Jordan McMillan???

[pete 2,511]

I spoke about this with ian in the WRC on Tuesday night for the Stuttgart game and had it been any other game following the Killie game I would agree with you pete.

 

However, the Stuttgart game was a must-win game and it made sense to bring guys on whom WS believed he might have to rely on against Stuttgart, rather than the youngsters.

 

I reckon that had our next game been against Aberdeen rather than Stuttgart then we would have seen a couple of those youngsters thrown on for the 2nd half.

 

I would love to believe you Craig but how often have we been 2-3 up and not brought on a youth player. Sorry that story doesn't wash with me.

[craig 5,199]

I would love to believe you Craig but how often have we been 2-3 up and not brought on a youth player. Sorry that story doesn't wash with me.

 

In the past we have had other instances at play for not doing so, one being the U-21 rule hasnt always been in place and secondly we havent been in a position where we know we will have to rely on youth.

 

However, the more telling question is.... aside from Killie when was the last time we were 2-3 up in a game to allow us to do that anyway ?

[Totti 0]

I would love to believe you Craig but how often have we been 2-3 up and not brought on a youth player. Sorry that story doesn't wash with me.

Nail on head. The only reason Smith's giving youth a shot this year is because he's been forced to. Let's not forget that he almost drove a young Barry Ferguson out of Ibrox until Advocaat came in and spotted the potential.

[Totti 0]

In the past we have had other instances at play for not doing so, one being the U-21 rule hasnt always been in place and secondly we havent been in a position where we know we will have to rely on youth.

However, the more telling question is.... aside from Killie when was the last time we were 2-3 up in a game to allow us to do that anyway ?

There's no club on the planet where youth shouldn't be of the very highest importance.

 

Our finances have been a mess for yonks as well and it was quite clear long ago we needed to improve our youth development.

 

One of the biggest criticisms of the Murray era (it's an exhaustive list) is the fact that the club still has an archaic infrastructure with a terrible scouting network and poor youth development. Advocaat identified 10 years ago that our youth system needed radical change and that it was the way forward.

[craig 5,199]

There's no club on the planet where youth shouldn't be of the very highest importance.

 

Don't disagree, but there is most definitely a difference between blending youth into a team and having to rely on them. I think we are at the point of having to rely on them, at least when suspensions and injuries (and possibly sales) kick in.

 

Our finances have been a mess for yonks as well and it was quite clear long ago we needed to improve our youth development.

 

Agreed, but how is that relevant to my post where I was responding to pete in regards to plausible reasons that we didn't use youths in the Killie game when 3 up ?

 

Fair enough if you are just making a continuation of your post rather than debate me, I do it all the time myself

 

One of the biggest criticisms of the Murray era (it's an exhaustive list) is the fact that the club still has an archaic infrastructure with a terrible scouting network and poor youth development. Advocaat identified 10 years ago that our youth system needed radical change and that it was the way forward.

 

Again you won't hear me disagree with that.

[maineflyer 0]

There's no club on the planet where youth shouldn't be of the very highest importance.

 

Our finances have been a mess for yonks as well and it was quite clear long ago we needed to improve our youth development.

 

One of the biggest criticisms of the Murray era (it's an exhaustive list) is the fact that the club still has an archaic infrastructure with a terrible scouting network and poor youth development. Advocaat identified 10 years ago that our youth system needed radical change and that it was the way forward.

 

Really good point. We had a wonderful opportunity in the early/mid 1990's to set in place a system of finding and developing young player. It's one of my greatest regrets that Rangers didn't do that when they had the chance. As you mention with Advocaast, this probably does need to be driven by the manager and we're probably talking about Walter Smith's greatest shortcoming.

[calscot 0]

Nail on head. The only reason Smith's giving youth a shot this year is because he's been forced to. Let's not forget that he almost drove a young Barry Ferguson out of Ibrox until Advocaat came in and spotted the potential.

 

By replacing and driving out a much better young player favoured by Walter, who went on to captain Italy to the World cup...?

 

Great logic as usual!

 

In what way has Smith been forced to play youngsters? Loads of people were slagging him off that he didn't sign any centre backs but he chooses to promote a youngster instead. He's then "forced" to use him? I think there is some irony lost in there somewhere...

 

Smith plays the youngest ever player in a Scottish Cup final but only plays youngsters when he's forced to.

 

Funny how I already predicted before the season started that Wilson and Fleck would have a bigger part to play this year.

[calscot 0]

Can I just ask who forced Walter not to bring in a centre back, who forced him to put Webster on loan, who forced him not to play Papac or McCulloch instead and who forced him to drop Bougherra? That's a lot of forcing.

 

Same goes for all the times he's played Fleck - who's been on the bench - has it all been other U19's?

 

Why was he forced to play Little? Has he not given others the odd late substitution? Never mind playing the likes of Naismith and Lafferty at age 20.

 

Who forced him to play the likes of Durrant, Derek Ferguson, Charlie Miller, Barry Ferguson, Ian Murray, Scott Nisbet, Rino Gattuso etc?

 

It's a pretty poor argument when someone does something you want to slag them off for not doing, by saying they were forced to do it.

 

This isn't a defence of Walter, it's just showing what lengths people will go to, to fit their weak argument when on a roll of character assassination.

 

Walter plays two teenagers - and it's very rare for such a big club to do so, but it doesn't fit people's agenda and so they have to come up with some excuse...

 

I know this place has become hens at a pecking party so my non conformist view won't go down too well.

[Totti 0]

By replacing and driving out a much better young player favoured by Walter, who went on to captain Italy to the World cup...?

This the same young Italian who didn't make much of an impact and was played at right back by Smith? Very debatable whether Gattuso was a superior player at that point, totally different players as well. Gattuso said himself that Ferguson had more talent than him, technically at least.

 

Also Cannavaro captained Italy to the world cup.

Edited December 3, 2009 by Totti

[calscot 0]

Totti, this must be the most pathetic comeback of all time. Don't deal with any of the comments, just groan at it and then just make a low relevance, pedantic point. To me that's akin to hitting someone you disagree with or calling them a name - something you've already done.

 

Perhaps you should explain yourself and try to persuade people why you are right instead of basically just hitting out at people who disagree with you.

 

I warned you my post wouldn't go down too well with those who can't deal with alternative points of view and showed me to be 100% correct.

 

I'm going to have to ignore you as you obviously very opinionated without having put any thought, intelligence or reasoning to justify why you think you're right and why those that disagree with you are wrong. You've been asked many times to explain your opinions by different people and declined every time.

 

You may even be right about something sometime but if that happens the evidence suggests it can only be due to a coincidental, random occurrence - like predicting the right numbers on lottery night, than any real insight.