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Falkirk Axe Their Football Academy


shull

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Def something going on there. Houston was talking about promo then overseeing a successor, they then offload players to rivals, Smith moved further away from team , bring in Hartley and Nicol, and they have hardly set the league on fire, and obviously the well documented Sheilds thing. Now the academy , which just about sums up Scottish Football

Must be tough to be a Bairns fan. Keep just missing promotion. And of course denied promo in 2003 which was a Sham, as Caley got to ground share at Aberdeen a few seasons later. Losing a semi after being 3-0 up, losing cup finals by streaky goals, losing play offs- bummer eh.........

I reckon  they will stay 9th and I would not fancy playing Raith or Ayr...........  

 

 

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I can see the logic.  There is no doubt Saints have suffered from investing in the academy and giving youngsters a chance to learn "on the job".  At times a bunch of hammer throwers and journeymen at Ross County or Motherwell have taken us apart and you think "What's the point".....

....but as I see it the entire point for a club like St Mirren to exist is to work in the local community and bring through young Scottish players.  

You need to take the rough with the smooth, Falkirk.  You've made your choice though.  Now piss off to League 1 and see if Robbie Winters is looking for a club!

Edited by Kemp
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Btentford damn near got promoted to the EPL by getting shot of the expense of an academy, and concentrating on hoovering upmthe players discarded by bigger clubs acadamies... like Morgan & McLean being dropped by Sevco, and us hoovering them up for nowt!

given eight clubs are committed to project brave up here, and there are plenty of academy drop outs down south it makes perfect business sense to stop ploughing tens of thousands into a system that delivers one real player every two years, and scout for discarded gems! 

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I'm sure Falkirk were being used as a example of a club doing better than us in this area earlier on in the year and being congratulated just for slapping a £750k price tag on a 17-y-o full back Tony Gallacher who has been in and out of a poor team this season meanwhile his contact is running down and one wonders how much they'd take this January.

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12 hours ago, Bud the Baker said:

I'm sure Falkirk were being used as a example of a club doing better than us in this area earlier on in the year and being congratulated just for slapping a £750k price tag on a 17-y-o full back Tony Gallacher who has been in and out of a poor team this season meanwhile his contact is running down and one wonders how much they'd take this January.

They always seem to slap huge fees on youngsters at Falkirk but the well seems to have dried up with any transfers for them.

I would think there will be a few Clubs about to test Falkirk with some cash inJanuary but less than they might expect “normally”.

 

Hartley will need dosh to get players in to avoid the drop...

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I've been reading that Hartley is being held at least in part responsible for this decision. Seemingly there was a similar scenario when he was at Alloa, though I have no details on that.

I'm not convinced that a relatively recently appointed manager would have that degree of influence, and it is more likely to be some disgruntled supporters looking for him to take the hit.

Either way, this is very short sighted and will come back to bite them on the arse.

Edited by Drew
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17 minutes ago, thomsons dropped it said:

They always seem to slap huge fees on youngsters at Falkirk but the well seems to have dried up with any transfers for them.

I would think there will be a few Clubs about to test Falkirk with some cash inJanuary but less than they might expect “normally”.

 

Hartley will need dosh to get players in to avoid the drop...

Cant see Hartley getting players in- and as u say in your first line - the well wont be helped with academy canned.....

I think its watch this space. But hey I am a Saints fan so cookie crumble etc:D

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20 hours ago, Slartibartfast said:

We would have missed out on Morgan and McLean if we didn't have an academy to put them in, since neither were ready for the senior squad when we took them on.  Some other club with an academy would have taken them - maybe even Falkirk.

Sorry wrong again SBF... getting rid of your academy dosent mean you have to get rid of your U20/Develoment Squad/Reserves (formerly known as). What it does do is frees up tens of thousands of pounds spent on effectively running a youth football club that you get perhaps one player capable of moving up every other year.

Morgan and McLean if memory serves me correctly were released by Sevco at the point where they were either offered a Full time contract, or let go... I.E. they had moved out of youth football.

try and find the financial added value to our club that running the academy returns..? You'll find that for a club our size, with our turnover its a huge money pit, even taking now tens of thousands from Smisa funds. Think of the scouting network locally, and down south you could have for that money bringing in decent academy discards from those still blowing millions on them. What might our reserves look like then..?

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15 minutes ago, Slartibartfast said:

If we only had "U20/Develoment Squad/Reserves (formerly known as)" and no academy, would Morgan and McLean have been ready to go into that set-up?  Would we have had spaces for them in the squad?  Would we have been able to get rid of anyone from the squad to make space?  If so, who?

 

Seeing as it's all hypothetical, you can't know the answers to any of that seeing as you don't know who we would have in that squad, or the size of the squad, if that was the set-up we had.

That is "U20/Development/Reserves ( fornerly known as)" exactly the squad they (McLean,Morgan) went into. They were too old for youth football, and sevco didnt offer them Ft terms so they joined us. So we had space, in fact we probably released some of our own academy graduates to accommodate better players.

I have to thank you for really making the case for me by highlighting how well we have done by scouting talent developed by others. If all our talent identification and recruitment was directed in this area, rather than running a youth football club we may well be selling on even more players we developed into seniors, who dropped out someone's academy.

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As a supplementary post it is important to perhaps shine a light on the youth players making up ours, and no doubt other clubs academies. 95-99% will not play senior professional football. They simply arent in that category,

In days gone by Pro club scouts cherry picked the best youth players from across the country for a trial to bring them to the managers attention. If they were good enough they joined the reserves and had to fight it out for a chance with senior professionals. Nowadays, without being patronising, or judgemental, for most youngsters at the academy its more a status/class symbol for them and their parents to be able to say "Our Lewis is at St Mirren" the reality being Lewis will never get near senior pro football, but we all keep up the pretence that he might... maybe their is logic and common sense in Falkirk's decision and thinking by pointing out that the 'Emperor isnt sporting stunning new threads, he's bollock naked".,?

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There are countless amounts of Boys, Youths, Amateur and Junior Clubs already established in Renfrewshire, the West of Scotland and beyond. 

All we need is a few decent Scouts to cherrypick the decent and give them trials in our Reserve and First Team. 

Two Teams is all we require. 

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19 minutes ago, shull said:

There are countless amounts of Boys, Youths, Amateur and Junior Clubs already established in Renfrewshire, the West of Scotland and beyond. 

All we need is a few decent Scouts to cherrypick the decent and give them trials in our Reserve and First Team. 

Two Teams is all we require. 

With the above simplistic logic to you think us winning the World Cup in 2022 is out of the question ?:thumbs2

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On ‎20‎/‎12‎/‎2017 at 10:06 AM, thomsons dropped it said:

Fear of going bust .......so they need to make savings. What's the easiest target then....??????

Just a thought.

 

Certainly in the long term you may well be correct.

They've spent a lot more time in the championship than I'm sure they expected.

Long term this has had a hugely negative effect on the infra structure of the club and supporters are far from happy.

For me this is an attempt to either finance areas that are necessary to keep the club afloat or to shovel finance directly into the first team in the hope that they can get promoted next season.

Either way it has the aroma of desperation.

Fingers crossed we don't end up in this situation.

Also, Lewis Morgan left Rangers of his own volition at 17 still within youth football. So someone looks as if they've made an arse on themselves. Yet again.

Edited by FTOF
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Guest TPAFKATS
There are countless amounts of Boys, Youths, Amateur and Junior Clubs already established in Renfrewshire, the West of Scotland and beyond. 
All we need is a few decent Scouts to cherrypick the decent and give them trials in our Reserve and First Team. 
Two Teams is all we require. 
You have absolutely no idea how youth football works these days, or are you just trolling?
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59 minutes ago, Slartibartfast said:

St Mirren will never win the World Cup.  :whistle The World Club Championship (or whatever it's called) on the other hand ... ask Tony when that's going to happen. :)

Tony said World Cup 2022, and Intergalactic Shield 2024 ....... and come on he is on track

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35 minutes ago, TPAFKATS said:
1 hour ago, shull said:
There are countless amounts of Boys, Youths, Amateur and Junior Clubs already established in Renfrewshire, the West of Scotland and beyond. 
All we need is a few decent Scouts to cherrypick the decent and give them trials in our Reserve and First Team. 
Two Teams is all we require. 

You have absolutely no idea how youth football works these days, or are you just trolling?

Covered it well  Bud :D

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55 minutes ago, TPAFKATS said:
1 hour ago, shull said:
There are countless amounts of Boys, Youths, Amateur and Junior Clubs already established in Renfrewshire, the West of Scotland and beyond. 
All we need is a few decent Scouts to cherrypick the decent and give them trials in our Reserve and First Team. 
Two Teams is all we require. 

You have absolutely no idea how youth football works these days, or are you just trolling?

Never said I did. 

You tell me about Youth Football please. 

I am willing to be educated. 

And try not be cheeky or rude. 

I am all ears. 

I was just insinuating Scouts could pick up decent players from elsewhere, therefore we have no need for an expensive Academy. 

On ye go.. 

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