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2015/16 Ins & Outs


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I wonder if Craig Reid will impact who we play in the middle. St Mirren supporting mate said that he was pretty solid for them, I know the championship is a weaker league but he might be able to be a stop gap in midfield or law moving back into midfield and him into defence until we can bring someone else in. Alternatively, watt could come in at right back with law in midfield. Law may fair better playing beside two cms.

 

Edit: I know how much law struggled when he played there at first but playing with the confidence he is right now and with more experience in the league he might be able to cope.

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It's unfortunate that Grimshaw has left, as he'd really come on to a game since McGhee took over. It's encouraging however that we are actively pursuing other targets - I can see one (if not two) loan signings coming in, probably a direct replacement for Grimshaw and a more attacking minded midfielder if Thomas goes out on loan himself.

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Wonder if Kennedy can fill that role.

 

Regardless, if it was our new scouting system that found Grimshaw, then it shows it working and hopefully the same system will have identified similar quality targets. Losing a loanee in the window is always a risk, but it defnitely benefited both parties and hopefully other clubs will see the advantage in farming out their talent to us.

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Are there any teams in the UK that have many players coming through the ranks that way? People (and players) move around a lot more freely these days and even at a young age have agents whispering in their ears about moving to enhance their careers. Just like there are almost no one-club-players these days, I suspect "through-the-system" players will be equally rare.

 

For example, Jamie Murphy joined us when he was about 12 or 13. Is that young enough to be considered someone we brought on?

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Is Hall not the first player to come through the ranks and secure a starting place since the likes of Pearson, McFadden and Clarkson? I know Hutchinson did, but we got him from a youth team down south.

 

I'm a bit concerned that we've not had many coming through in over a decade.

 

Hutchinson signed for us at 16 and we were his first professional club. Unless we are getting youngsters to move schools and whatever else there is no way to recruit a player at an earlier age.

 

And if we had any sense we would have kept a hold of Stuart Carswell and would not be left with a threadbare central midfield.

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I looked at it a while back. From whom I considered true youth products, I excluded Hutchinson, Page, Francis-Angol, Hetherington and Cummins in that, due to them only joining us at U19 level, since the "Class of 02", currently only Murphy plays at a higher level, with Reynolds and Lawless being the only ones who play at the same level.

 

In that time, only really Murphy has gone on and proved he can play at a better level. Only really Reynolds and Alan Martin have got moves to what would be perceived as bigger clubs down south other than him and it's safe to say neither really made it there.

 

If you take out Murphy and Reynolds (proving to be the exception) rather than the rule then the average amount of games our youth products get is alarmingly low. I'll dig up the stats tonight, but it proves how much of a true failure our academy really is. Whether that is through reluctance to play good young players (McCall was very guilty of this) or the players not being good enough is open for debate.

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Is Hall not the first player to come through the ranks and secure a starting place since the likes of Pearson, McFadden and Clarkson? I know Hutchinson did, but we got him from a youth team down south.

 

I'm a bit concerned that we've not had many coming through in over a decade.

Hall came over from Northern Ireland when he was 16.

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I looked at it a while back. From whom I considered true youth products, I excluded Hutchinson, Page, Francis-Angol, Hetherington and Cummins in that, due to them only joining us at U19 level, since the "Class of 02", currently only Murphy plays at a higher level, with Reynolds and Lawless being the only ones who play at the same level.

 

In that time, only really Murphy has gone on and proved he can play at a better level. Only really Reynolds and Alan Martin have got moves to what would be perceived as bigger clubs down south other than him and it's safe to say neither really made it there.

 

If you take out Murphy and Reynolds (proving to be the exception) rather than the rule then the average amount of games our youth products get is alarmingly low. I'll dig up the stats tonight, but it proves how much of a true failure our academy really is. Whether that is through reluctance to play good young players (McCall was very guilty of this) or the players not being good enough is open for debate.

Does Erwin count?

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