Celtic are the new Arsenal

Aye I'm very happy with our youth development in fact it's the best it's ever been. I'm just underlining the importance of maintaining a Scottish base if it's available as we do have a social responsibility.

 

Yeah I undestand. Just wanted to point out that we are making steps towards improving the next generation of Celtic stars.

We have to be aware of the fact we cannot afford top players, so we have to mould our own and that's what we are doing.

We may not see the benefits for a wee while, but it will pay off eventually.

 

Of your list of immediates McGregor, Maloney and Brown are probably the only players capable of playing at a CL level. Caldwell has shown himself sorely lacking in the CL on several occasions.

The issue with good scottish, homegrown footballers can only be blamed on a poor grassroots infrastructure. If you look at the likes of Ajax in Holland (yes, it's a bigger country than Scotland, population wise), they're no bigger a club than Celtic or Rangers yet they've been churning out loads of world class footballers for 30 years which has got to be down to their cracking youth system.

To my mind, we're never going to produce decent footballers in Scotland until such times as we have a complete overhaul of the system from the lowest level. Then again, if we end up with decent players, keeping them in Scotland is a whole different problem,

 

We have made steps to change things at Celtic now.

And Holland isn't too much bigger really. So your point about their coaching is spot on.

But we have changed the way we do things from the U 9's upwards. Better late than never.

 

There are a number of problems with the Holland comparison.

I guess the fundamental is that they are 3 x the population of ours, and another fundamental in my opinion is they have a better lifestyle/drinking culture over there. That's just a guess based on Scotland being so appalling!

Ajax are of course at least a decade ahead of us in terms of youth development and we're only just catching up. And don't forget Holland is the birthplace of "Total Football" and have an unbelievable coaching infrastruture that the fannies at the SFA can only dream of.

I agree with you though sean that we need a complete overhaul of the system. Starting with the majority of the SFA budget put towards developing high-school aged footballers. We need better coaches and facilities at that level and to think of the money the SFA have spunked on nothing is embarassing.

 

Still waiting for Crosas to turn into the new Fabregas

 

I understand the point , however do you mean win * all?

 

no

 

I think we need to bring in alot more Scots from the youth teams.
Fleck a wee dirty hun but he can surely play and we need to produce a couple of these boys.

 

McGeady is scottish