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Project Brave


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Malky Mackay has released details on Project Brave, an overhaul of Scotland's youth Academy system. Celtic and Rangers love it as it appears to allow them to play English and European clubs so their perennial self interest is served. Aberdeen, Hearts and Hibs are up for it. Given how much Saints invest in youth and the fact it now seems to be paying off, do we know what our Club's position is?

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I hope the club are against this, of the teams mentioned in the original post 4 out of the 5 were involved in the talks, how many players can they say have come through their youth team and went on to play consistently for the 1st team ? How many of them have then went on to become mebers of the Scotland squad ?

 

Yet a club like St Mirren who have half their team brought through the youth ranks and had John McGinn and Kenny McLean go on to make the Scotland squad weren't involved with the talks. Malky MacKay should have been down at Ralston listening to the Saints telling him how it's done instead of turning round telling us this is how it should be done.

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IMO Project Brave is the biggest load of nonsense since the idiotic 12-12-18 team league format rubbish. trying to dress up  cuts to youth football and pandering to the Old Firm as something positive for all of Scottish football.  I really hope the whole idea gets shot down and once and for all we get rid of the completely incompetent people in charge of the SFA.

A few reasons it's ridiculous and will pull other clubs and the Scottish national team down even further:

Less funding for elite academy status, they're basically cutting a funding and removing it to most academies that we have right now, I think they'll only be funding 16 now instead of 25+ last season.

Criteria for elite funding set unrealistically high for smaller clubs (number of FT positions and other criteria) muscling them out and costing them youth players.

Increase in development loans, basically meaning Rangers and Celtic and a few other SPL clubs can swallow up a bunch of decent/ good players then loan them out passing the wage cost onto smaller clubs and getting the benefit if they develop.

Pandering to the Old Firm in regards to their coult teams.  This has gone a bit quiet because it's been so unpopular but would be a complete outrage if they were allowed to walk into any level of the pyramid never mind league 2. 

What they actually should do

They should throw money at youth development, Scottish and UK governments should be getting involved here and massively increasing the budget for football to help develop our best players.  There should also be a big focus on the education piece so young players don't fall away to drink and partying in their masses when they hit 17/18. 

A limit on the number of young players at all clubs and a limit to number of players the club can send on loan. This would stop the big teams taking all the best talent and either having them rot at U18/ U20 level or having them sent out to 3-4 different smaller clubs over 3-4 seasons, learning different ways and habits and impacting their development. Young players playing for the same team at lower levels for 3-5 years before moving on seems to be more effective than players in the Celtic and Rangers youth squads with a chip on their shoulders being loaned out.

Re-introduce minimum number of players eligible to play for Scotland in the starting 11 and increase the number of home grown youth players in the squad with a minimum number starting.  financial rewards for playing club developed youngsters. 

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This is clearly a contentious issue. I agree that our club has been able to bring through a number of young players but do remember that this is at championship level. Some have gone on to bigger clubs and others will in the future. In the freedom of contract era it looks like this is the only game in town for a club like ours and gives us a limited supply of Development Fees as players move on, allowing us to either reinvest in youth or bring in experienced first team players. As for the OF youngsters playing in Europe. .I am not fussed.

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20 minutes ago, St.Ricky said:

This is clearly a contentious issue. I agree that our club has been able to bring through a number of young players but do remember that this is at championship level. Some have gone on to bigger clubs and others will in the future. In the freedom of contract era it looks like this is the only game in town for a club like ours and gives us a limited supply of Development Fees as players move on, allowing us to either reinvest in youth or bring in experienced first team players. As for the OF youngsters playing in Europe. .I am not fussed.

I agree with you to a certain extent, I do think there can be a lot more protection giving to clubs though to be honest.  They could implement something like in England to stop clubs being able to poach players away from other clubs in different areas.  More compensation for young players moving about.  Limit to the size of squads (at all levels) as well so we don't get situations where clubs have 35 U20s and 15 are loaned out (going that way in England) 

To improve the national squad as well I'd also like to see the return of minimum eligible Scotland players in the starting 11.  That went in 1995 and we last qualified for a major tournament in 1998, coincidence?  Possibly, possibly not. 

Edited by bazil85
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  • 2 weeks later...

Are we? How much grumbling went on about the colt teams in the diddy cup yet St Mirren fans fell over themselves to get tickets for the final? I refuse to attend game, cup or league, involving colt teams and it will stay that way. Unless fans vote with their feet then crap like this gets railroaded through.

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4 minutes ago, Dalrybud said:

Are we? How much grumbling went on about the colt teams in the diddy cup yet St Mirren fans fell over themselves to get tickets for the final? I refuse to attend game, cup or league, involving colt teams and it will stay that way. Unless fans vote with their feet then crap like this gets railroaded through.

We didn't play a colt team at any stage in the competition so your point is moot.

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Are we? How much grumbling went on about the colt teams in the diddy cup yet St Mirren fans fell over themselves to get tickets for the final? I refuse to attend game, cup or league, involving colt teams and it will stay that way. Unless fans vote with their feet then crap like this gets railroaded through.


I agree to a certain extent with this. First I would like to see the club vote on it as we move towards fans ownership. I imagine the result would be massively against colts. If they still come into the league structure I'd like to see fans of all clubs protest against it. Maybe something like season ticket holders refusing to attend any games against an OF colt. Only way to make them listen without financially damaging the clubs.

It's came out that SPFL are allowing applications for colts into highland and lowland leagues. Surely clubs have to vote on letting them in?
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For me - this "colts" thing is about long term planning to enable the two largest clubs to have teams in the leagues in Scotland should they move to a wealthier league format in England or elsewhere. Am I for it? Not really.


Yep that's my thoughts exactly and we shouldn't allow it. I do hope one day they leave but it would make a mockery of the Scottish game if they left their under 20 teams here
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3 hours ago, bazil85 said:

 


Yep that's my thoughts exactly and we shouldn't allow it. I do hope one day they leave but it would make a mockery of the Scottish game if they left their under 20 teams here

 

Worse still. They use them as Feeder Clubs and not as Colts. We finish up with domination by the two once again.

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I think this highlights an even bigger problem with football in this country (and others) 

Why on earth are the people in charge of the SFA and SPFL not democratically elected? They've had f*ck up after f*ck up for years now but yet still in a job! It's beyond a joke. Look at some of their great ideas. 
 

10,000 seat stadiums with undersoil heating to get into the top flight
The 12-12-18 nonsense 
The premier league relegation play-off spot being completely weighted to the premier league side 
Probably the worst of all, their absolute farce in dealing with Rangers liquidation, trying to get the new club voted into the Championship instead of the bottom of the pyramid. 

They should be voted on by clubs every 3-4 years with the fans of each club allowed to determine how they vote. Doncaster, Regan and co would be long gone by now. 

The fans of 40 clubs do not want colts in the league, this is clear. What's also clear is it's 100% pandering to the Old Firm. Drop the idea now and let's fight to take our sport back by demanding these fools that run our game are held accountable for their blatant incompetence.

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Of the six things in the cons section, four things "will" or "would" do something, one "could" do something and the other has "potential".

Of the five cons, three things "may" lead to something, one thing "could lead to something" and the only "will" is the obvious thing that it will lead to increased costs.

I know who wrote that piece for the website and he's dead against colt teams so I assume that stuff has been lifted from the document that has been sent to the clubs. Good to see there isn't an attempt to give them the answer the SPFL want!

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45 minutes ago, Stu said:

Of the six things in the cons section, four things "will" or "would" do something, one "could" do something and the other has "potential".

Of the five cons, three things "may" lead to something, one thing "could lead to something" and the only "will" is the obvious thing that it will lead to increased costs.

I know who wrote that piece for the website and he's dead against colt teams so I assume that stuff has been lifted from the document that has been sent to the clubs. Good to see there isn't an attempt to give them the answer the SPFL want!

In fairness, it's much more likely that someone of the same mind as the person who wrote the piece will fill in the survey.

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In fairness, it's much more likely that someone of the same mind as the person who wrote the piece will fill in the survey.


True but that is a fans group doing a survey of fans rather than the league asking clubs for feedback.
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