Supporting our youth teams

[Robert]

Definitely is. Hopefully we can cultivate youngsters who break through and give us a foundation for the future over time. 

[Agent N]

Robbie Deas is 20 years old and a product of the Celtic youth system and not ours, they invested 7 years in him and then let him go. I wonder if our youth set up is providing value for money.

The coaches are generally ICT players so there may be a lack of new ideas, could be some coaches taken in from outside the club may help stimulate things.

The £100k a year cost could be used for buying players that we need.  A coach from a spl team once told me the problem with youth players is that you may develop good prospect at say left back but its a right winger the  first team need, so player is let go.

We are fans of the team but I like many do not appreciate the brutal nature of the professional game and only a very few make it.

The solution might be that the Highland League becomes our youth setup. There you have youths playing against grown men which will prepare them for the physical nature of the Scottish game, youth players play against other young people until they make the first team and its a big step up.

The above may seem harsh but we are struggling financially at the moment and should consider all options in trying to move forward.

[Caledonianfc1885]

On 7/31/2020 at 8:24 PM, Kingsmills said:

You don't seem to have grasped the reality of the situation. In normal times, of course developing youth should be a priority but these are very far from normal times and it is likely to take every penny we can muster just to get a first team squad capable of completing the season and, with any luck, being competitive.

Even on the figures you quote, which are highly dubious, you are suggesting that we have a turnover in the region of three and a half million pounds. This season it is most unlikely to be even half of that.

Our single focus right now is to survive and, hopefully having done that, we can focus on other things that may be desirable but not essential.

Maybe its not a case of grasping reality , maybe more like not knowing the facts. Does anyone really believe that a club of our size has ever budgeted or even spent 400k per year on youth. Our biggest youth operating costs are the wages of the so called heads of the Youth Development and Academy.  Whilst these Heads command a sizable wage the rest of the coaching staff are volunteers and receive token recompense for their efforts. I applaud the business(people) who have recently contributed 10's of thousands £  to our youth initiative. However I very much  doubt their donations were for  altruistic reasons more so to act  as leverage for their imminent  re-election to the board and also aid their off-springs progression through the system. 

Edited August 28, 2020 by Caledonianfc1885
punctuation

[+Tree]

7 hours ago, Caledonianfc1885 said:

Maybe its not a case of grasping reality , maybe more like not knowing the facts. Does anyone really believe that a club of our size has ever budgeted or even spent 400k per year on youth. Our biggest youth operating costs are the wages of the so called heads of the Youth Development and Academy.  Whilst these Heads command a sizable wage the rest of the coaching staff are volunteers and receive token recompense for their efforts. I applaud the business(people) who have recently contributed 10's of thousands £  to our youth initiative. However I very much  doubt their donations were for  altruistic reasons more so to act  as leverage for their imminent  re-election to the board and also aid their off-springs progression through the system. 

Each year group has a paid full time coach in line with Project Brave. Some overlap in past years with players also coaching.

[Caledonianfc1885]

17 hours ago, Tree said:

Each year group has a paid full time coach in line with Project Brave. Some overlap in past years with players also coaching.

Who are the paid full-time coaches of each year group ? 

[caleyboy]

I just can't believe there is a need for a full time coach for any youth squad. If true  it's time we saw sense and restructured the whole set up.