Union City Blue 0 Posted November 19, 2009 Share Posted November 19, 2009 Article in the ET today. Makes interesting reading and sounds quite positive. SCOTTISH football, on the whole, might be years away from making radical plans to produce something akin to the Dutch game's prolific production line of talent. But Rangers are already two years down the line with a Netherlands-inspired initiative which the Ibrox club are hoping could help pave the way for a new wave of talented youngsters making the breakthrough to the first-team Full article here... http://www.eveningtimes.co.uk/sport/display.var.2535277.0.0.php 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Super_Ally 0 Posted November 19, 2009 Share Posted November 19, 2009 (edited) Rangers kids schooled in way of Dutch masters by Thomas Jordan SCOTTISH football, on the whole, might be years away from making radical plans to produce something akin to the Dutch game's prolific production line of talent. But Rangers are already two years down the line with a Netherlands-inspired initiative which the Ibrox club are hoping could help pave the way for a new wave of talented youngsters making the breakthrough to the first-team. Most clubs in Holland have programmes in place which allows talented youngsters to combine their school studies with during-the-day training sessions. It has helped produce some of the biggest stars in world football over the years, including the likes of Ruud Gullit, Marco van Basten, Frank Rijkaard, Patrick Kluivert, Ronald and Frank de Boer, Dennis Bergkamp and, more recently, Robin van Persie. advertisement The SPL champions are now operating a similar system, albeit to a lesser extent, with a crop of kids they hope could make it to the top. Jim Sinclair, the head of youth development at Rangers, has devised a scheme in which an elite bunch of kids aiming to become the next big thing to emerge from the Murray Park youth system are now spending more time with the club than ever before. The long-term hope is that it will play a significant role in improving the quality of player aiming to follow in the footsteps of John Fleck and Danny Wilson and progress into the first-team squad. "We now have players who are allowed out of school one day a week to come along to Murray Park for the entire day," explained Sinclair. "We currently have 11 players who come in every Thursday and we are grateful to the education department for allowing this to happen. "It might only be an additional day, but it does extend the amount of working hours they put into their football education quite considerably. "For example, these players will come to Murray Park on a Tuesday and Wednesday night for training sessions, they will spend all day Thursday with us, return again on the Friday night and have a game over the weekend. "That is quite a commitment. We are investing a lot of time and energy in these young players and hopefully it will pay off. "This has been up and running now for the last couple of years and we are hoping the additional day at the club once a week will help make a big difference. Look at the amount of hours these players spend up at Murray Park. "The opportunity to bring them in for a full day is increasing the time they spend on the training pitch, or in the lecture theatre learning about different aspects of the game, by a huge amount." Rangers have been criticised for not producing enough young players since moving to their new training centre at Murray Park back in 2001, although it must be taken on board that the complex is still a working facility primarily for the first-team. What is not known to many observers is the changes that have taken place at the club, specifically in the youth system, since the �£14m facility was opened. For example, Sinclair himself has only been at the club for the last three years after being head-hunted from the SFA. And he feels it is only now, after working to turn things around and make big changes in the last few years, that the Rangers youth department are at the level he feels it should be at for such a major club. "We now have around 42 or 43 full-time players in our academy," explain Sinclair. "We also have around another 120 kids involved in our schoolboy programme and between 40 and 50 centres in places such as Hamilton and Edinburgh. "It takes time to lay the foundations and get everything in place and up and running properly." If the emergence of Fleck and Wilson are anything to go by, Rangers might find themselves benefiting from their investment in youth. Sinclair, as you might expect, is thrilled to see them progressing into the first-team. "We are all delighted to see John and Danny make it into the first-team," said Sinclair. "And also the likes of Jordan McMillan and Andrew Shinnie have also been involved as well and that is what everyone wants to see. "People talk about the facilities on offer here at Murray Park, and I'm sure it is the same at Celtic's Lennoxtown training centre, but the raw talent isn't as easy to get as it once was in the past. "You can have nice pitches, floodlights and whatever else but it is all about trying to get youngsters contact with the ball. You don't see children playing impromptu games in the street now." I would be interested in Pete for examples take on this. Whilst it is encouargaing to see we are trying to take our youth development in the right direction, 1 additional day per week does not really seem like enough to me? Having said that, we (along with Hibs perhaps) appear to have overtaken Celtic in terms of being the dominant side at youth level over the last couple of years. Is this largely attributable to Jim Sinclair and the changes he ahs implemented? On a less important note it is good to see someone recognising that Murray Park is not just a youth development facility and in fact it's main purpose is a training facility for our first team and all this talk of it being a waste of money is wide of the mark. Following on from that point, recently we may have only had Fleck, Wilson and to a lesser extent Shinnie and Little breaking into the first team recently, but that does not make Murray Park a waste. Looking at Man United, how many of their starlets don't make the first team but are sold for a million pound or two? I think we should gauge success based partly on Man U's system and partly Ajax (for example). We should be looking to bring one or two players through to the first team squad each year. But we should also be looking to develop players of a decent enough standard that we could sell another 3 or 4 for example to cover the running costs of youth development. I thought I had some other points re: this but can't remember them at this point. Edited November 19, 2009 by Super_Ally 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ian1964 10,710 Posted November 19, 2009 Share Posted November 19, 2009 Thought it was ra sellic that introduced this idea http://www.heraldscotland.com/sport/more-scottish-football/scottish-football-in-crisis-celtic-lead-way-in-pioneering-project-to-educate-tomorrow-s-footballers-1.932973 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Union City Blue 0 Posted November 19, 2009 Author Share Posted November 19, 2009 I would be interested in Pete for examples take on this. Whilst it is encouargaing to see we are trying to take our youth development in the right direction, 1 additional day per week does not really seem like enough to me? Having said that, we (along with Hibs perhaps) appear to have overtaken Celtic in terms of being the dominant side at youth level over the last couple of years. Is this largely attributable to Jim Sinclair and the changes he ahs implemented? On a less important note it is good to see someone recognising that Murray Park is not just a youth development facility and in fact it's main purpose is a training facility for our first team and all this talk of it being a waste of money is wide of the mark. Following on from that point, recently we may have only had Fleck, Wilson and to a lesser extent Shinnie and Little breaking into the first team recently, but that does not make Murray Park a waste. Looking at Man United, how many of their starlets don't make the first team but are sold for a million pound or two? I think we should gauge success based partly on Man U's system and partly Ajax (for example). We should be looking to bring one or two players through to the first team squad each year. But we should also be looking to develop players of a decent enough standard that we could sell another 3 or 4 for example to cover the running costs of youth development. I thought I had some other points re: this but can't remember them at this point. Thought you'd be on this thread sharpish mate What happend to the Falkirk training discussion elsewhere? Never saw how that developed..... 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Super_Ally 0 Posted November 19, 2009 Share Posted November 19, 2009 Thought you'd be on this thread sharpish mate What happend to the Falkirk training discussion elsewhere? Never saw how that developed..... I had a look but the thread didn't really progress too much mate unfortunately. For some reason issues that should concern the wider support such as youth development and the future of our club don't often attract as much interest as threads on daft tims or other nonsensical debates. There's a few on here who should have some interesting insights and a couple on FF too. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
craig 5,199 Posted November 19, 2009 Share Posted November 19, 2009 That one extra day whilst not seeming like much S_A will be a full day learning. I presume they will train in the morning and also do lectures etc. One thing I do know is that when I was playing youth football we never had anything whatsoever in lecturing about the finer points of the game. Even if it is just one extra day these kids will get the chance to see what being a pro is all about (to an extent) and it is at least one extra day off the streets or off the PS3, XBox 360 etc Whilst it may not be enough I dont think that we have the full infrastructure to do something like a Lilleshall. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Super_Ally 0 Posted November 19, 2009 Share Posted November 19, 2009 That one extra day whilst not seeming like much S_A will be a full day learning. I presume they will train in the morning and also do lectures etc. One thing I do know is that when I was playing youth football we never had anything whatsoever in lecturing about the finer points of the game. Even if it is just one extra day these kids will get the chance to see what being a pro is all about (to an extent) and it is at least one extra day off the streets or off the PS3, XBox 360 etc Whilst it may not be enough I dont think that we have the full infrastructure to do something like a Lilleshall. As I said, it is encouraging as it is obviously a step in the right direction. I just presume that we still aren't getting the same level of contact time that the Dutch for example are. That's why I was hoping people with a greater depth of knowledge of such things, like Pete, will comment. Again, as I say, we do seem to be seeing improvements in the competitiveness of our youths at that level and also more promising players coming through and this is surely, at least in part, due to changes Sinclair has brought in such as the extra days training. The lectures are no doubt integral to player development but I wonder if young lads are mature enough to understand this and benefit from them. I doubt I would have been. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Super_Ally 0 Posted November 19, 2009 Share Posted November 19, 2009 As we're on youth footy here, wee snippet of a post from elsewhere: Drew 0-0 with Germany last night. 7 Bears involved, Starts for Grant Adam, Fleck & Jamie Ness On from the bench Darren Cole, Archie Campbell, Gregg Wylde and Kyle Hutton 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Union City Blue 0 Posted November 19, 2009 Author Share Posted November 19, 2009 Can anyone explain what the guys might actually do on the day they are in? 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
craig 5,199 Posted November 19, 2009 Share Posted November 19, 2009 I think I would have got the lecturing stuff S_A. I was so immersed in footy when I was at school but was also quite studious that I would like to think that I would get it. But surely that would be one of the first tasks would be to explain how this is an integral part of becoming a pro/better player, which is to understand the intricacies of the game by reviewing them off the pitch. UCB, I can only surmise, sorry - but I would suspect it would involve physical training (speed, cardio, balance etc) for a period, ball skills for a period, tactics, formations, angles (under-estimated part of the game IMO), explanations and lecturing. But these are things any of us could come up with 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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