Charlie Telfer, it was widely considered that he was the best of his generation. What has he actually achieved?

The hard truth is that for most players, if you haven’t achieved consistent first team Premiership football by 19, you probably are not going to make it as a top class footballer. For that reason you need to have, not only a “b” plan, but other things going on in your life. In this respect each club should have a Head of Education and Personal Development, who is responsible for the young player’s life: What are they good at? What other sports do they excel at? Could they move into higher education? Have they contemplated life beyond football.

My nephew is playing with Stirling Albions 2009 year. He looks more than decent, but, unlike my generation (who played rugby, football, athletics), he only plays football. His school doesn’t seem to offer much else eg County Championships or Scottish Championships. This makes it very hard to evaluate whether he is a true athlete or just someone who is a good footballer.

Thinking back more than a generation ago, Gary Bollan was a Scottish Schools 400m Champion and the rugby player Kenny Logan trialed for both us and Hearts as a goalkeeper.

The regulation of agents doesn’t help. Last year nearly 20,000 people applied to become a FIFA intermediary. Ideally you would have both a “Fit and Proper Person” test and a “Qualified Person” test, but, this is FIFA. You have a large number of conflicts of interest with direct relatives of managers involved in club recruitment. This just should not happen. The whole thing resembles an MLM Ponzi scheme.

One simple solution, I suppose, would be to make a rule in which clubs had to field a minimum of 5 Scottish players for all national cup competitions. This would allow younger players to get first team football and also even things up against the Old Firm.

By the time a player is in our first team squad, he's probably already on the radar of bigger clubs.

A couple of hundred grand or so unfortunately is a big deal for us, sweetie money for Norwich.

Is it really worth investing in home grown players at a huge cost if we never get the benefit?