I WROTE in this column a few years ago that the way we develop young players in this country is something that badly needs overhauled. So it was interesting to see Gordon Strachan and others coming out with similar comments earlier this week. It is obvious that major change is required if we are to produce another Denis Law, Kenny Dalglish or Graeme Souness, and start qualifying for major tournaments again. Watching the Euro 2016 play-offs this week has been another reminder of just how far we have to go.
People always want to modernise the game and try different things but we shouldn’t forget what helped bring through these special players in the past. It was as basic as playing as much football as possible. And we need to try to get back to that, rather than stopping boys who are in the pro-youth system from playing for boys clubs or for their school as is often the case.
To me it should be about practise, practise, practise. If you spend hours hitting golf balls then you’re only going to get better at it. So what is the use in stopping boys from playing more football? When I was young I played football for my school team in the morning, and then for my boys club in the afternoon. I had also signed ‘S’ forms with Kilmarnock which meant I could train through the week for them. It meant I was getting as much football as possible and that helped me become a half-decent player.
Scotland’s best players played constantly when they were growing up. So why have we moved away from that? In this day and age of computer games, tablets, mobile phones and the rest it’s hard enough to get kids out and playing football. And then we tell the ones good enough to get signed by clubs that they can only play in certain situations. It’s just daft.
I read Gordon’s comments about getting back to trying to foster a winning mentality, even among young players. And I totally agreed with that. It contradicted what Mark Wotte used to say about it being more important to focus on systems and technical ability, and results not really mattering. We thought bringing in a Dutchman would help fix things but their national team is in disarray just now and Wotte was never the most respected figure in his homeland anyway. And now he’s away. He tried to get us to listen to him, even though his big idea was to stop young boys playing for boys clubs which I thought was a joke. We’re stopping boys playing as much football as they could. In my opinion the pro-youth system is the worst set-up I have ever seen so to think we can try to fix everything that is wrong with Scottish football this way is just scary.
There’s not enough schools football now either. My son’s school doesn’t even have a team, and that was a huge thing before. So we are restricting the opportunities for young players to actually get a touch of a ball and improve their skills. That’s how we produced our superstars of the past – by letting them play as much as they can, whether for their school, or a boys club, or just kicking a ball about the park.
The pro-youth set-up puts too much pressure on younger kids, too. There are eight and nine-year olds being told that Rangers, Celtic and whoever are watching them, and that for me is too young for that level of interest. But clubs are too scared of letting one slip through the net and signing for their rivals. So the competition is fierce, even when it’s kids who are still in primary school. And then there is no commitment from the clubs as they can get rid of the boys at any point. In an ideal world a group of players the same age would all move forward at the same time but players all develop at different ages and at different speeds. So the reality is a bit different.
What positives can we take from the whole pro-youth set-up? I’m struggling to think of many. Wotte said at the time it was going to take 10 years before we saw the benefits although that just looked like a man trying to safeguard his job. He then disappeared after a few years because he wasn’t well liked within the SFA because of that Dutch arrogance. Even now he insists things are turning for the best although there is little evidence of it. There are a few moments here and there when one of the youth teams reaches a semi-final or a final and Wotte says that’s proof that we’re on the right track. But there is no sign of that at under-21 or first-team level. A return to the days of young players being allowed to play as much as they want could only be an improvement.
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