cambo97 Posted December 7, 2016 Report Share Posted December 7, 2016 So what you'd have is Hearts out of it despite having one of the best Youth set ups in the Country Motherwell also out despite our history and the fact we are current Youth Cup holders Dundee Utd, Dundee and St Johnstone all out. I would say it's only likely to be Ayr or QotS for the remaining spot if Killie are raising red flags about it. Leaving Rangers(who have 2 reps on the board), Celtic, Hibs, Aberdeen, Falkirk, Ross County, Hamilton and say QotS in possesion of all the SFA grants, exclusive pick of the best kids in each area and carte blanche to kill Scottish football. Only the SFA could cook up such a thoroughly abysmal idea and claim it as salvation. If it were to come to fruition, I'd start to question if I'd ever be back at any game in Scotland ever again and many would be the same. I read an article recently (BBC I think) they thought the seven of the eight would be Celtic, Rangers, Aberdeen, Hearts and Hibs due to size, Hamilton because they were sure that Les Grey would have made sure that the criteria set met the Accies model with the seventh being the Forth Valley scheme as it was already SFA backed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grizzlyg Posted December 9, 2016 Report Share Posted December 9, 2016 Anyone got a contact for Well Society? Not been receiving any correspondence so I emailed them 2 days ago and still no response. Poor show and not good when trying to encourage people to join. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wellowell Posted December 9, 2016 Report Share Posted December 9, 2016 They gave a contact page I take it that's what you completed but you can also call the club on 333333 and 1 of the options is well society and you should be put through to someone representing them . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kmcalpin Posted December 9, 2016 Report Share Posted December 9, 2016 Craig Hughes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grizzlyg Posted December 9, 2016 Report Share Posted December 9, 2016 Cheers lads, ye I emailed the contact on website. Will end up phoning Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wunderwell Posted December 16, 2016 Report Share Posted December 16, 2016 Anyone got a contact for Well Society? Not been receiving any correspondence so I emailed them 2 days ago and still no response. Poor show and not good when trying to encourage people to join. Three times I've emailed them about my change of bank details. Not a peep. So they've stopped collecting my money. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
superward Posted December 16, 2016 Report Share Posted December 16, 2016 I read an article recently (BBC I think) they thought the seven of the eight would be Celtic, Rangers, Aberdeen, Hearts and Hibs due to size, Hamilton because they were sure that Les Grey would have made sure that the criteria set met the Accies model with the seventh being the Forth Valley scheme as it was already SFA backed. It's basically the teams who are represented in the working group. The Falkirk (Forth Valley) rep is now working for Rangers, however. Something I did see in the Malky MacKay press conference today was talk of the 'most successfully academies of recent times' being the one's that were funded moving forward. I am paraphrasing but that was the jist. Read into that what you will but taking that and the fact they will need a geographical spread it's going to be hard to be included... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kmcalpin Posted December 17, 2016 Report Share Posted December 17, 2016 I am paraphrasing but that was the jist. Read into that what you will but taking that and the fact they will need a geographical spread it's going to be hard to be included... I can see the logic in a geographical spread so we can then assume there will be one academy for the Glasgow clubs and one for the Edinburgh clubs? IF this proposal goes forward I can see it ending up in the law courts as quite a few clubs are extremely unhappy. Another question - how can a club in the second tier of academies progress to the top 8? Presumably vested interests would then change the criteria goalposts? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Del_Superwell Posted December 17, 2016 Report Share Posted December 17, 2016 The general chat about the about the top 8 academy proposal is that its almost certain to be a closed shop and the clubs in the top 8 will do the absolute minimum to stay there to stop clubs like us getting in if it were pushed through. Hopefully with Malky Mackay now in as performance director he will be able to see the work we have done with the youngsters we are producing in the academy and shows that we merit being involved in the elite academy set up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spiderpig Posted December 17, 2016 Report Share Posted December 17, 2016 The general chat about the about the top 8 academy proposal is that its almost certain to be a closed shop and the clubs in the top 8 will do the absolute minimum to stay there to stop clubs like us getting in if it were pushed through. Hopefully with Malky Mackay now in as performance director he will be able to see the work we have done with the youngsters we are producing in the academy and shows that we merit being involved in the elite academy set up. The whole perfomance plan depends on all of the 42 clubs in Scotland signing up to it 100% most of them probably will but the likes os the ugly sisters and Aberdeen, Hearts and Hibs wont as they will continue to do what they want and as the SFA are spineless when it comes to dealing with the ugly sisters they wont do a thing. So i can see McKay having great ideas but nothing will change and he will realise that he is wasting his time as did Wotte and McClair before him. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wunderwell Posted December 17, 2016 Report Share Posted December 17, 2016 It's basically the teams who are represented in the working group. The Falkirk (Forth Valley) rep is now working for Rangers, however. Something I did see in the Malky MacKay press conference today was talk of the 'most successfully academies of recent times' being the one's that were funded moving forward. I am paraphrasing but that was the jist. Read into that what you will but taking that and the fact they will need a geographical spread it's going to be hard to be included... A Dundee club will be included undoubtedly as well. I fancy our chances over Hamilton though despite them being in the working group. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daver Posted December 17, 2016 Report Share Posted December 17, 2016 Whether we are one of the clubs chosen or not, there's something fundamentally wrong with placing clubs at a disadvantage in the future because they've not been allocatedone of the eelite academies which receive the lion's share of resources. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CMWellfan Posted December 18, 2016 Report Share Posted December 18, 2016 How much money is involved here? And I hear nothing but bad reports about the pro-youth set up at Rangers & Celtic. It may be a blessing to be free of the dead hand of this notorious failure. There's nothing elite about young players being routinely denied game time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kmcalpin Posted December 18, 2016 Report Share Posted December 18, 2016 How much money is involved here? And I hear nothing but bad reports about the pro-youth set up at Rangers & Celtic. It may be a blessing to be free of the dead hand of this notorious failure. There's nothing elite about young players being routinely denied game time. I've no idea how much cash is involved but its substantial. The proposals, if implemented would not improve the set ups at Rangers or Celtic. As for young players being routinely denied game time it was stated at the club AGM that if the proposals are implemented then fewer youngsters would receive game time, presumably as clubs outside of the elite 8 cut back their youth schemes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CMWellfan Posted December 18, 2016 Report Share Posted December 18, 2016 I've no idea how much cash is involved but its substantial. The proposals, if implemented would not improve the set ups at Rangers or Celtic. As for young players being routinely denied game time it was stated at the club AGM that if the proposals are implemented then fewer youngsters would receive game time, presumably as clubs outside of the elite 8 cut back their youth schemes.Hard to be the less than zero that many pro-youth players endure now. The current set up is rancid, leading to a report that found it was abusive to youngsters. There's a story doing the rounds regarding a Celtic pro-youth player that was expected to travel down from Montrose twice a week to train, and didn't get game time. That story comes from a guy I know involved in Celtic youth. Appalling. What makes any of you think this proposed eight zone set up would be any better? These clubs will continue to hoard players knowing that only eleven can start any given match. They're needing maximum squad sizes, and an end to the ban on players turning out for other teams. Forkin disgrace these talented young guys sit on the sidelines week after week. The coaches should be notifying their players of the 15 required for the pro-youth game by Friday, and arranging the surplus boys to turn out for another team that weekend. And hey - how much is the SFA youth budget? How much do they give to Motherwell at the moment? These are not state secrets. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kmcalpin Posted December 18, 2016 Report Share Posted December 18, 2016 What makes any of you think this proposed eight zone set up would be any better? These clubs will continue to hoard players knowing that only eleven can start any given match. It wouldn't. The 8 elite clubs would continue to sign and hoard the best players to the disbenefit of the other lesser academies. Lads who might have progressed quicker or further with lesser academies will warm benches or worse with the 8 elite outfits. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CMWellfan Posted December 18, 2016 Report Share Posted December 18, 2016 It wouldn't. The 8 elite clubs would continue to sign and hoard the best players to the disbenefit of the other lesser academies. Lads who might have progressed quicker or further with lesser academies will warm benches or worse with the 8 elite outfits. If it makes any difference, a relative and number one mentor of a Rangers youth player who has now been called into the first team squad a few times ( not appeared yet ) told me he admired Motherwell development. This from a lifetime Rangers fan. One of the things he spoke about was game time. He detested watching young players training and being denied game time. He also detests the Old Firm habit of paying substantial money for development players and even then, denying them game time. He said there should be an audit at Murray Park to see how much money has been burnt buying youth players who are then released. By a country mile, players making it into the first team is the most important issue for parents. The Old Firm have a dire record. Our record is improving. We will blow away any elite academy by continuing along that path. There is something to be said to not be part of the dire pro-youth so called elite set up. It's record is shocking, and at our rate of travel I would expect us to be the number one academy in Scotland within a couple of years. Cos we do something unique. We give players a chance. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daver Posted December 19, 2016 Report Share Posted December 19, 2016 It's great we are giving young players a chance but it has to be said this is a fairly recent development that fans have been calling for for years. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stuwell Posted December 19, 2016 Author Report Share Posted December 19, 2016 It's great we are giving young players a chance but it has to be said this is a fairly recent development that fans have been calling for for years. To be fair how much of this is down to the management not selecting them or they were not ready/good enough? How many youngsters have left us due to lack of game time that have went on to bigger better clubs? Most of our youth players have either had the game time and jumped at the 1st chance - normally without us getting a fee - or have not had contracts renewed and moved down a league. The only one that jumps to mind recently is Robbie Leitch and he got away due to not being offered a new contract within the correct time which let him sign without a fee being payed - would Burnley have paid £250,000 for him? I doubt it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kmcalpin Posted December 19, 2016 Report Share Posted December 19, 2016 The only one that jumps to mind recently is Robbie Leitch and he got away due to not being offered a new contract within the correct time which let him sign without a fee being payed - would Burnley have paid £250,000 for him? I doubt it. Do you know that to be a fact? The reason that I ask is that I understand we received a modest fee for him. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wellowell Posted December 19, 2016 Report Share Posted December 19, 2016 I also thought Leitch went for nothing as contract offer came too late from us but have never seen it confirmed or denied so could be wrong . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stuwell Posted December 19, 2016 Author Report Share Posted December 19, 2016 Do you know that to be a fact? The reason that I ask is that I understand we received a modest fee for him. Yes, I was told we missed out on a development fee of £260,000 before it was known he was away and have no reason to doubt the person. I've also repeatedly asked on here and never had anyone say that a fee was received. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
weeyin Posted December 19, 2016 Report Share Posted December 19, 2016 U20s aren't much different from the senior players these days. Some are let go on a free, some move on for a fee and some have their contracts run down. We have taken advantage of this ourselves when we brought in players (Ben Hall springs to mind) and Craigan has said he might have to look for a couple of fresh faces in January. What has been encouraging is that over the past few weeks we have extended the contracts of a number of our promising prospects. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daver Posted December 19, 2016 Report Share Posted December 19, 2016 Is Scott Leitch still in charge of youth development? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Goggles & Flippers Posted December 19, 2016 Report Share Posted December 19, 2016 Tangent thread Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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