So another season passes by without Partick Thistle adding to their 1921 triumph in the Scottish Cup.
Saturday’s defeat at the hands of Queen of the South was a massive disappointment, of that there can be little doubt. Disappointment in a football sense as the team didn’t play anywhere near as well as they can do, and disappointment in a financial sense as the potential of some much needed income that a prolonged cup run might have produced is lost.
The reaction from the Thistle fans to this defeat has been one of anger. The frustration is understandable. Queen of the South aren’t by any stretch of the imagination an especially good team. First Division side defeating another First Division though isn’t surely a result of any great note?
The calls for the removal of the manager, and a radical restructuring of the football side of the Club’s operation certainly seems to be out of perspective with the result.
The wisdom of the Club’s Youth Development scheme has been called into question in some quarters. The lack of players from the youth system in the current Thistle first team has been sited as justification for scrapping the youth development structure in its’ entirety.
That, to this writer at least, seems a foolhardy course of action to follow.
A successful youth policy takes years to develop. It isn’t just about those at the oldest age group, under 19, for whom the natural progression is now into the Thistle first team. That age group should be the tip of the iceberg.
Beneath that level there should be teams of varying age groups whose development is nurtured through its’ various stages. A lack of players from the youth system in the current first team, and it is unfair to suggest that there has been no success in that front, is no reason to abandon a youth structure that includes boys still in their very early teens.
Developing these players into potential future first team players is a task that requires as much patience as it will hard work. There will naturally be those that don’t make it. The number growing as they get nearer to full professional contracts and the Thistle first team.
The current Head of Youth Development at Firhill, Gerry Britton, has only been in his post for a few years. Nowhere near long enough for his labours to have borne fruit, but significant progress has been made. He, and his band of coaches, need to be given the time to continue their work in trying to create an enviable youth structure. One not unlike Hamilton’s which has earned their club significant transfer fees.
The work that needs to be done in terms of Youth Development should be allowed to be continued irrespective of the fortunes of the first team at any given time.
As you know Tom I have followed the Thistle since 1972. In that time we have produced very few genuine top notch players from scratch. Only the two Alans - Rough & Hansen & Maurice Johnston spring to mind. What we have been very good at doing over the years has been resurecting the fortunes of players who have perhaps 'lost their way' and moulding them into reasonably successful teams. Unfortunately, we appear to have lost the ability to do that. As far as the current crop of youth players go, I think if any of them were any good they would already be in the team.
ReplyDeleteThe shape of the game has changed beyond all recognition. John Lambie was excellent at creating successful teams (on a yearly basis) greater than the sum of their parts, through a combination free transfers and short term contracts. What he achieved was really quite remarkable, but he no real interest in building a youth structure that would mean we could develop a team rather than cobble a side together every year. That was his, great manager as he was for us, major flaw and as a club we suffered because of that.
ReplyDeleteGerry Britton and Derek Whyte meantime saw the value in putting in place a structure but failed where it mattered short term, the first team. Their structure was dismantled and it has only been in the last few years that we’ve started to play catch up, ironically with Gerry heading it up.
Of the current youth players I believe that there are 2 or 3 that can make it as first team players, but the under 19 side is only a small part of the youth structure.
We operate teams from under 13 level upwards, and is going to need the right coaching and time to develop players from that age group onwards into players of the future. It is essential in my view that we continue doing that irrespective of how the first team is faring at any given time. The value in doing so can be seen at Hamilton and Livingston.
Develop, sell and reinvest, and don’t let the result on a Saturday impact upon that strategy is the way to do it in my opinion. That needs time.