Dario Quinn

[Kris*Kaizer 2*Nunn]

Best post ive ever read so far! haha

[airfinz]

Craig Brown's Youth History is second to none in Scotland. Took our National Youths to their greatest ever standing.

Hmmmm, I agree with you regarding the under 16s that he got to the final; however that was short term gain - long term pain at it's finest.

 

As Wishy well alludes to, a number of youth teams prefer to get winning results to win games at that age to the detriment of 'ball players.' That is exactly the model Mr Brown adopted when masterminding the development of youth in Scotland.

 

On route to the final, our team of big guys defeated a certain Portuguese side through power and size which allowed us to nullify their ball players, who tended to be much smaller.

 

The Portuguese side included the following, all of whom went on to have very successful careers:

- Vitor Baia

- Fernando Couto

- Paulo Sousa

- Rui Costa

- Luis Figo

- Joau Pinto

- Ricardo Sa Pinto (I think)

- Paulo Futre (I think)

 

Out of the Scottish team, only the couple of players made it to any sort of decent level, and they were the smaller guys in the squad - who were the best 'ball players.' The only one of the stronger guys in the team that had any sort of success in game was Gary Bollan.

 

The guys that forged a decent career from our 16s were:

 

- Paul Dickov

- Brian O'Neil

- Gary Bollan

 

That is a shocking stat for an under 16 team that got to the world finals - not only that only 1 (perhaps 2 if Oneil got capped) made the full iternational team; but that only 3 actually managed to have a decent career in the game; particulary when compared with the Portuguese!

 

That is why Craig Broon has a large chunk of the responsibility for the demise of his game! It is no coincidence that we stopped bringing through decent footballers from the point that Craig was the youth supremo. The pain of 2000's is a by product of the result focussed youths that were adopted by our national team, and followed by the clubs.

 

Brown picked big guys to try and win the tournament to the detriment of the footballers - I'm pretty sure he has admitted that himself. The likes of Kevin Bain was able to easily handle Figo, Rui Costa et al when they were 15/16. I imagine that the same Portuguese side would have taken about 8 of the same Scotland side had they met when they were 18. Short term thinking at it's finest!

 

Sorry for digressing from the main topic, but as I mentioned earlier I worry for our youth with CB at the helm.

[Finlay]

Very interesting thread indeed.

[Ya Bezzer!]

You're a master at not really reading or understanding or responding to the point that is being made.

 

The primary point is about re-introducing young guys who already have had first team experience at our club in a successful manner.

 

At least thats how I read it.

 

Oh and you don't have to look far back for a better record on signing youth on long contracts or bringing in players in the window.

 

Is that when we were getting fucked a home by St. Johnstone with a team full of 18 year olds and a nutjob for a manager?

 

Oh aye! I remember now, we've gone backwards ever since!

 

The reason a lot of youth players have gone 'backwards' since Brown came in is obvious - they weren't ready for the first team when Gannon introduced them as 17 or 18 year olds. Its also a well known phenomenon in football that youth players often start strongly, fade, with only some of them recapturing their initial form.

 

But anyway Humphrey has done more for Brown than he did for Gannon, Jamie Murphy is finally showing his potential having only shown brief glimpses for previous managers, Saunders is more or less a regular in the team, Forbes still features either from the bench or from the start, Smith was given his debut by Brown, Page has probably made as many if not more appearances under Brown than he did for Gannon etc, etc.

 

And does anyone honestly believe that McHugh should start before Sutton, Blackman, Gow or Murphy? Does anyone honestly believe Pollock, Meechan, Hutchinson etc warrant a place in the first 11 or even 16 given our resources?