FK Partizan Belgrade Youth School

[Zappa 0]

A look at Europe's "second best" youth academy and how we can learn from it

 

http://rfcyouths.wordpress.com/2014/07/08/fk-partizan-belgrade-youth-school/

 

Excellent article elfideldo. It sounds like our youth system is light years behind Partizan.

[der Berliner 3,240]

Excellent article elfideldo. It sounds like our youth system is light years behind Partizan.

 

In reality, nigh 70 to 90% of all other clubs are a few light years behind the leading clubs in that respect. Doesn't make our position any better, but puts it a little into perspective.

 

Oh, BTW, on the day the "world" awakes to the news about HMRC's failure, Michael Grant of the Herald hands us a bit of a deflecting downer here ...

 

Murray Park: a school that struggles for a good report card from the inspectors

 

A 38-acre site, six full-sized pitches, another couple of half-sized ones, three distinct parts of the complex for administration, the first team and the youth players, one state-of-the-art gym, one indoor pitch . . . at the time Scottish football had seen nothing like it. And there was one other significant figure: 11 million, the amount of pounds Rangers spent to build it.

 

No-one gets worked up about Murray Park these days. It is no longer the only dedicated training complex in Scottish football and after more than a decade of use - under five different managers - it is now so familiar that its facilities are taken for granted.

 

Over time its reputation slowly corroded. From being synonymous with excellence and ambition in terms of facilities it came to be held up as a testament to Rangers' underachievement in the field of youth development.

 

Articles began to be written about why Murray Park wasn't producing more youth players for Rangers. The cruellest commentators questioned whether it offered value for money. That has tended to be the narrative about Murray Park for years. "Defending Murray Park is like painting the Forth Bridge," said Jimmy Sinclair. "It never ends."

 

Sinclair has more than a vested interest. He has been Rangers' youth academy director at the complex since leaving the SFA in August, 2006. The other day something happened which empowered Sinclair to speak with even greater conviction about the work which goes on at Rangers' Auchenhowie base.

 

When Ross McCormack moved from Leeds United to Fulham on Tuesday he became Murray Park's most expensive alumni. For all its criticism, and all its accusations of underachieving, Murray Park certainly has been the cradle for footballers who went on to become some of the most-valued Scotland has produced.

 

Danny Wilson moved to Liverpool for £2m and the fee would have risen to £5m if he had fully broken through at Anfield. Alan Hutton transferred from Rangers to Tottenham for £9m. Charlie Adam's transfer fees total over £10m. McCormack has now eclipsed them all having swopped clubs in the English Championship for £11m.

 

Not all of those transfer fees benefited Rangers, of course, but they validated Sinclair's contention that Murray Park - and specifically the youth development work which goes on there - deserves more recognition than it has had.

 

"Any interviews I do are always about me 'defending' Murray Park," said Sinclair, with good-natured exasperation. "Maybe that's just the way it's always going to be. Maybe there's always going to be a need to do that. But I think if people took the time, and looked back over what Murray Park has produced, they would realise it's a different story. An example I would use would be Andy Little. He came to us as a raw boy and ended up an international player with Northern Ireland. Even the young lad Thomas Bendiksen, who came to us at 18, is now a Norway international."

 

Sinclair can easily reel off a series of names who have graduated to the Rangers team having come through the scouting and youth coaching system operating from Murray Park: McCormack, Hutton, Adam, Wilson, Little, Chris Burke, Steven Smith, John Fleck, Gregg Wylde, Jamie Ness, Rhys McCabe, Lewis Macleod, Fraser Aird, Barrie McKay.

 

"It's difficult for our manager because the pressure is that every game has to be won. It's always going to be difficult for a Rangers manager to throw kids in willy-nilly. I'm bound to say it but I do think the place has produced and produced well. I would stand our kids up against anybody's.

 

"When you see them at under-20s against Dundee United's kids and all others they are better, or at least no worse. Look at the Dundee United scenario. They could win a game, lose a game, draw one, win one, lose two, that just doesn't happen at Rangers [without creating a fuss].

 

"It's exactly the same for Celtic. They have struggled to put young players into the team but their budget is high enough that they don't have to. In some respects, Dundee United and others are forced to do it. When you see Murray Park you couldn't fail to be impressed with it but it is only grass, goalposts and a building. It's no more than that. Whether it is successful is down to the people inside."

 

Whether Sinclair's list is long enough, or whether Rangers should have had more to show for their six-figure annual investment in youth development, is open to debate. But he isn't the only evangelist for Murray Park. The place was Dick Advocaat's brainchild and came into operation when he was in charge, before subsequently benefiting managers Alex McLeish, Paul Le Guen, Walter Smith and Ally McCoist.

 

"You have to say Murray Park has had its fair share of very good young players," said McLeish. "It deserves a bit of credit for the players it has produced and for the scouts who spotted them in the first place. At first people thought 'the building has been put in place, let's see the majesty coming out of it over the next couple of years'. That just doesn't happen easily. It takes time. When Alex Ferguson went to Manchester United he had to wait a while and suddenly he had the class of '92. It's not about judging it right away, it's about letting things develop before we can make assessments.

 

"The first time I walked into Rangers and I was at Murray Park, my opening gambit to the players was 'look guys, you have magnificent facilities here, you really don't know how lucky you are, and there are probably a few of you here who have experienced really poor training facilities in the past. For all you other young guys born into this, your challenge is to not waste a single minute of your football career, make the most of these facilities'.

 

"They were facilities to die for. I explained to them about my previous training on public parks, with goose shit, dog shit everywhere. That was a fact. We would have killed for the sort of facilities they have at Murray Park."

 

Wonder whether he saved that for such a special occasion ...

[Zappa 0]

In reality, nigh 70 to 90% of all other clubs are a few light years behind the leading clubs in that respect. Doesn't make our position any better, but puts it a little into perspective.

 

I think what puts it into perspective for me is that there's such a vast gulf between the Scottish & Serbian youth systems on a national level. We have excellent facilities at Auchenhowie, but without proper competitive youth leagues like they have in Serbia and many other countries, it's almost impossible to envisage a scenario where we begin to excel at youth level and get into the elite bracket of the top 10% of European Clubs. We could fire millions into scouting & coaching and still not get anywhere near the level we're capable of achieving because without a good system nationally to aid & nurture the player development we'd just be throwing money into another bottomless pit.

[der Berliner 3,240]

No doubt about that either. At the end of the day, you need to have the "material" too and I wonder whether Serbian and other "low-key" country youths view and value the career as a professional footballer as a great opportunity for themselves, something that e.g. their Scottish equivalents may very well lack. Lots of Germans do too, but we have a far greater population to pick the talent from those remaining.

Another thing ... while you are correct in saying that competitive youth leagues would enhance the standard, can you see those ailing clubs or an imcompetent SFA and SPFL to whip up suchlike in this day and age, even if they want to? Rather frustrating on various levels.

[Zappa 0]

No doubt about that either. At the end of the day, you need to have the "material" too and I wonder whether Serbian and other "low-key" country youths view and value the career as a professional footballer as a great opportunity for themselves, something that e.g. their Scottish equivalents may very well lack. Lots of Germans do too, but we have a far greater population to pick the talent from those remaining.

 

I think most Scottish youth players at the top Clubs are probably reasonably well grounded and appreciate what a massive opportunity they have, but there's obviously some who don't and personally I think they should be weeded out because lads who don't appreciate the scale of the opportunity they have or have attitude problems simply don't deserve the chance. One of the problems for some lads is probably basic immaturity though and that's just nature.

 

Another thing ... while you are correct in saying that competitive youth leagues would enhance the standard, can you see those ailing clubs or an imcompetent SFA and SPFL to whip up suchlike in this day and age, even if they want to? Rather frustrating on various levels.

 

Another good point because the SFA & SPFL aren't fit for purpose. They are absolutely clueless.

[elfideldo 406]

Sinky can choose what he says to justify his existence to quote "When you see them at under-20s against Dundee United's kids and all others they are better, or at least no worse."

 

I was at the last U20 game between the sides and Rangers only just scraped a 1-0 win.

 

http://rfcyouths.wordpress.com/2014/03/11/early-goal-secures-points/

 

A look at the lineups on that day gives a truer picture.

 

Rangers:- Scott Gallagher (24); Craig Halkett (18), Chris Hegarty (21), Luca Gasparotto (18), Ryan Sinnamon (17); Dylan Dykes (17), Charlie Telfer (18), Kyle Hutton (23) , Robbie Crawford (20), Danny Stoney (17); Callum Gallagher(19) Subs Ryan Finnie (19), Kris Gibson (18).

 

Dundee United:- Joe McGovern (20); Euan Sparks (17), Cammy Ballantyne (16), Adam Harwood (19), Chris McLaughlin (18) ; Brad Smith (16), Scott Smith (18), Scott Fraser (18), Aidan Connolly (18); Jamie Montgomery (18); Jordan Allan (19) SUBS Reghan Tumilty (17), Harry Souttar (16),

 

In addition to this Dundee United had the following U20 players out on loan, a few who played against Rangers in League 1. Jordan Moore (20 at Dunfermline), Darren Petrie (18 at Brechin), Ross Gilmour (18 at Airdire), Ryan Ferguson (20) at Dunfermline).

 

As you can see Rangers used the full compliment of over age players. Dundee united's team were all under 20, Joe McGovern turned 20 in the early part of this year, so in football terms is under 20. Dundee United used four Under17's players, even including unused subs we had none in the squad. Not ONE U17 player started a game in the U20 league last season.

 

There is a perception among some supporters that Rangers young players play against older opponents, it reality it is usually the opposite.

[Zappa 0]

Sinky can choose what he says to justify his existence

 

I thought him using the lad Bendiksen as some sort of shining example was a bit bizarre too. We paid a hundred grand or something for the lad as an 18 year old then barely gave him a chance in the first team over the 4 or 5 years he was with us, so here's the guy now just about to turn 25 next month and Sinky's dropping his name because he's recently been given his first Norway cap. Woop di doo.

[pete 2,499]

Ajax are league champions and 18 of their squad went through their academy. So that doesn't really add up.

I think you have to look at the players playing abroad as well to see what adds up. The Dutch league is also classed as a Mickey Mouse league. Many young players are now pulled away at youth level so the fact that Ajax still have 18 players probably backs up my point. Plus Ajax are probably the only club with enough money to keep their talent full youngsters. Only 2 seasons ago Ajax had about 70 supposed 1st team players most of them duds bought in and most sitting in the stand week in week out. That is the side you don't hear about Ajax.