Who’s in and who’s out in January?

[laukat]

As others have mentioned in earlier posts the effect of Brexit makes it even less likely that a club like us can take young players that are good enough to make a difference to our first team from youth football.

It now seems that rather than feeder clubs we have feeder academies and youth setups.

I suspect that means we have to change tact on recruitment and look at picking up players in 18-21 bracket that have been discarded by the English system or by the 2 cheeks rather than putting any money into developing our own

Sayers was clearly a punt in that direction but I suspect for it to work with players in that age range for a club our standing we need to target players who either left Scotland and want to return or who are in Scotland but rejected by a premier league club so that there is less likely to be any homesickness and equally a decent support wrap around them.

[Lambies Lost Doo]

My mate was at Man Utd.  Archie Knox let him go at 14.  Then Rochdale.   He said the best that happened was ITV Digital collapsing and all the EFL clubs having to drastically cut budgets esp youth systems so he was punted.

Went to uni.  Played for uni team and decent amateur level and got a decent job.  Thinks he prob would have been chasing a dream and bouncing around Conference South which long term would have not been good career and life wise.

[robphil]

1 hour ago, Jaggernaut said:

Neither of those; it was Andy!

Another great player - 20 caps. He'd have over 100 in the present era

[Jaggernaut]

8 hours ago, robphil said:

Another great player - 20 caps. He'd have over 100 in the present era

I always loved this goal (it's shown at the end of the clip):

 

[jlsarmy]

10 hours ago, laukat said:

As others have mentioned in earlier posts the effect of Brexit makes it even less likely that a club like us can take young players that are good enough to make a difference to our first team from youth football.

It now seems that rather than feeder clubs we have feeder academies and youth setups.

I suspect that means we have to change tact on recruitment and look at picking up players in 18-21 bracket that have been discarded by the English system or by the 2 cheeks rather than putting any money into developing our own

Sayers was clearly a punt in that direction but I suspect for it to work with players in that age range for a club our standing we need to target players who either left Scotland and want to return or who are in Scotland but rejected by a premier league club so that there is less likely to be any homesickness and equally a decent support wrap around them.

Jackie Mac kind of started that with SOD , Balatoni etc but over the years that approach kind of fell by the wayside 

Re our Academy and giving our young players a pathway to the first team I think the jury is out whether this approach is now cost effective.

[ClydebankJag]

Who have we sold pretty much straight from our Academy structure to other teams? I remember….

Fitzpatrick to Norwich (never made it, now back north). He did though make an impact at first team level.

Lindsay to  Barnsley (made a career at Championship down south). He too had a  first team impact. 

Hendry to Wigan (initially failed down south but had a very successful career)

Cooper to Rangers (never made it at Rangers and moved down south but is now at Airdrie)

Loney to Everton (at Everton still)

Edited March 7 by ClydebankJag

[laukat]

8 hours ago, jlsarmy said:

Jackie Mac kind of started that with SOD , Balatoni etc but over the years that approach kind of fell by the wayside 

Re our Academy and giving our young players a pathway to the first team I think the jury is out whether this approach is now cost effective.

I think you are right in that the approach that worked fell by the wayside but perhaps it was for other factors?

We have in recent years we have ended up picking younger players up, putting them in the Youth Academy and then into our first team for a bit before selling.

Now we have clubs enticing them from the Youth Academy that breaks our recent approach and stops either the first team or the club benefiting from our own youth development.

Going back a few years our recruitment used to focus on picking up under 21 players that were rejected by bigger local clubs, putting them in our reserves and bringing them into the first team.

To get back to that model we would either need the SFA to bring back reserve leagues, initiate a decent under 21 league or expand the B team concept.

I know the club recently put money into the Thistle weir academy but I don't think we regularly do? If we do regularly pay into Thistle Weir perhaps we need to consider ending that and diverting the money into under 21's?

Or more formally approach a junior team and see if they would become our feeder team? i.e. we sign a load of under 21s and send all of them on loan to a Glenafton or Pollok

[Cork Jag]

1 hour ago, ClydebankJag said:

Who have we sold pretty much straight from our Academy structure to other teams? I remember….

Fitzpatrick to Norwich (never made it, now back north). He did though make an impact at first team level.

Lindsay to  Barnsley (made a career at Championship down south). He too had a  first team impact. 

Hendry to Wigan (initially failed down south but had a very successful career)

Cooper to Rangers (never made it at Rangers and moved down south but is now at Airdrie)

Loney to Everton (at Everton still)

How much do you reckon we made from those? Guessing 750k-1m. I always thought that if we're generating enough to cover the cost of the Academy that's the starting point.  We then need some players to make it into the team to benefit the team and attract others.  I guess the broader benefits are our place in the community and strengthening us as a club overall. 

Lambie teams were great and based on older players but you could never sustain that for long.

[Dick Dastardly]

1 hour ago, Cork Jag said:

Lambie teams were great and based on older players but you could never sustain that for long.

As Pep is now finding out.

[Ancipital]

3 hours ago, ClydebankJag said:

Who have we sold pretty much straight from our Academy structure to other teams? I remember….

Fitzpatrick to Norwich (never made it, now back north). He did though make an impact at first team level.

Lindsay to  Barnsley (made a career at Championship down south). He too had a  first team impact. 

Hendry to Wigan (initially failed down south but had a very successful career)

Cooper to Rangers (never made it at Rangers and moved down south but is now at Airdrie)

Loney to Everton (at Everton still)

There was another player in last couple of years, Aiden or Hayden something I think though he might have gone via one of the OF similar to Cooper. 

Cooper funnily enough has just been loaned out by Airdrie to a team in the Lithuanian second tier which presumably have a link in with this Consillium agency. 

[jlsarmy]

3 hours ago, Cork Jag said:

How much do you reckon we made from those? Guessing 750k-1m. I always thought that if we're generating enough to cover the cost of the Academy that's the starting point.  We then need some players to make it into the team to benefit the team and attract others.  I guess the broader benefits are our place in the community and strengthening us as a club overall. 

Lambie teams were great and based on older players but you could never sustain that for long.

That revenue over 8 years when Liam Lindsay left isn’t a lot to sustain an Academy.

[partickthedog]

3 hours ago, Ancipital said:

Cooper funnily enough has just been loaned out by Airdrie to a team in the Lithuanian second tier which presumably have a link in with this Consillium agency. 

I sense the hand of Vlad.

[ClydebankJag]

On 3/7/2025 at 2:24 PM, Ancipital said:

There was another player in last couple of years, Aiden or Hayden something I think though he might have gone via one of the OF similar to Cooper. 

Cooper funnily enough has just been loaned out by Airdrie to a team in the Lithuanian second tier which presumably have a link in with this Consillium agency. 

Is that Aiden McGinley? I don’t know what happened there but see from internet searches that he’s now at Queens Park. I don’t think we actually sold him to West Ham. 
 

 

[lady-isobel-barnett]

Terrible news for us re Scott Martin but even sadder for the player himself. https://ptfc.co.uk/ptfc-news/injury-update-scott-martin-27th-march-2025/

[elevenone]

1 minute ago, lady-isobel-barnett said:

Terrible news for us re Scott Martin but even sadder for the player himself. https://ptfc.co.uk/ptfc-news/injury-update-scott-martin-27th-march-2025/

awful news for all parties.  We really do have some luck when it comes to injuries.  Get well soon Scott.

[jaggy]

Unbelievable! It didn’t look much at the time. All the best to Scott. 
 

are other teams as unlucky as us with long term injuries, especially innocuous looking ones. That’s Lawless, MacKay and Martin all out for about a year and Mitchell was out for 6 months

[Duke Gekantawa]

1 hour ago, jaggy said:

Unbelievable! It didn’t look much at the time. All the best to Scott. 
 

are other teams as unlucky as us with long term injuries, especially innocuous looking ones. That’s Lawless, MacKay and Martin all out for about a year and Mitchell was out for 6 months

I don't think it's that unusual, even at a higher level. Arsenal seem to have run out of fit attackers for example

[Jaggernaut]

11 hours ago, jaggy said:

Unbelievable! It didn’t look much at the time. All the best to Scott. 
 

are other teams as unlucky as us with long term injuries, especially innocuous looking ones. That’s Lawless, MacKay and Martin all out for about a year and Mitchell was out for 6 months

There are others too, going further back: Bannigan out for a year, and even worse, David McCallum and Alan Morgan: career-ending injuries.

[jaggy]

42 minutes ago, Jaggernaut said:

There are others too, going further back: Bannigan out for a year, and even worse, David McCallum and Alan Morgan: career-ending injuries.

I was meaning those 4 in the last year

[Jaggernaut]

4 hours ago, jaggy said:

I was meaning those 4 in the last year

Got it; it's certainly an unlucky run we've had to deal with.

[partickthedog]

Ricco Diack scored a couple (including one direct from a free kick) for Airdrie last night in their 0-5 win over Queen’s Park (who must now be right in the relegation mix).

[Lenziejag]

1 hour ago, partickthedog said:

Ricco Diack scored a couple (including one direct from a free kick) for Airdrie last night in their 0-5 win over Queen’s Park (who must now be right in the relegation mix).

Not sure what the remaining fixtures are but 9 clear of Airdrie with 5 to play and also still above Dunfermline and Hamilton, I don’t think they will go straight down. Certainly in danger of the playoff place, though. 
What’s more of a consideration for us is Airdrie scoring 5, although Diack won’t be playing on Saturday.

[Dick Dastardly]

46 minutes ago, Lenziejag said:

Not sure what the remaining fixtures are but 9 clear of Airdrie with 5 to play and also still above Dunfermline and Hamilton, I don’t think they will go straight down. Certainly in danger of the playoff place, though. 
What’s more of a consideration for us is Airdrie scoring 5, although Diack won’t be playing on Saturday.

At the moment, everyone is scoring 5 against Queens Park.

[Lenziejag]

4 hours ago, Dick Dastardly said:

At the moment, everyone is scoring 5 against Queens Park.

I was more thinking that I don’t think Airdrie will get 10 points from their 5 games or even 9 if they somehow were to overturn the current 16 goal difference. 

[Jaggernaut]

5 hours ago, Dick Dastardly said:

At the moment, everyone is scoring 5 against Queens Park.

Their Cup win against the blue erse cheek seems to have jinxed them.