Jump to content

2024/25 pre-season thread


David
 Share

Recommended Posts

5 hours ago, witchfindergeneral said:

did anyone go to Linlithgow? Supposedly their goals were a penalty and a from a cross. Was SOD's playing by any chance?

I went, I enjoyed it, it was like a reserve or U20 match, you could hear SODs talking everyone through the match.  Miller stood out, Moses scored two great goals and Stuparevic looked a good player. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

38 minutes ago, ropy said:

I went, I enjoyed it, it was like a reserve or U20 match, you could hear SODs talking everyone through the match.  Miller stood out, Moses scored two great goals and Stuparevic looked a good player. 

Stop posting positively about the squad - I might start getting excited about the season ahead ;)

  • Haha 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...

Well, its not been the greatest pre season, primarily because too many of our new signings for key positions are injured leaving us no choice to play those already in the building and some development players.

Ive been impressed with Dylan Wells. I think he has something abd we could do worse to keep him around. I think Wilson is solid enough and wouls be fine in a back four but expect Seddon to start in front of him.

Ferrie still isnt ready. He needs a season long loan as he wont be getting many minutes when fit.

Given that SK seems hell bent on 3 at the back, I think our best starting 11, not counting longer term injuries could be.......

                         Heygi/Ox

            McGinn Gordon Balmer

Kaleta                                      Seddon

                 Miller      Davor

  Robinson       Stama     Stuparevic

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

7 minutes ago, Dossertillidie2 said:

Academy slowly being destroyed in front of our eyes over the last 18 months . At a time we need to rely on young players coming through it seems like a few are miles away from the step up , whilst we have either released or lost a number of promising ones 

Genuinely interested here; who, other than Max Johnston, have you seen from our recent academy/prospect releases or losses go on to perform at the same or higher level than the first team?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

7 minutes ago, StAndrew7 said:

Genuinely interested here; who, other than Max Johnston, have you seen from our recent academy/prospect releases or losses go on to perform at the same or higher level than the first team?

Agree. People say this every season when we release some youngsters and without fail, none of them have ever ended up playing at a higher level.

It's only the ones like Johnston who choose not to stay that sometimes succeed.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think there’s a few that we have lost over the years like Bailey rice who will at some point play first team football at other clubs. The biggest frustration is over the years we have lost young players when they get to that 16/17 age where it would be of benefit to have them in and around the first team.  Lost young max Willoughby and another couple this last year who are now getting moves down south. 
Personally  I’d love to see a ruling come in where we have to increase the number of academy players in the first team squad on a matchday however I know that will never happen 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

48 minutes ago, Dossertillidie2 said:

I think there’s a few that we have lost over the years like Bailey rice who will at some point play first team football at other clubs. The biggest frustration is over the years we have lost young players when they get to that 16/17 age where it would be of benefit to have them in and around the first team.  Lost young max Willoughby and another couple this last year who are now getting moves down south. 
Personally  I’d love to see a ruling come in where we have to increase the number of academy players in the first team squad on a matchday however I know that will never happen 

Didnt we have that rule a few years back. I seem to recall a lot of young players on the bench but never getting game time, which harmed their development more than putting them out on loan. I realise there are financial implications, but the demise if the reserve league hasnt helped player development.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

There are definitely a few we have lost through poaching, but none that we let go that have gone on to better things.

Getting meaningful game time is the challenge and the league doesn't have the spine to make clubs participate in a reserve or youth league. They'd rather let Hearts and the OF have B teams in the lower league at the cost of developing academy players from other clubs,

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, Dossertillidie2 said:

I think there’s a few that we have lost over the years like Bailey rice who will at some point play first team football at other clubs. The biggest frustration is over the years we have lost young players when they get to that 16/17 age where it would be of benefit to have them in and around the first team.  Lost young max Willoughby and another couple this last year who are now getting moves down south.

Good post. However this problem is not peculiar to our club. It affects most of Scottish football. I don't know the answer to it and it is a risk to the business strategy of the club. That said, how many of our young lads have moved on to "bigger things" but then had to come back down to our leagues?  Alan Martin, Reece McAlear, Jake Hastie, Stuart McKinstry. I'm sure Bailey Rice is making an obscene shed load of money at Ibrox short term  but where is his career going? 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

7 hours ago, StAndrew7 said:

Genuinely interested here; who, other than Max Johnston, have you seen from our recent academy/prospect releases or losses go on to perform at the same or higher level than the first team?

I don't think that's the issue. 

The question is are we getting the most out of our players and is Ricky Foster really the best person for his coaching role?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, steelboy said:

I don't think that's the issue. 

The question is are we getting the most out of our players and is Ricky Foster really the best person for his coaching role?

Well, you've clearly decided he's not based on what you've said there, so please do enlighten us as to why you think that's the case?

And by getting the most out of our players, what d'you mean? What's the success criteria for you?

9 hours ago, Dossertillidie2 said:

I think there’s a few that we have lost over the years like Bailey rice who will at some point play first team football at other clubs. The biggest frustration is over the years we have lost young players when they get to that 16/17 age where it would be of benefit to have them in and around the first team.  Lost young max Willoughby and another couple this last year who are now getting moves down south. 
Personally  I’d love to see a ruling come in where we have to increase the number of academy players in the first team squad on a matchday however I know that will never happen 

I understand that, and as frustrating as it is, I'm not convinced many (if any) of them who left would have gotten into the team.

Reece McAlear went to Norwich, played one game, went on loan and went to Tranmere for a couple of years. He's now at Livingston. 

@Kmcalpin has already mentioned Rice, who is no doubt earning a shit tonne of money but is probably looking at Lennon Miller thinking he could have been playing alongside him and regretting it.

Unfortunately we can't control what allegiances or kind of money youngsters get offered elsewhere. I think we can demonstrate what we can do for them in terms of development, first team appearances and moves to bigger and better things.

One thing I do think would help massively is an improvement in our training facilities; the pull of a better training ground with incorporated facilities would be huge (pool, gym, canteen, physio facilities etc.). That's expensive, sure, but it'd also help attract first team players, you'd expect.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

36 minutes ago, StAndrew7 said:

Well, you've clearly decided he's not based on what you've said there, so please do enlighten us as to why you think that's the case?

And by getting the most out of our players, what d'you mean? What's the success criteria for you?

 

Foster went straight from a media role to coaching our youths with zero experience. His record as player suggests that he's not suitable for the role. From what I've heard he rants and raves on the touchline during games. 

At the moment our 'youth development' seems to consist of going out on loan and all the emphasis being on the boy to develop enough to contribute to the first team here while having to adjust to a part time dressing room. We've rarely had 19 or 20 year olds around the squad over the past couple of years despite the fact that the league is extremely physical and a lot of Scottish boys from this area are late developers physically. 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

That's the 2nd year in a row we've went out the diddy cup on penalties after drawing 0-0 in normal time, last year to Tranent and this year to East Stirlingshire. I don't think it's that crazy that there are questions on if Foster is the right person to lead forward the youth teams.

Something I found interesting in one of Kettlewell's recent interviews is that he said that we've got an analyst now doubling up as a "loans manager'" to try to get the right loan for young players.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

15 minutes ago, Cameron_Mcd said:

Something I found interesting in one of Kettlewell's recent interviews is that he said that we've got an analyst now doubling up as a "loans manager'" to try to get the right loan for young players.

Yes, I think I saw a comment recently that Stirling Albion was not the right club for Ewan Wilson. Mark Ferrie got no game time at Stenhousemuir. On that basis, some adjustment is necessary.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, steelboy said:

Foster went straight from a media role to coaching our youths with zero experience. His record as player suggests that he's not suitable for the role. From what I've heard he rants and raves on the touchline during games. 

At the moment our 'youth development' seems to consist of going out on loan and all the emphasis being on the boy to develop enough to contribute to the first team here while having to adjust to a part time dressing room. We've rarely had 19 or 20 year olds around the squad over the past couple of years despite the fact that the league is extremely physical and a lot of Scottish boys from this area are late developers physically. 

Fair comments.

I think on Foster, if that's how he's behaving I agree it's not ideal, particularly for developing youngsters. Reminds me a bit of the chat around Hegarty back in the day. Foster did have a (very) short spell as a player/coach in the USA but I'm not sure that counts for much of anything.

The 19/20 year old point is an interesting one; Kettlewell said at the AGM that there was an entire group of youngsters we had to let go because they just weren't good enough to compete for first team places; which begs the question why they were still on the books for so long. It does explain why we went from first team youth players in Max Johnston to Lennon Miller; a drop of what, 3 years in age terms?

Also, I think Kettlewell is on record saying that we don't have the finances available (currently, anyway) to run a Reserve/B Team system, so we're basically working within the constraints of that.

I do think there's a lot to be overhauled across the Youth Teams; it also raises questions on Hammell when he was Head of Youth Development. Particularly when he had 4 years of time in the role and we've barely seen youngsters come through and it's absolutely his fault we lost Johnston in the manner we did.

I think the Loan Manager/Analyst type role is a good start to try and make sure we get our players out there and playing.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If you compare our Academy to others in the league we have made more on transfers than most if not all clubs 

 

Turnbull

Campbell

Scott

Hastie

Cornilius 

We also have the best young prospect in Lennon Miller 

Bailey Rice made a choice at the age of 16 when professional contracts are given to move to Rangers, Lennon opted to stay.

For the resources our club has and fighting with the 2 Glasgow clubs for prospects our Academy does really Well.

One observation from last night was Sparrow looks miles off being a first team player.

 

Edited by Claretamberribbon
  • Like 1
  • Thanks 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
 Share

×
×
  • Create New...