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Craig Slater Slates St Mirren


billyg

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Er, and John McGinn....and Sean Kelly...and Jason Naismith.

FFS, Stuart. Must try harder.

Strange - I'm sure the article said Slater made his debut for Kilmarnock in December 2012.....oh wait, it does....:rolleyes:

All the talk two and three years ago was about Reilly and Scullion. I think I'm right in saying Scullion was even paraded out in front of the St Mirren support at one stage where he did some sort of keepy uppy exhibition. The club regularly raved about those two. They weren't quite so forward when talking about Naismith and Kelly in particular. Slater probably felt, perhaps quite rightly, that he was one of the shirt fillers at Greenhill Road while the likes of David Longwell focused on other players.

If you read my post again Drew you'll see that I'm hardly trying to get a bite. This kind of thing happens all the time in pro youth football and of course players fall through the net.

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Do we not like strikers at the club.

I thought wee Scullion was next to break through especially as he starting to grow now lol

If he is above 5 foot 6 then that is too tall for either a midfielder or striker at our club. There must be something in the air at Ralston that stunts the growth of anyone that doesn't play in defence

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Strange - I'm sure the article said Slater made his debut for Kilmarnock in December 2012.....oh wait, it does....:rolleyes:

All the talk two and three years ago was about Reilly and Scullion. I think I'm right in saying Scullion was even paraded out in front of the St Mirren support at one stage where he did some sort of keepy uppy exhibition. The club regularly raved about those two. They weren't quite so forward when talking about Naismith and Kelly in particular. Slater probably felt, perhaps quite rightly, that he was one of the shirt fillers at Greenhill Road while the likes of David Longwell focused on other players.

If you read my post again Drew you'll see that I'm hardly trying to get a bite. This kind of thing happens all the time in pro youth football and of course players fall through the net.

Once again, Stuart, one has to admire your depth of knowledge in respect of a club you have no affinity with. Most impressive.

You cited two young players who haven't broken through to illustrate your point. My point is that you were being a tad selective. Bear in mind that McGinn was already very much in St Mirren's 1st team plans 18 months ago, and Kelly and Naismith were on the fringes. I was simply offering a bit of balance. You should try it sometime.

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Hang on. A 17yr old feels his career is going nowhere and asks to leave. At 17! The boy couldn't wait for his opportunity to come up because he thought he was better than his teammates. We can't play every 'promising youngster' we have as soon as they're out of nappies. Plenty of boys that age have been pushed forward too soon and ended up wasting their potential. OK so he was MOM for Killie against us, but we've had youngsters who have been outstanding in matches for us as well - Kelly, Naismith, McGinn, McLean. Accept the lad chose to go and move on - he's not the first and he won't be the last, and I won't lose any sleep over it.

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I think some are missing the crux of this.

The lad ASKED to leave because HE felt he was being undervalued. This doesn't mean the Saint's coaches felt he wasn't good. Perhaps just not ready. If he had stayed and worked for it he might have played alongside the others who knuckled down and proved their worth.

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Fitba is a bitch and everyone knows that but to go bleeting to the papers about hating being at training is a wee bit like sour grapes.

good luck to the young man.

How can it be sour grapes , he's in a better place now , in that he's part of a 1st team squad. He's probably giving the fingers to Longwell and the other hangers-on, and rightly so !

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I think some are missing the crux of this.

The lad ASKED to leave because HE felt he was being undervalued. This doesn't mean the Saint's coaches felt he wasn't good. Perhaps just not ready. If he had stayed and worked for it he might have played alongside the others who knuckled down and proved their worth.

Apart from McGinn, who's proved their worth?

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Correct, and as I alluded to earlier, should he have been given priority in the central mid position ahead of McGinn in terms of youngsters coming through?

Are you suggesting that you can't have 2 promising youngsters coming through in the same position???

Indeed, on our recent good run we had 5 players who are all arguably central midfielders - Goodwin, McLean, McGowan, Newton & McGinn - all in the same starting 11 together.

I'm not commenting on the article in question - I can't be bothered reading it - not the talents of Slater - I know nothing about him.

What I can be certain of however is that you can never ever have too many good players on the books - regardless of their position.

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How can it be sour grapes , he's in a better place now , in that he's part of a 1st team squad. He's probably giving the fingers to Longwell and the other hangers-on, and rightly so !

Indeed.

The Killie youth set up also probably has some ex-professional footballers on the staff!

Edited by Isabella Duke
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Just had a quick read of the article and see Alan Robertson's name mentioned. He played over 600 first team games for Killie.

A quick look through their list of youth coaches highlights a number of ex-professional footballers with hundreds of top class games between them.

Edited by Isabella Duke
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Just had a quick read of the article and see Alan Robertson's name mentioned. He played over 600 first team games for Killie.

A quick look through their list of youth coaches highlights a number of ex-professional footballers with hundreds of top class games between them.

And?

I know this is a dig at Longwell and his staff this thread.

Slater asked away as he felt he wasn't getting a chance in the first team

When did Longwell pick the first team?

Edited by windae cleaner
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As the poster above said.

We never chased him,he asked to leave.

To be honest he never stood out anytime i saw him but Reilly and Jack Smith did.

The problem is Reilly has went backwards and should go out on loan to give himself a chance.

Where's Jack Smith these days?

He did look impressive anytime i saw him

East Fife

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Correct, and as I alluded to earlier, should he have been given priority in the central mid position ahead of McGinn in terms of youngsters coming through?

As you say, good luck to the lad, though it demonstrates a lack of class deriding your former club to some degree. Just take it on the chin, son, and move on.

Yeah it's immediately noticeable that he places all of the blame on our club and absolutely none of it on being honest about his own attitude holding him back.

He gives the game away when talking about staying at Saints for too long.

One thing that simply can't be levelled at Danny is his unwillingness to give the youngsters a chance and so in light of the success with McLean, Naismith, Reilly, McGinn and Kelly (and even bringing McAusland in for a 3 year deal), Slater is sounding like a bit of a spoilt twat for saying he wasn't given an opportunity.

Edited by oaksoft
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What is weird about this thread is that it's the people who are staunch defenders of the youth coaches who seem most bothered about this article and what this player has said. As has been pointed out by myself and others, he left and found employment somewhere more beneficial to him so why are folk soiling their knickers? Maybe the lad shouldn't have been so blunt in his answers to whatever questions he was asked by the journalist but what's been done is done.

No doubt the next time we play Kilmarnock the "boo boys" will have a field day booing and shouting personal insults at this guy when in reality those doing the booing would find themselves a better place to work if they felt unhappy in the workplace. Actually, thinking about it, maybe they wouldn't. Maybe that is what is wrong with a lot of people that attend football - maybe they realise they're stuck in a mind-numbing job and have a shit life so they feel the need to make themselves appear superior by shouting and abusing others.

Why do you need someone to clean your cage, gerbil boy?

1eye.gif1eye.gif1eye.gif

Please, no more, my sides are fcuking aching. lol.giflol.giflol.gif

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Just had a quick read of the article and see Alan Robertson's name mentioned. He played over 600 first team games for Killie.

A quick look through their list of youth coaches highlights a number of ex-professional footballers with hundreds of top class games between them.

And I'm sure you use a toilet several times a day.

Doesn't make you an expert in cleaning them does it?

Your point about needing to have been a pro footballer to coach displays ignorance which is surprising even for you.

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And I'm sure you use a toilet several times a day.

Doesn't make you an expert in cleaning them does it?

Your point about needing to have been a pro footballer to coach displays ignorance which is surprising even for you.

Whilst I agree with you the SFA and UEFA don't. One of their prerequisites for the UEFA Pro Licence Course is that you must "have a minimum of six years working in professional football"

http://www.scottishfa.co.uk/scottish_football.cfm?page=3565

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And I'm sure you use a toilet several times a day.

Doesn't make you an expert in cleaning them does it?

Your point about needing to have been a pro footballer to coach displays ignorance which is surprising even for you.

Deary me.

Please point out to me where I stated that you need to have been a pro footballer to be a coach.

Your post displays ignorance which is quite common for you.

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Whilst I agree with you the SFA and UEFA don't. One of their prerequisites for the UEFA Pro Licence Course is that you must "have a minimum of six years working in professional football"

http://www.scottishfa.co.uk/scottish_football.cfm?page=3565

Such experience might make those in charge feel threatened however.

As Oaksoft correctly stated in his post, you don't need to have been a professional footballer to be a good coach.

But you certainly shouldn't have an inferiority complex...

Edited by Isabella Duke
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Such experience might make those in charge feel threatened however.

As Oaksoft correctly stated in his post, you don't need to have been a professional footballer to be a good coach.

But you certainly shouldn't have an inferiority complex...

Aye fair enough but I'm a bit confused about who your target is. Is it someone at boardroom level?

I don't think it can be the club manager because if it was I think Gus McPherson would have got rid of David Longwell had he had the power - and if your targeting Danny Lennon then surely getting rid of Iain Jenkins to replace him with the experienced Tommy Craig wouldn't fit the profile.

Personally I've no idea how good David Longwell is as a coach cause I've never watched him in action. However I do know one parent who would certainly recognise the St Mirren experience that this lad Slater is talking about.

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