Change coming for the SPL

[mfc88]

52 minutes ago, thewelllfan said:

They had a meeting about it with all the SPFL clubs on Friday and a lot of the top flight teams pushed back on it including ourselves if Open Goal is to be believed but the main issue you 'll then get in Scottish football is us and other top flight clubs will then further stump players developments for the sake of them playing maybe 5 games in our first team in the cups and the league games once Europe/Relegation is no longer a possibility rather than going out on loan and getting 30 games at senior level

I know there was a meeting friday, didn't realise there was pushback from clubs already. That podcast is as far as i've listened and it all seemed fairly positive.

I can understand the pushback from certain angles. But theres valid points made about players brought in from down south or abroad no better than our own youngsters taking up a place in the squad. I'm sure we could point to many of our own examples there.

The cup game thing i'd struggle to agree with to be fair (2x U21 players to start each cup game).

[Kmcalpin]

Its a half baked daft idea which will achieve nothing. Larger clubs would simply ignore any requirement and take the relatively modest financial hit. 

[dennyc]

2 hours ago, Kmcalpin said:

Its a half baked daft idea which will achieve nothing. Larger clubs would simply ignore any requirement and take the relatively modest financial hit. 

I agree. It would achieve next to nothing. The SFA are only proposing it so they can say they are taking action.

Quotas for cup games and/or league games will merely throw a few youngsters in at the deep end every now and then and most will sink. They need regular game time at a decent level to prepare them for what lies ahead. At the moment that can only be achieved by way of Loans which relies on other teams and is limited in numbers. It can work with Whyte looking to be a good example. But success is relatively rare.

Oh for the days when Craigen was in charge of our youth team, playing competitive games every week or so against top division youth teams. A group of youngsters being prepared for a step up when they were ready. Does that even happen now or is it all closed door run outs, training and bench sitting? That competitive environment seemed to stop when certain teams, backed by the SFA, were allowed to enter B teams in the lower leagues. How did that work out? Covid didn't help either.

I get finance is an issue but perhaps if the SFA invested some of their cash in funding youth leagues in which  participation was compulsory for all top division Clubs it could be possible. A bit like Premier League 2 down south. Surely something can be worked out if the Clubs are rewarded financially.

 

[weeyin]

Other than the KDM Evolution Trophy as it's called this season, the youngsters have no competitive games. No U20 league, no reserves.

So the choices boil down to going out on loan or staying at the club and hoping for the odd first team 5 minutes.

I'd like to hear more about Alfred's perspective as in his last presser he started to discuss how they had made it successful in Sweden. 

 

 

[Kmcalpin]

9 hours ago, dennyc said:

I agree. It would achieve next to nothing. The SFA are only proposing it so they can say they are taking action.

Quotas for cup games and/or league games will merely throw a few youngsters in at the deep end every now and then and most will sink. They need regular game time at a decent level to prepare them for what lies ahead. At the moment that can only be achieved by way of Loans which relies on other teams and is limited in numbers. It can work with Whyte looking to be a good example. But success is relatively rare.

Oh for the days when Craigen was in charge of our youth team, playing competitive games every week or so against top division youth teams. A group of youngsters being prepared for a step up when they were ready. Does that even happen now or is it all closed door run outs, training and bench sitting? That competitive environment seemed to stop when certain teams, backed by the SFA, were allowed to enter B teams in the lower leagues. How did that work out? Covid didn't help either.

I get finance is an issue but perhaps if the SFA invested some of their cash in funding youth leagues in which  participation was compulsory for all top division Clubs it could be possible. A bit like Premier League 2 down south. Surely something can be worked out if the Clubs are rewarded financially.

Good post Denny. The biggest single issue is that of compensation payable by large English clubs. By dangling very attractive salaries to young Scots, they hoover up the best talent. Thats a very hard nut to crack, but the SFA can't ignore that. Most of these youngsters head south and then return home a year or two later. Understandable,but it does stunt their development. 

[mfc88]

2 hours ago, Kmcalpin said:

Good post Denny. The biggest single issue is that of compensation payable by large English clubs. By dangling very attractive salaries to young Scots, they hoover up the best talent. Thats a very hard nut to crack, but the SFA can't ignore that. Most of these youngsters head south and then return home a year or two later. Understandable,but it does stunt their development. 

I think that is the intent of the initiative though. Instead of a promising 17 year old heading down south to play academy football there, they are instead offered a first team wage and the carrot of a place in the match day squad with the guarantee of time on the park ahead of a journeyman who is probably sitting on the bench on a higher salary.

Obviously some will still opt for the £££, but you'd like to think it will help in some cases.

I am speculating of course, nobody knows how it plays out in reality and whether this is any sort of answer... but it is pretty alarming to hear how far down our country is in terms of giving game time to academy players.

[Kmcalpin]

7 minutes ago, mfc88 said:

I think that is the intent of the initiative though. Instead of a promising 17 year old heading down south to play academy football there, they are instead offered a first team wage and the carrot of a place in the match day squad with the guarantee of time on the park ahead of a journeyman who is probably sitting on the bench on a higher salary.

Obviously some will still opt for the £££, but you'd like to think it will help in some cases.

It may help in some cases, but its really tinkering round the edges. For many young lads, a first team salary of say £2k weekly up here would pale into insignificance against a salary of say £5,000 a week at a Wolves or Bournemouth. If the SFA ever impose financial penalties on clubs not giving youngsters game time then the fines should be based on turnover and not be a flat rate.

[David]

20 hours ago, Kmcalpin said:

Can we compete with big English clubs who pay out fortunes to lure young players to their academies? How do we crack that one?

Put simply, we don't. We're not alone in that regard. Big English clubs are cherry-picking the top young talent from all over the world, including leagues with more resources than ours. It'll come down to what certain young players see as the way forward for them. Some will want to stay in their native country and get footballing experience, while others will want to move to England and enjoy the bump in salary and try to make a dent there. 

[wellfan]

As long as the SFA and SPFL are run by this current mob of inept incompetents, nothing will improve. Anything they propose will only make things worse and somehow manage to make an already stupid situation even more stupid.