WishyWell

I try not get involved in this sort of thing, but have to put you right on this. I don’t know whose told you this, or why they’re saying it, but it’s a downright lie. It’s all the more galling because the opposite is true - he’s actually one of the first, and often the first, one in, arriving early to do extra gym work to build himself up as much as he can. And he’s actually been commended on his attitude, so every aspect of what you’ve been told is as far from the truth as you can get. As I say, I try not to say things on this forum in case it is seen by the club as talking out of turn, but I’m not giving away any private behind-the-scenes info here, just setting the record straight. If I were you I’d be asking the person who told you these allegations what their agenda is against him in coming out with outright lies and slurs.

No, we’ve trained there several times since then, including recently. Probably just no let was available at Ravenscraig today.

Ahem. We’ve got a proper left back who’s that age.

She’s not the first team physio - Davie Henderson is. Aileen is the reserve team physio.

Club was saying earlier there isn’t.

Agree with just about everything there, but as far as this bit is concerned, playing for the Reserves just two days before followed by a full training session on Tuesday may have had something to do with it...

Not quite a fair comparison of performances then.

Did you see the relative line-ups in that game?

Ah, sorry. But yes, International age-group rules are confusing, too. I don’t know how the Scotland u20s operate, but I know for the u21s you have to be under 21 at the start of the calendar year when a two-year Euro Championships qualifying campaign begins, which means players can actually be playing for the u21s when they have turned 23!

It’s u21 for this, plus two overage. Campbell is the same age-group as Livingstone, Maguire and Morrison, and maybe some others, ie u21 (1998s).

I would like to reiterate that I was talking generally about youth development in Scottish football and not about our club. I have seen us include many comparatively smaller, more skilful boys at young age groups who have been run over the top of by boys twice their size. Some clubs, us included, have tried to give a mix of types of players a chance, but others have clearly gone for big boys from an early age to achieve results or perhaps in the hope that it increases their odds of accidentally stumbling across the boy who is big for his age but who can also play (eg James McCarthy). The result is that clubs like ours are steamrollered at many of the young age groups and at the clubs putting out big teams, and the bigger boys are learning little except how to be bigger than the opposition (eg I saw us lose 7-1 once to a team at u12s or 13s who scored 6 of those from identical corners). The result is that development is stifled by too many clubs who put results ahead of learning or ahead of choosing “players” - they not only harm themselves, but also the clubs, like ours, who try to encourage good footballers and teach a decent passing game. For a number of reasons, I pick my posts on this Forum carefully and I try to pick my words carefully when I do post, so I just wanted to make it clear what I was getting at.

I’m not a coach or a former pro player, so can’t offer a view from those perspectives. I am, however, the dad of a boy who has seen his son start playing boys club football at the age of 5, train with three senior clubs from 8 and sign Pro-Youth at 10 and go through the whole process at all age-groups, so have seen at first hand the criteria and philosophies adopted by different clubs along the way. I have also, through that, developed great friendships with the coaches and the dads of boys who have been dropped at all ages who are now playing with clubs in lower leagues or Junior teams, or are still at Motherwell, and have seen their experiences, good and bad. And all of this has shown that if you want to make it as a footballer you not only have to have talent and luck, you also have to have great mental strength, because without exception you’ll have at least as many bad experiences as good, and I take my hat off to anyone who makes a career in football for that reason as much as any other. And as a parent it also gives you pretty strong views on how young players are brought through in Scotland in general - a general situation that affects and confines clubs as well as players.

Absolutely. The criteria we use to select young players (in the first place to sign them, then to play or not play each game in academy teams, and whether or not to stay with the club every six months), the way we develop them at all ages and the way we consider and regard them them on reaching the cusp of first teams is so wrong across this country as a whole. It is the single main problem that we have in causing the failure of our senior teams right up to international level, because our coaches and scouts either don’t have the knowledge or desire to look at what we can make of what we have, but instead stick to identikit ideas of what a good player is and try to fill their squads with them. Motherwell is not the worst club for this, but is still stuck in a football culture that is not working, and is stuck in the past when the world has changed.

Taking this point in isolation, we see it asked a lot but I don’t think it is as simple as just that. There are various factors working against young boys who get to a full-time level but don’t quite make it at that particular club. The reason they may not break into the first team may not be due to a lack of talent, but can just as easily be due to having too many people, or even just one established player, in their position, or a preferred formation not suiting their style, or even just that particular manager’s preference in type of player. As far as those who are dropped are concerned, one aspect that then comes into play is that they then seem to be seen as having failed by other clubs, so are seldom picked up by another club of a similar level, so they have to drop down the leagues. Then there is the age factor - once they reach about 20, then any potential club is looking to take them on as a first team squad player... and if they haven’t played much, or at all, for a first team, then another club won’t consider them because they don’t have examples of how they play at that level to base it on. So the young players go on loan to get first team experience, but it will only be to a lower league club but, if they do so and then don’t make it once they are back at the parent club, then only lower league clubs will take them on. So once released from a Premiership club, a young player can generally only go down the leagues. And, unfortunately, the old idea that sometimes you have to drop down to come up seems, if not gone altogether, at least a very rare occurrence, apart from the one or two cases that get a lot of attention. For the majority of players, no matter how well they do at that level, they appear to then be considered “lower league players” or journeymen, and end up doing well, maybe moving around a few clubs, but never having anyone from a Premiership club taking a chance on them. It is easier to bring an older player up from England or elsewhere, too often. If course, there are exceptions, but for most young players it is a brutal world they enter and it is a tough time for them, even for those who do make it. To class all of those who are dropped as “just not good enough” only on the basis of them never rising up again is a bit harsh. Of course, there is also the aspect of how we select and develop young players from an early age (and I am talking across Scottish football in general here), but don’t start me on that or we’ll be here all day...

I think it's u21s plus two over-age players.

Don’t know where those rumours have come from - they are completely untrue.

The Nostalgia Night run by the Former Players’ Club and Well Society earlier in the year proved so popular that they are re-running it and this time are opening it up to fans. It is this Friday (5th October), at 7pm for a 7.30pm kick-off in the Davie Cooper Suite. One of the organisers has asked me to pass the word that there are tickets left and you can pay at the door.

Or, alternatively, we could develop young players according to our own strengths, not according to the strengths of others that we’d like to have, but don’t.

Just sent £20 by PayPal.

Hopefully this link works... https://spfl.co.uk/news/article/spfl-reserve-league-201819/

You also wonder what Nir Bitton thinks about it.

Signing a naturally left-sided wing back would stifle the progress of another Academy graduate...

He's a central midfielder.

Just been in the club shop and they say the new ones will be on sale before the cup final.

Joe, without doubt.