Obviously with everything else that is, or rather isn't going on at ICT it's understandable that this has slipped through the cracks but I see that Doncaster is trying to move forward with the introduction of Colt teams into the SPFL set up:

http://www.scotsman.com/sport/football/competitions/premiership/spfl-consider-introducing-colt-teams-into-league-system-1-4473517

Initially, Colt teams would start in the Highland or Lowland leagues and, if successful, work their way up the pyramid with a ceiling of League One. All SPFL clubs have been invited to give feedback to the proposal (nice to exclude the Highland and Lowland League clubs from the consultation).

I am 100% against the idea of allowing Colt sides into the league set up. As has been pointed out on P & B one of the best things about supporting a lower league side is one day seeing them win the league. Imagine missing out on that because Celtic B win the league ahead of you and, if you are in League One, they can't even go up. It's a fantastic way for Doncaster and his croonies to basically piss off half of the league to appease the blue and green masses in Glasgow.

I don't see how it would do anything for the development of these younger players. Playing against League Two opposition isn't going to turn some U21 at Rangers into a world beater. If these players are good enough then they will break into the first team. The simple fact is that a lot of players coming through the youth set ups at some teams simply aren't good enough. Playing against a part time plumber from Elgin isn't going to change this. It's up to the likes of Rangers, Celtic and whoever else to develop and blood their younger players to continue their improvement.

Indeed the appearance of Colt teams in the Challenge Cup, branded a success by Doncaster for some reason despite most Colt sides getting pumped out at the second round and rotten crowds present for these games, seems to be a precursor to the inevitable appearance of these sides in the league set up.

Sadly it seems, as is almost always the case, that Scottish football is being run for the benefit of two clubs and I'm rapidly approaching the end of my tether with it all. I'm hopeful that ICT will object to these proposals when they feedback to the SPFL.

Edited June 13, 20178 yr by RiG

It is the desire/intention for ICT to have a Colts team in the Highland League from season after next.

Next season the players who would have played in the Development League will be loaned out to HL teams with an ICT Colts team the following season.

26 minutes ago, Tree said:

It is the desire/intention for ICT to have a Colts team in the Highland League from season after next.

Next season the players who would have played in the Development League will be loaned out to HL teams with an ICT Colts team the following season.

When ICT was formed the plan was to still have a colts team in the HL. This was rejected at first base by the HL with them saying it devalued their league  

Here we are 22 yrs later and.....

What other leagues do have second teams in the set ups. Yes we know Spain has, and I think both have been relegated in recent seasons.

But how do the people from those league think it works?

Everyone assumes its two teams who would enter teams, what about Aberdeen, Hibs, Hearts, and Dundee etc.

1 hour ago, bauhaus said:

What other leagues do have second teams in the set ups. Yes we know Spain has, and I think both have been relegated in recent seasons.

But how do the people from those league think it works?

Everyone assumes its two teams who would enter teams, what about Aberdeen, Hibs, Hearts, and Dundee etc.

MLS.

some of the teams have their 2nd or 3rd teams playing in the USL or NASL setup or in Toronto's case (with TFC II and TFC III), both. The biggest difference is that there is no promotion or relegation between each of the leagues so no problem in that regard ... although teams can (and do) send recovering or fringe players to the other teams and can call up players from them to the first team seemingly at random .... 

 

from Wikipedia : 

Quote

MLS formerly operated a reserve league which gave playing time to players who were not starters for their MLS teams. The Reserve League was formed in 2005, and operated through 2014 (with the exception of the 2009 & 2010 seasons).^[135] MLS began integrating its Reserve League with the league then known as USL Pro in 2013,^[136] and after the 2014 season folded the Reserve League, with MLS now requiring all teams to either affiliate with a USL team or field their own reserve side in that league.

 

33 minutes ago, Scotty said:

MLS.

some of the teams have their 2nd or 3rd teams playing in the USL or NASL setup or in Toronto's case (with TFC II and TFC III), both. The biggest difference is that there is no promotion or relegation between each of the leagues so no problem in that regard ... although teams can (and do) send recovering or fringe players to the other teams and can call up players from them to the first team seemingly at random .... 

 

from Wikipedia : 

 

Sensible set up by the sounds of things

13 hours ago, caleyboy said:

Sensible set up by the sounds of things

It is pretty sensible.

MLS may be a joke to some, and to be honest it did not exactly do much to disprove that opinion for a while. But MLS 2.0, which started in the 90s, and which has really started to grow exponentially since 2006, is vastly different to the MLS of the days when Pele, Beckenbauer, Best et all came to play for The New York Cosmos back in the 70s. (even if the NY Cosmos name was recently revived in one of the lower leagues).

Of course there are the 'designated players' here for a final payday - Drogba, Lampard, Gerrard to name 3 recent ones - and there are also ones that somewhat defy explanation - Barry Robson, Kris Boyd, Shaun Maloney, Kenny Miller - to name a few Scottish ones we have all heard of, but there are also some quality players over the years both above and below the 30 mark. David Beckham and Thierry Henry may have been over 30 when they arrived but both were still excellent players. I have no time for brand Beckham but there was no denying his quality, even as he got longer in the tooth, and the same can be said for Henry, despite the dogs abuse he got every time he came to Toronto for cheating against Ireland !!!  Nowadays we get to see Kaka, Andrea Pirlo, David Villa, and Bastian Schweinsteiger ... but maybe more importantly we also get to see the likes of Michael Bradley (29), Jozy Altidore (27), Sebastian Giovinco (just turned 30), Giovanni Dos Santos (28) and other players under 30 who have made the move to MLS with some still starring regularly for their national teams. The same impetus has been put into future development. ......      

The newer version of MLS has grown slowly, has made it a requirement of entry that all teams must have purpose built youth academies and youth policies, have set policies in place that give teams incentives (or less squad and salary cap penalties) to use 'homegrown' or 'generation adidas' players and now they are expanding the affiliations with other teams or seeking entry into the lower leagues. It is done not to benefit the clubs themselves, but to benefit the development of youth and those leagues. The ultimate aim is to make the USA national team into one of the best in the world by promoting, developing and nurturing that young talent alongside the mentorship of senior players ... and by default to do the same for Canada who are part of the setup with Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal (and possibly Ottawa, Edmonton and others in future). Do the most basic of research and you cant help be impressed with the aims and goals. I liked this article (and part two that it links to at the end) as a kind of summary : http://lastwordonsports.com/2014/07/25/mls-3-0-series-history-mls-1-0/ and this one that shows how Candian 'soccer' is benefitting : http://lastwordonsoccer.com/2017/01/17/mls-3-0-canadian-soccer/ . The most recent Canadian squads showed 22 players of 24 in the U17 team came from 4 clubs. Toronto (11), Montreal (2), Ottawa (3) and Vancouver (6) with one each from Dinamo Zagreb and Auxerre. The U20 squad had 8 of 20 from Toronto FC II (5), Vancouver (2) or Ottawa (1), and the most recent full squad had 15 players from the main Canadian teams. The transformation in the national team fortunes is going to be like Iceland ..... people - including Canadians - are going to be saying 'its just Canada' but assuming they continue to promote development then at some point everything is going to click and they will explode onto the world scene. The USA may end up as a top team, but Canada definitely has the potential to be a decent level team on the world stage. perhaps not world beaters, but maybe perpetual qualification and the odd foray into the latter stages of the odd competition. 

5 hours ago, Scotty said:

It is pretty sensible.

MLS may be a joke to some, and to be honest it did not exactly do much to disprove that opinion for a while. But MLS 2.0, which started in the 90s, and which has really started to grow exponentially since 2006, is vastly different to the MLS of the days when Pele, Beckenbauer, Best et all came to play for The New York Cosmos back in the 70s. (even if the NY Cosmos name was recently revived in one of the lower leagues).

Of course there are the 'designated players' here for a final payday - Drogba, Lampard, Gerrard to name 3 recent ones - and there are also ones that somewhat defy explanation - Barry Robson, Kris Boyd, Shaun Maloney, Kenny Miller - to name a few Scottish ones we have all heard of, but there are also some quality players over the years both above and below the 30 mark. David Beckham and Thierry Henry may have been over 30 when they arrived but both were still excellent players. I have no time for brand Beckham but there was no denying his quality, even as he got longer in the tooth, and the same can be said for Henry, despite the dogs abuse he got every time he came to Toronto for cheating against Ireland !!!  Nowadays we get to see Kaka, Andrea Pirlo, David Villa, and Bastian Schweinsteiger ... but maybe more importantly we also get to see the likes of Michael Bradley (29), Jozy Altidore (27), Sebastian Giovinco (just turned 30), Giovanni Dos Santos (28) and other players under 30 who have made the move to MLS with some still starring regularly for their national teams. The same impetus has been put into future development. ......      

The newer version of MLS has grown slowly, has made it a requirement of entry that all teams must have purpose built youth academies and youth policies, have set policies in place that give teams incentives (or less squad and salary cap penalties) to use 'homegrown' or 'generation adidas' players and now they are expanding the affiliations with other teams or seeking entry into the lower leagues. It is done not to benefit the clubs themselves, but to benefit the development of youth and those leagues. The ultimate aim is to make the USA national team into one of the best in the world by promoting, developing and nurturing that young talent alongside the mentorship of senior players ... and by default to do the same for Canada who are part of the setup with Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal (and possibly Ottawa, Edmonton and others in future). Do the most basic of research and you cant help be impressed with the aims and goals. I liked this article (and part two that it links to at the end) as a kind of summary : http://lastwordonsports.com/2014/07/25/mls-3-0-series-history-mls-1-0/ and this one that shows how Candian 'soccer' is benefitting : http://lastwordonsoccer.com/2017/01/17/mls-3-0-canadian-soccer/ . The most recent Canadian squads showed 22 players of 24 in the U17 team came from 4 clubs. Toronto (11), Montreal (2), Ottawa (3) and Vancouver (6) with one each from Dinamo Zagreb and Auxerre. The U20 squad had 8 of 20 from Toronto FC II (5), Vancouver (2) or Ottawa (1), and the most recent full squad had 15 players from the main Canadian teams. The transformation in the national team fortunes is going to be like Iceland ..... people - including Canadians - are going to be saying 'its just Canada' but assuming they continue to promote development then at some point everything is going to click and they will explode onto the world scene. The USA may end up as a top team, but Canada definitely has the potential to be a decent level team on the world stage. perhaps not world beaters, but maybe perpetual qualification and the odd foray into the latter stages of the odd competition. 

TBH Scotty I have never believed that the Scottish Development league has done anything to develop our youngsters. Personally I am a great believer in sticking the young uns with potential in with the more experienced pros so that they are training and playing with better, more mature players. We used to to do this and these young lads had their kidneys dunted by the old HFL defender and told not to come back or there would be more. I know that's not football but they grew up a lot quicker and developed a lot quicker, Grant Munro, Ike Fraser to name but two. I just wonder where we are going from here.