Only 18 Scottish players aged 21 and under have started a match in the Premiership this season, and of those 18, only eight have started 10 games or more. If it weren’t for injuries to first-team players, that figure would be even fewer. Two clubs have yet to start a Scottish player aged under 21 in a league match all season. This fact is stark in a league where clubs need to develop and sell their own to survive, and is worth exploring. Is Scottish football doing enough to develop their own?
According to data compiled by CIES Football Observatory, the average age of a player in the Premiership is 27, which is in the top 10 leagues in Europe for oldest average age. Only five top flights in the whole continent have a lower percentage of minutes for players who were trained at the club for at least three years between the ages of 15 and 21. What’s more, similar-sized countries and leagues such as Denmark, Slovakia, Sweden, Norway and Croatia are the top nations when it comes to giving minutes to club-trained players. This shows that young Scottish players are not getting enough game time relative to their counterparts in similar countries.
One of the key issues is managers of top-flight clubs are under immense pressure to get results. They get so little time to prove their worth, many turn to older experienced players who, at least on paper, are less likely to make mistakes. Often that means managers signing players they have worked with before and know well, rather than turning to an unproven academy player.
Many clubs have a commitment to develop their own, but when things get tough it can quickly be forgotten. Dundee United have committed to a strategy of giving academy players chances in the first team, and last season they gave 16 homegrown players minutes. However, with a change of managers, many of those players have been nowhere to be seen. This shows that leadership from the very top is essential in order for young players to get an opportunity.
Another issue is that many clubs’ very best youngsters are poached by Premier League and other top European clubs by the time they’ve even reached 18. This poses a challenge because these players would stay if they were playing regular first-team football.
A watered-down reserve league has already been deemed worthless by Celtic, Rangers, Hearts, and Aberdeen, who don’t take part. The former three have B-teams in the Lowland League instead. Loans can be an effective option for clubs to give players a taste of first-team action and try to bridge the gap. But that doesn’t suit every player, and clubs lose an element of control over the player’s development. Rangers B-team coach David McCallum was clear about the challenge – “The gap between academy and first team is too big.”
Rangers and others believe the B-team model can help narrow the gap, but feel it needs to come with the opportunity to play at a higher level than the Lowland League. That is hugely controversial in Scotland, because smaller clubs understandably feel it dilutes their existence as a competitive club. Plans for a new Conference division with B-teams below League 2 seem to have been put into cold storage, so the status quo continues for now.
The Scottish FA’s performance school programme – which combines football development with kids’ education – is bearing fruit with Billy Gilmour, Nathan Patterson and Calvin Ramsay examples of players who have made it to the senior Scotland squad. Scottish players are also thriving in the Premier League and even Italy’s Serie A.
However, Andy Goldie warns of complacency and describes the Scottish FA’s decision not to replace Malky Mackay directly as performance director in 2020 as “incredible”. He believes that there is a real problem with leadership right from the very top throughout the association and clubs as well. Ultimately, Scottish players need to be playing more and that requires a cultural shift from clubs, governing bodies, and fans – “The boys need to earn it,” said Goldie. “But if you have a strong, robust, strategy throughout the club then part of that has to be patience and you have to be willing to give young players a run in the team.” Until clubs do that, players will continue to come down south because they can get a far better games programme at under-21s and a lot of them will get a better opportunity to play first-team football earlier at a higher level as well.