Issues with producing our own players

Vata was given his debut at 17 and got more opportunities when he was 18. Then he didn’t sign a contract for whatever reason. The fact remains that most of the academy players won’t make it because they don’t deserve to.

 

We produce them but they get bored trying to find a route into the first team squad never mind the first team its self. Its not helping we no longer have a reserve league for them to learn and grow in.
If calmac was the last one to get through how long has he been in the first time....5 years...more...? Shocking return for all the tems of millions we spend on youth players who have a hope in * of making the first team yet other teams are more than happy to poach them and give them game time.

 

If we cant find a space for even one single youngster in a team 15 points ahead of a rather poor rangers then whats the fecking point. Is our team so fragile we cant even rest anyone for dundee at home for example.

 

Sure, but the academy has loads of players. Makes sense that most of them don't deserve to play. Question is, why are we reluctant to trust even those who deserve a legit chance? Using them for a few mins here and there isn't gonna cut it. I'm talking about giving them regular minutes.

The 6-loans rule complicates matters going forward. Hopefully, we'll start trusting our own youth over random prospects like Yang, Kwon, Tilio, Yuki, etc. An example from the current window would be Slotsager. Chances are he won't make the 17-man cut for the european squad. We might not have enough open slots to loan him out either. Why bother signing him then? We may be better off trusting Dane Murray.

 

Team probably isn’t, our fans might be that fragile but the draw against Dundee was treated like an embarrassing disaster. We’ve not had a manager willing to risk the inconsistency that comes with relying on giving youngsters experience, coach them through the inconsistency they bring.

And now we are 15 ahead, it’s a big part down to the squad we do have. When those players get us in that position, does the more established quality pushing for first team drop out to push one of the youngsters instead?

We are shockingly bad at producing our own talent and we need to improve majorly but that also requires a change of how we do things. And is that a trade off that is worth it for us? I’m not sure, I think bringing in other young talent on the verge of stepping up and selling them on after we establish and improve them has done us very well. It’s the difference between maybe playing a young midfielder from the system or £1.5m on a Matt O’Riley and developing him instead

 

The fact we seem like we want to spend £7m on Slotslager, we have a lot of belief that he’s a quality option and will get that back and far more after 2/3 years here. If we had the trust that someone in the youth system can do that, then we would. We were 100% desperately wanting Doak to stay with that belief in him, and brought him in as soon as he turned 16.

And that’s another issue, a youngster with that talent at that level, that we have that buzz with, they’re * difficult to hang onto. The elite club’s academies and how many players they hoard in them is insane. Then you see them go to Liverpool or Bayern like we’ve seen, when it’s buttons for compensation for them rather than them paying millions. Then they loan them out, and if they do well they then have a big price because the club they’re attached to.

They are farming the best talent from everywhere not caring if they play anywhere near their teams, they know the clubs name alone elevates a fee. Again Doak, impressive at Middlsbrough and Scotland. Liverpool wonderkid - he’ll go for £20m upwards in summer.

 

And this is the big point for me, even the very best ones who do make it, to make it here they need to deserve a place infront of established players.


But we also take that too far, Tierney had a MotM debut. Then we played Ambrose LB before him, Tyler Blackett and injuries made us run out of makeshift LB’s and Tierney got tried again. And he was exceptional up against Van Persie, they moved him to the other wing because of him. And then we trusted him.

If Tyler * Blackett who didn’t deserve a place never mind at LB is fit? I think Tierney then dwindles away on the bench brief glimpses. That worked out well for us but was a bit of luck involved. When we have injuries and then a young guy comes in and does well, we need to then nurture that and give the chance. We tend to turn to more established guys, and play one of them in a position they don’t suit to cover the squad - case in point Mitchell Frame against Feyernood. Then Ralston at LB, looking awkward as * about it, rather than seeing where that glimpse we got could go. Even tonight, Montgomery on the bench whos older not good enough and will never make it, rather than having him there if something happens to GT.

We can’t go all out to develop them sacrificing the established guys in the team or squad, but we need a balance because when we can have a chance to, we also make sure we don’t

 

The one who might cost £7m is Orjasaeter. Slotsager is a 19-year-old centre half who's out of contract this summer. We are linked with both of them.

Not sure the big clubs will continue raiding smaller clubs now that the 6-loans rule is in effect. Can't possibly develop everybody anymore. Personally, I love the rule change. Hope they reduce the cap even lower than 6. Smaller clubs finally have a chance to keep their talented players. Big clubs are incentivized to develop their own players.

 

Ahh my mistake. I’m out of the loop here infact, what’s the 6 loan rule? Only 6 loans out, over the full club or within their own country or that?

 

Each club is allowed to have up to 6 players out on loan at any given time during the season. Club-trained players don't count against the cap. Based on a quick google search, players under the age of 21 don't count either. Didn't remember that part. Turns out 19-year-old Slotsager would be exempt from the rule. Still, I'd rather we trusted Dane Murray to be the 4th choice centre half over a random kid from the danish 2nd division (technically named the 1st division, but it's their 2nd tier).

 

Players under 21 being exempt I think makes it not have much effect when it comes to us keeping the best of our academy when they become eligible for a pro contract then.

Would be very interesting if they change that to include u21 players though. Feel that would have massive improvement on seeing quality come through at every club, it’s a rare thing usually down to a young player making that choice you see these guys come through smaller clubs now.


We aren’t small but on the big stage, we are really.

I’d really love to see youth academies capped to a certain number allowed in them. Some of the big clubs academies have * hundreds on the books.

 

Still helps cause teams have to make a decision at the age of 21. For instance, Chelsea had north of 20 players out on loan! Can't keep loaning everybody out indefinitely anymore. Hope FIFA makes the restrictions even tighter in the future. The cap was originally introduced in 2022/23 at 8 players. Was reduced at 7 in 2023/24. It now stands at 6 players since 2024/25.

 

It’ll get them out on loan for experience earlier, teenagers playing was always quite common and it has been rarer maybe 15-20 years now, it’ll definitely get more common again with it.

It’s something I’ve been screaming about us doing regularly, get them on loan, I want promising youngster by the time they’re 20 having 100-150 games under their belt out on loan somewhere. And if they’ve impressed, and after that amount of games a lot of naivety is out their game. We then decide of they can be brought in for a crack at our team or we can sell them having pro football to point towards and demand a fee for. We have years of evidence that learning to play here on a training pitch and playing other youth teams just doesn’t work.