Scotland – Youth Football…. Help!

Scottish Football Youth Football

I want to start this piece with a question….

Which team in Scotland right now would you consider to be the best at producing players through their Academy?

Do you have an answer….. Feel free to let me know on Twitter or in the comments box below. You are instantly doing better than me if you have an answer…. Because I don’t have one.

This is a small snippet taken from an article on Transfermarkt.co.uk based upon 23/24

“Worryingly, no less than half of the 12 Premiership clubs – Celtic, Rangers, St Mirren, St Johnstone, Dundee and Livingston – failed to provide at least 50% of the available minutes in the regular league campaign to a single U21 player this season, while Kilmarnock, Ross County, Hearts and Hibernian only had one U21 player in their team that played at least half a league campaign. Aberdeen outperformed all other clubs in the division, but even their tally stands at just two U21 players for the entire season.”

Scottish football at the highest level feels like it’s being left behind, and at youth level it feels like the movie Home Alone, but instead of the McAllister family coming home, Kevin ended up being alone forever and becoming the old man with the shovel who needs to be told by a new face that it’s time to change his ways and seek a better future. Personally, having recently watched Joe Savage on Open Goal I’d suggest Scottish football really needs someone like him to get in amongst the details and working with all stakeholders to find better solutions.


Currently we have 2 clubs with B teams in the Lowland League (Celtic & Hearts) and a Reserve League has 6 teams (Queens Park, Dunfermline, Livingston, Dundee, Kilmarnock and Queen of the South). Then a few teams playing what the call Best vs Best friendly games.

The step below that we have the u18s and the u16s where information is limited and you’ll find more information on fan blogs than you will via the SFA website.

What of the Scotland under age teams….

U21s managed by Scot Gemmill since 2016 haven’t qualified for the Euros since 1996.

U19s last had success in 2006 when a team featuring Lee Wallace, Charlie Grant, Steven Fletcher, Simon Ferry and Michael McGlinchey went to the final vs Spain, unfortunately losing 2-1. Since then, nothing of note.

U17s managed by Brian McLaughlin since 2017 haven’t been to a World Cup since it started in 1991. Euros they have qualified for in 2022 and 2023 but on both occasions lost all 3 games.

Now I’d be the first to tell you that results at these age groups aren’t the be all, end all…. However there has to be some positivity and a system that is designed to educate and prepare players for the highest level, more often than not it just isn’t there.

Even on my most recent trips to see the u21s vs Belgium and the u16s vs Wales I personally seen very little to be excited about. There was a really good crowd at Tynecastle vs Belgium in a game that could have seen Scotland qualify for the Euros in 2025, or at the very least get into the playoffs.

The game very much felt like Scotland were playing for the draw, which for me is like waiting for Belgium to score and that’s exactly what happened and it ended up with a 2-0 loss.

We then had 1 game left vs Kazakhstan over in Almaty, we needed Belgium to lose at home to Hungary and a win to get back into the playoff spot. Belgium much to my surprise lost 1-0. If you don’t know…. Then ask yourself what do you think Scotland would get in Kazakhstan…..

Win… wrong, Draw….. wrong, Beat 3-2 and another qualification failure. It was a tough group but with 2 games left and in our own hands. It’s grim.

Then you look at the pathways and our national team. There is no real clear pathway for players who have made it to the national team, lots of players who have been at clubs and had to go and get loans or take moves down to try and make their way back up and there is nothing wrong with that, but when you have clubs spending hundreds of thousands of pounds, or in some cases millions then you expect to see something come out of it. Looking at the 2 biggest clubs with the biggest budgets the only player in recent times to go direct from Academy to first team and then the national team is Nathan Patterson (Rangers).

If you look at a team like Sweden you’ll find a lot of players who have come through the system at Molde, Mjallby or one of best systems around at IF Brommapojkarna. The last time we seen a volume of players come through at one time was probably early 2000s where a lot of players were thriving in Edinburgh where we see Craig Gordon, Scott Severin, Derek Riordan, Gary O’Connor and Steven Whittaker and Scott Brown come through into the first teams. Craig Gordon and Scott Brown both going on to have Scotland careers that seen them break the fifty cap mark.

I always believe that when you look at systems then money is always a factor, but while I would happily hammer the likes of Paul Hartley, Barry Ferguson and the boards who backed them for riding clubs of Academy setups to move finances to the first team. I can also see why they would make that argument, albeit if it was my club I’d let them make the argument then tell them to do one and have found new managers but that’s just me.

The biggest factor in all of it though is people and I’ve been in and around it, seen the standards of coaching and the way clubs manage academies and the bad far outweighs the good. Lots of people who just don’t seem to value the roles they have. Lots of players who don’t have the level of dedication required and a system that for me is designed to fail on almost every level because the educational elements are sorely lacking.

There are some factors that are difficult for Scottish clubs to control. The EPL teams having a huge scouting presence up here now because of Brexit is probably the biggest one. They come backed with bigger budgets than most Scottish teams and they can sell themselves based on better facilities and things like EPL 2 being a much better option than playing in a reserve league with 6 teams or the Lowland League.

The SFA will write reports about who to make it better, for me it’s all been said before and quite frankly I wish they’d stop writing and start doing something. Ironically, I’d be the first to admit that we have one of the best education setups going under the SFA banner (COMET aside) but it isn’t moving from classroom to the highest levels, in fact I’d say I’ve seen better coaches at Junior level than I’ve seen at some supposed top Academy setups.

What are the solutions

For starters:

Reserve League – No, this is a new world and we all talk about reserve leagues or B teams while the market savvy leagues have developed NXT Gen Leagues and EPL 2… I know what sounds more appealing. Then promotion of it, get the games seen encourage clubs to promote them as a family day out, a way to introduce young ones to games without it costing a fortune.

Finances – There has to be incentives for clubs to produce players, much like they had in France where teams end of season payments had bonuses based upon Academy performance.

B Teams – If that system is here to stay then it has to go beyond Lowland League otherwise it’s pointless.

EPL 2 has a setup that allows players up to u23 which gives young players a bit more time to develop, this is especially good for players who may take a bit longer to develop physically. This is something we have to factor in to what we do. It’s certainly better than having teams binning a lot of players at 19/20 because they haven’t fully grown.

The SPFL – I’ve always been of the opinion that a 16 or 18 team league is the way to go but I’m not holding my breathe.

There are probably a million other ideas out there from people who are closer to this than I am but I don’t see how anyone involved in this at the highest level wakes up, goes into work and thinks Scotland as a nation or its top clubs are remotely close to where they should and could be when it comes to developing young players.

As always feedback is appreciated and I hope you enjoyed.

RH