Paisley brazilians

Saints fan that works for BBC and usually spot on with all saints related news.
I have no issues with Loy not being able to play in the Dundee game next week. The league is our main focus.

As long as he gets a couple of days training in before Saturday. I`m not in favour of this turning up at the last minute and "yer in !"
 
 
Unless of course your name is Esmael Goncalves .

Some from the WHW - the view's not great from Conic Hill when it's raining!

Did that a few years ago when we did the WHW, the Tom Weir statue had to be done.
[emoji4]

great photos and thread balmaha can't beat the view from the conic hill its a must and so is the rowan tree inn and paying a visit to tom weirs statue just down the road.

I would love to see Shanks find his scoring touch again, for that matter i`d even be happy for Clarkson to start banging in the goals (as long as we dont offer him another contract !!)

He's on a permanent deal mate.

Watched Gallagher the last 2 games and I'm wondering why it has taken so long for him to get a game.

Need someone to work of Sutton how many times has he set up clarkson Hardie and shank's with sitters and they blow it. need someone to mop up the knock downs I agree that shanks could be a great player.if we could sign him permanent that would be great.with john signed for another season he could learn from him and play the roll Sutton plays.

Shanks contract runs out at the end of the season with Aberdeen. We have him till the end of the season as such I would keep him young player who is capable of putting the ball in the net. If and I write if he comes good then we could sign him as our own player. Personally I think we should keep him and work on him there is a striker in there. 

I say well done to Ross and Fowler, we need to explore EVERY avenue in our current predicament both on and off the pitch. As others have said what's to lose....absolutely nothing and it's costing nothing perhaps bar travel costs if we find anyone worth a trial. First bit of innovation I've seen from the club in a long time.

Dont know any of the few actual footballers who have responded, but it is getting the pish ripped out of it (no surprise there) by all and sundry. My son who lives daan saaf has had his mates send him screen shots of some of the applicants, and winding him up to apply himself.

Interesting another injury occurred at Feegie Astro
That pitch should be tore up and replaced with an upgrade
The amount of serious injuries accounted to that pitch is shocking

Watched Gallagher the last 2 games and I'm wondering why it has taken so long for him to get a game.

The new manager has already said he wants and expects to take us back to the top flight.

That's all I need to know.

Some folk with the knives out for the new manager and he hasn't even started yet, some support that is!!!

Yeah, I've been a long term critic of the pro youth system. There's loads of issues with it. What you've heard is right. Too much of whatever scouting is done is generally done around the 8, 9, 10 and 11 year old age groups. Players are written off after that unless they happen to play for their regional side in one of the friendlies that they often play against pro youth clubs. So what I found was that clubs were signing lads who had developed earlier in terms of speed or height, and were releasing them again 2 or 3 years later because they hadn't grown as much as the club would have liked. Parents used to tell me about kids getting weighed and measured and I once had a Rangers scout tell me that he was on instructions only to sign boys whose parents were tall because Rangers reckoned they could teach kids balls skills but they couldn't teach them to be tall. 
On the other side I talked to plenty of guys who had either coached in the pro youth system, or who were coaching in the pro youth system who would tell you about the large number of "shirt fillers" they had in the squad - players they knew wouldn't make it but who they needed anyway to make a team up, in some cases so they could get the SFA funding, and in others because they had one or two players they were keeping an eye on and they needed players around them to make up a team. 
You've got thousands of lads in the pro youth system right now most of whom who will never make it, all of whom are getting free kit from their clubs, aren't paying training subs or match fees (as they would do in juvenile football) and who are being transported across the country to play in matches in the pro youth leagues. And yet dafties like Henry McLeish and Mark Wotte thought this was the only way forward. 
There's loads of countries out there that we can learn bits and pieces from in terms of youth development. The problem is that all too often in Scotland we've got people who are protecting their own domain and who will only see the stuff that doesn't put their career at risk - perhaps understandably - and when guys like Gordon Strachan or Brian McClair have moved to change things they've come across resistance from clubs. 
I don't know if you are involved in coaching youth teams, or if it's just what you've seen watching your kids play but if they are at that age right now where clubs are sniffing around I'd venture they are still in that younger age group. You'll see soon enough clubs who have a youth development set up who will bin whole squads of players after losing to a local youth team in a friendly, or who will scrap their whole system because funding has come through late. 

I can't speak for Paisley but in Lanarkshire they definitely do. We've had scouts from Fulham, Sunderland, West Ham and Manchester City over the last few years. Fulham even signed a couple of local lads after following up initial enquiries a year after scouting them. 

I remember in the 90s local lads were getting scouted by the likes of Newcastle. Ipswich . Everton . But I'm sure I read an article a few years back saying English clubs don't come over the border any more and if this is true then any talented  local players are there for the taking  and we haven't capitalized on it. We might have even produced a descent striker.

In early 1990's as a qualified football coach and new appointed PE teacher at a school in Ellesmere Port - the school had just secured funding for an Astro pitch.
Manchester Utd were in contact immediately as the wanted to set up a under 8's soccer school and get a foothold in the area ( their nearest one was in Crewe ) myself and colleague were asked to become accredited Man U coaches and co-ordinate the franchise.
it all sounded very glamourous but in reality the hours were unsociable - the pay was poor and the potential hassle from parents "promoting" their talented prodigy meant I declined.
that aside I still work near Widnes and plenty of the kids get scouted by Liverpool - Everton - City - Wrexham - Tranmere - Crewe and Accrington - for a small fee I'd be happy to send a few northwards!!!

Surely that would be within the remit of Allan McManus at the club currently. 
There's plenty of scope to set up a scouting network on the cheap. There's a squad full of football players currently at the club who turn up for training at 10am and go home at 2pm. Surely it wouldn't be too difficult to ask full time footballers to put in a few extra hours. 

Again a comment like yours goes unnoticed for digs at Stu Dick
Add Partick Thistle into the mix as well

Sure you were .

I'm sitting close to a big stereotypical American guy who says he's in a quandary, doesn't want to vote for Trump as he's a lunatic but doesn't want to vote for Clinton because she's wanting to take his guns away.

The right to bare arms in America is a national obsession.even Obama said last month after yet another mass shooting that he could put a suspect on the no fly list but he could do nothing to prevent that person walked into a gun a gun store and buying an assault rifle.because the American rifle association has more power than the Whitehouse and until gun laws change this will be a monthly occurrence.