Improving Football In Scotland - Targeting Demographics

[LinwoodTON]

I think you'll find that my Honours degree (First/Wake Class), Masters and doctorate put you well into my cold, long and dark shadow actually: just like Ayr United flailing around well beneath The Famous.

 

So get back in your box then and speak only when prompted by your intellectual betters.

 

Don't forget the 'B' for Higher English. 

[vikingTON]

Don't forget the 'B' for Higher English.

I don't tend to forget the fact that you are a delusional fantasist tbh.

[Ed de Ball]

I think you'll find that my Honours degree (First/Wake Class), Masters and doctorate put you well into my cold, long and dark shadow actually: just like Ayr United flailing around well beneath The Famous.

So get back in your box then and speak only when prompted by your intellectual betters.

Hot air doesn’t cast a shadow champ.

[vikingTON]

Hot air doesn’t cast a shadow champ.

Nobody asked for or cares about your epitaph Eric: pipe down.

[Ed de Ball]

Nobody asked for or cares about your epitaph Eric: pipe down.

Away and shite ya wee blatherskite.

 

Go and get a job and a life.

[TRVMP]

Away and s***e ya wee blatherskite.

 

Go and get a job and a life.

 

Around 490ml of Goldschlager talking there.

[vikingTON]

Away and s***e ya wee blatherskite.

 

Go and get a job and a life.

^^^ sobbing uncontrollably

 

Which job should I get: chief tax advisor at HMRC? CEO of Endemol? Ballon d'Or winner at Greenock Juniors? Secretary General of the UN? Lead astronaut on the Apollo 11 mission? Or any of the other 1400 ridiculous claims that you have made for yourself Eric; be extremely specific.

[Ed de Ball]

^^^ sobbing uncontrollably

Which job should I get: chief tax advisor at HMRC? CEO of Endemol? Ballon d'Or winner at Greenock Juniors? Secretary General of the UN? Lead astronaut on the Apollo 11 mission? Or any of the other 1400 ridiculous claims that you have made for yourself Eric; be extremely specific.

How about “Freelance Sperm Donor” ,” MILF tester” , Director of Fun in an old folks home,or Director of Hospitality at Grangemouth. Is that specific enough for you, Dr Strange?

[TonInDublin]

How about “Freelance Sperm Donor” ,” MILF tester” , Director of Fun in an old folks home,or Director of Hospitality at Grangemouth. Is that specific enough for you, Dr Strange?

Oooft, that is truly truly chronic patter.

[capitanus]

Oooft, that is truly truly chronic patter.

That patter would be an insult to chronic, to be fair.

[Alan_Partridge_Ton]

How about “Freelance Sperm Donor” ,” MILF tester” , Director of Fun in an old folks home,or Director of Hospitality at Grangemouth. Is that specific enough for you, Dr Strange?

Who is this Dr Strange you speak of? I see there’s a reference to this on Ernie’s Blog as the fan of the week. Could someone shed some light?

[Ed de Ball]

Who is this Dr Strange you speak of? I see there’s a reference to this on Ernie’s Blog as the fan of the week. Could someone shed some light?

Dr Stephen Strange, Marvel superhero whose adventures take place in a bizarre universe, seems quite apposite.

 

Ernie’s blog ain’t got anything to do with me, but I assume he is probably happy to pinch a good gag when he reads one. You should try it some time, your own patter is a bit tired and dated.

 

Anyway I thought the blog finished when all but Toby and Captainanus agreed to a truce. Do you have a link?

[TonInDublin]

FFS, somebody make him stop. Oh the humanity

[TaunTon]

Just shove him on ignore. I've managed to avoid most of his inane slaverings for months now. Same with that steriod obsessed fake zhivago, and the world seems a bit better

[HamCam]

Oooft, that is truly truly chronic patter.

So chronic, at first, I thought it was one of your posts!

[Brian Mcculloch Glasgow]

For Scottish football to truly flourish, we need more drastic measures than simply juggling the numbers.

After Germany crashed out of Euro 2000 - picking up only one solitary point along the way - they implemented a wide-ranging strategy aimed at preventing similar disasters in future competitions. The first key point – presented by the German FA’s Youth Development Director after analysing the French FA’s Clairefontaine Academy – was the opening of 121 national talent centres across the country. Each of these centres was to employ two full-time coaches. The second key point was the requirement that every club in the Bundesliga had to build a youth academy.

For me, it isn’t so much about what we are currently doing; it’s more about what we aren’t. As I’ve already demonstrated, with massive reconstruction at grassroots level in Germany, they’ve been able to dramatically improve at all levels in the sport. The simple answer then, is to copy what they’ve done and refine it to fit our smaller clubs. With that in mind, I propose an amalgamation of the two key points in the German plan; build national centres and use them as academies.

[BishopBrennan]

Stirling University is a national centre and hosted the Forth Valley Academy, which just Rangersed. It's far more complex an issue than just the lack of academies and national development centres.

[vikingTON]

For Scottish football to truly flourish, we need more drastic measures than simply juggling the numbers.

 

After Germany crashed out of Euro 2000 - picking up only one solitary point along the way - they implemented a wide-ranging strategy aimed at preventing similar disasters in future competitions. The first key point – presented by the German FA’s Youth Development Director after analysing the French FA’s Clairefontaine Academy – was the opening of 121 national talent centres across the country. Each of these centres was to employ two full-time coaches. The second key point was the requirement that every club in the Bundesliga had to build a youth academy.

 

For me, it isn’t so much about what we are currently doing; it’s more about what we aren’t. As I’ve already demonstrated, with massive reconstruction at grassroots level in Germany, they’ve been able to dramatically improve at all levels in the sport. The simple answer then, is to copy what they’ve done and refine it to fit our smaller clubs. With that in mind, I propose an amalgamation of the two key points in the German plan; build national centres and use them as academies.

 

The standard of Scottish football as a whole isn't actually determined by whether the SFA get money from Scotland reaching an international tournament finals, or Hamish Husband and the rest of the creepy weirdos in the 'Tartan Army' managing to get a jolly either. The interests of domestic Scottish clubs are not linked to that of the international team: which is why the clubs punted the SFA from running the domestic leagues years ago. 

[TRVMP]

For Scottish football to truly flourish, we need more drastic measures than simply juggling the numbers.

 

After Germany crashed out of Euro 2000 - picking up only one solitary point along the way - they implemented a wide-ranging strategy aimed at preventing similar disasters in future competitions. The first key point – presented by the German FA’s Youth Development Director after analysing the French FA’s Clairefontaine Academy – was the opening of 121 national talent centres across the country. Each of these centres was to employ two full-time coaches. The second key point was the requirement that every club in the Bundesliga had to build a youth academy.

 

For me, it isn’t so much about what we are currently doing; it’s more about what we aren’t. As I’ve already demonstrated, with massive reconstruction at grassroots level in Germany, they’ve been able to dramatically improve at all levels in the sport. The simple answer then, is to copy what they’ve done and refine it to fit our smaller clubs. With that in mind, I propose an amalgamation of the two key points in the German plan; build national centres and use them as academies.

 

Isn't that what Brave is trying to do with the professional clubs, though - to make eight "super" academies into which the various diddy organizations will flow? You say yourself the model was Clairefontaine, which is extremely centralized in that the top players flow to the top (similar to Bradenton in the US and that new one in England.) So we're aiming for the same thing but without the central academy?

 

There's an interesting article by a blogger on this:

 

http://www.thefootballlife.co.uk/post/154851866091/project-bravery-an-in-depth-look-at-the-sfas

 

Full disclosure, it's far too long and sanctimonious, and a lot of what he says is plainly bollocks, but he makes one superb point that most commentators so far have missed:

 

He makes a decent case that producing good players at youth level isn't really our problem, but seeing them through to full development is. I think the poster child for that has to be Ryan Gauld, who was seen as a generational talent but is now a squad player (generously speaking) at some relegation fodder in Portugal. So he got all the right coaching, got his big move, and then disappeared. There is merit to say that if he'd stayed at United (and they consequently may have avoided relegation) he'd be much further along in his development, even allowing for the (presumably) far superior coaching at Sporting, simply because he'd have far more first team action under his belt by now.

 

I'm becoming increasingly convinced that the big problem is the first team gap as opposed to the youth coaching.

[Clydeview]

Isn't that what Brave is trying to do with the professional clubs, though - to make eight "super" academies into which the various diddy organizations will flow? You say yourself the model was Clairefontaine, which is extremely centralized in that the top players flow to the top (similar to Bradenton in the US and that new one in England.) So we're aiming for the same thing but without the central academy?

 

There's an interesting article by a blogger on this:

 

http://www.thefootballlife.co.uk/post/154851866091/project-bravery-an-in-depth-look-at-the-sfas

 

Full disclosure, it's far too long and sanctimonious, and a lot of what he says is plainly bollocks, but he makes one superb point that most commentators so far have missed:

 

He makes a decent case that producing good players at youth level isn't really our problem, but seeing them through to full development is. I think the poster child for that has to be Ryan Gauld, who was seen as a generational talent but is now a squad player (generously speaking) at some relegation fodder in Portugal. So he got all the right coaching, got his big move, and then disappeared. There is merit to say that if he'd stayed at United (and they consequently may have avoided relegation) he'd be much further along in his development, even allowing for the (presumably) far superior coaching at Sporting, simply because he'd have far more first team action under his belt by now.

 

I'm becoming increasingly convinced that the big problem is the first team gap as opposed to the youth coaching.

 

Was in holiday in Spain recently and saw some local kids training (aged about 11), struck me how comfortable they all looked on the ball... all short/sharp passes, not a single 'punt', and not a lot of mad running about for that sake of it.  I know youth coaches work on that here, trying to play it out from the back, but I don't think the results are good at all...