Nathan Young Coombes to West Ham

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To break through at any big club at 17-18 years of age takes some doing, unless you are a special talent like Rooney/Fowler/Owen/Gilmour instead of slating our youth set up tell me who is ready to step in who is not thereabouts training with the first team.
Its the nature of the beast at a big club, look at Chelsea who have near the pick of the stall of youths, they went about 15 seasons with only one of their youths getting and staying in the team and that was John Terry (who they nicked from West Ham).
If you are good enough you will get there.
 
Kentbear said:
To break through at any big club at 17-18 years of age takes some doing, unless you are a special talent like Rooney/Fowler/Owen/Gilmour instead of slating our youth set up tell me who is ready to step in who is not thereabouts training with the first team.
Its the nature of the beast at a big club, look at Chelsea who have near the pick of the stall of youths, they went about 15 seasons with only one of their youths getting and staying in the team and that was John Terry (who they nicked from West Ham).
If you are good enough you will get there.
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If Chelsea's return on youth investment is one player over 15 years - that's hardly a recommendation in support of youth academies!!!
 
His development can’t have stalled all that much if he is leaving SPL to join EPL. Sadly I think we are loosing another very good prospect here
 
Just out of interest, I looked up some of the names mentioned in this thread....
Archie Campbell is 29 and now plays for Crossgates Primrose in the Juniors.
Freddy Adu is 31 and now plays for Las Vegas Lights.
Islam Feruz is 24 and is currently without a club.

One line that stood out for me while looking them up online... “ On 28 February 2017, Feruz was fined £3,000 after he was caught driving an £80,000 Porsche whilst disqualified”
That pretty much sums up all that is wrong with the game today.
It reminds me of Jordan McMillan buying a bright orange £70,000 Range Rover, despite not having a driving licence and only having played a couple of first team matches. He currently plays for Pollok Juniors.
 
sonofbunk said:
Given his scoring the last 2 seasons you could count Forrest.

Limited success of Craig Beattie. Can’t think of any others
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Tony Watt was sold for a million quid. Beattie went for more than that. Neither established themselves as first choice but contributed as squad players and were eventually sold for decent money. An effective youth system at our level should be doing as much of that as producing first team regulars.
 
Good on the boy for coming up here and giving it a go at that age.

Would be interesting to know how much the whole youth set up costs the club a year. Can’t be cheap running organised football for 10 years worth of kids.
If it’s only one or two players we are looking to bring in to the first team each year, could we save a whole lot of distraction but just buying them or using the cross border loophole?
 
Tugay83 said:
Tony Watt was sold for a million quid. Beattie went for more than that. Neither established themselves as first choice but contributed as squad players and were eventually sold for decent money. An effective youth system at our level should be doing as much of that as producing first team regulars.
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If I remember correctly Tony Watt was signed from Airdrie by Celtic at the age of 16-17 so not really a product of Cetlic's youth system.
 
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What sort of fee will we get for the lad and is a % sell on realistic when he was only here a year or 2?
 
Academy seems to have a new poster boy each year , it could be Coombes is past his sell by date along with boys like Kennedy and King.

the new poster boys seem to be the Northern Irish boy Lindsay and boy from highlands.
 
Losing one of the better talents in that team. Possibly to do with attitude instead of ability? Good luck to the lad, hope we have a sell on clause.
 
CoopBlue said:
I'm one of those who is still to be convinced that our youth/academy stuff is actually worth it.

For decades it has generally been a white elephant.

I keep being told that "things have changed and we will reap the benefits soon" etc.

Maybe one day it will come good, but I'm not holding my breath.
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Largely agree with this. We always seem to be turning a corner with the youth system and will take "a few years to show". Fast forward those few years and it's the same thing.
Very easy to make eternal promises about your youth system.

I'm still waiting for the first batch of youths to come from the original "Murray Park conveyor belt" :)
 
CoopBlue said:
I also think that in the scenario if Tav was to leave or get a serious injury before 5th October, we would bring in a direct replacement. I'm not sure Patterson would become our first choice right back if that situation was ever to arise. And I mean no disrespect to the lad at all. I just think that's the reality.

Losing Tav to injury concerns me massively. Some fans will only maybe appreciate him whenever he is gone. He is like two players in one and his involvement in games is colossal.
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He was out injured for a short spell last season and we were struggling. A lot said we were missing him badly.
When he came back in there was no change, we still struggled.
 
BWO said:
Good shout with Fleck, just before my time.
Miller was a midfielder....Spencer & McSwegan were never really established players.
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We set McCormack up for a good career. World was at his feet but boy wasted it...
 
In England there's a whole market for youth players that the big clubs have cornered. Look at the number of players Liverpool, Chelsea, Man City, Arsenal, etc send out on loan. That's not costing them a penny and at times they'll be making money.

You then get a good few that you can sell on for decent money - some you don't even hear much about. Tariq Lamptey went from Chelsea to Brighton for £4m; George Johnston went from Liverpool to Feyenoord for £0.5m; Jerome Sinclair went from Liverpool to Watford for £4m. Not all massive fees but these kind of deals happen all the time - and even when little or no money involved there are sell on clauses and money can come further down the line.

And that's before you start getting to the likes of £7m+ for Ryan Kent or whatever Dortmund paid for Jadon Sancho.

In England the academies pay for themselves even if the first team doesn't see too many players.

That's maybe where we want to get to - but even if not and we're looking for a production line it's a hell of a lot easier if we've won the league. I think if we can do that it provides the opportunity to integrate more of our young players into the first team.
 
MearnsUnionist said:
He wasn't one of our best prospects.

He was one who did well through the age groups, but his progress was stalling..

Some will no doubt try to make a big deal out of this, but anyone who watches our youths regularly will know NYC wasn't making it with us.

Good luck to him though and hopefully he can still make a career out of the game.
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Of course they will. This is FF. Home of the most hysterical of hysterical Rangers fans... that you never seem to encounter in real life.
 
Bangersbc said:
We set McCormack up for a good career. World was at his feet but boy wasted it...
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Tbf McCormack is in the top 5 championship goal scorers of all time, earned millions of pounds and has lived in Australia as a footballer. He’s had a very good career, could it have been better though?. Probably, but I’m not sure by how much.
 
I recall when he signed for us it was a close thing with one of the London clubs also after him. Can't recall if it was West Ham or Crystal Palace though. Promising looking player who was miles off the first team squad in truth, with the likes of Mebude (where's he been this pre-season?) well ahead of him. NYC needed another season or two with the Dev Squad. Sorry to see him go but I suspect its probably more to do with getting 'home' than any issues at the Academy.
 
Can only wish him all the best, it takes courage for someone at his age to move 400 miles away from friends and family. Can't say I'm not a little bit disappointed it hasn't worked out for him, get a few folk saying his progress stalled but that's not too uncommon and he had the ability to make up for lost time as he grew... that said, we'll hear continuously of players in the youth ranks with the World at their feet and for one reason or another it just doesn't happen. All we can do is to continue to scout and secure the best prospects we can at youth level and hope we can progress some into the 1st team.
 
MurtyMania said:
Reasons behind this one will be interesting.

If it's a simple case of homesickness, then it's understandable. He's a young boy that made a big move.

If it's about pathways or first team opportunities...
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He is clearly nowhere near ready to be in the first team so if that's his issue then he can go.

He looks about 15 and it will be a few years before he is ready for the first team imo
 
erskine bear said:
Tbf McCormack is in the top 5 championship goal scorers of all time, earned millions of pounds and has lived in Australia as a footballer. He’s had a very good career, could it have been better though?. Probably, but I’m not sure by how much.
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He got way more out of football than I thought was possible for him when he left for Motherwell.
 
We seem to have strengthened in the youth department and if he has not quite progressed as much as everyone hoped and he is homesick then it sounds a good deal for everyone. 17 and away from home in such a competitive industry is not easy. Good luck to him and hopefully we have a %sell on clause.
 
Recoba said:
He is clearly nowhere near ready to be in the first team so if that's his issue then he can go.

He looks about 15 and it will be a few years before he is ready for the first team imo
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No one is suggesting he should be.

But others are ready, and if players are seeing them not getting chances, there’s no incentive for them to stay.

Like I said, multiple academy players are waiting to see what happens on this front before signing contract extensions.
 
I would like to make a few points here.

To say he hadn't kicked on is a bit harsh, he is still an under 18 player, barely played U18 last year when he was under 17, as he was pushed up to development squad.

Dapo is two years older in football terms than NYC. Dapo not involved pre-season, contract issue ?

There are a number of reasons youth players are unsettled. At an important stage of their career where and when will they play their next game ? U18 & U23 leagues in England will get up and running, it is not certain Scotland's U18 league will happen. And above that age group Rangers are looking at friendlies at best.

Fairness and money is of course also a factor, it would appear that a EPL academy player is valued significantly more than our own academy players.
 
The reality is that with most clubs very few first team players come through. I remember going to a coaching session at the Astro park opposite Ibrox ,must be 30yrs ago. The session was taken by Co Adriaanse who directed Ajax youth system . He said that if they got on average 1.5 players into their first team squad they were doing very well. While we are not doing this at the moment if we get near that it would be fantastic.
Edit 1.5 players a season was the target
 
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It’ll be interesting to see how he develops but knowing we’ll have a sell on clause for a player that doesn’t want to be here makes this one a lot easier to take
 
The Moon on Mars is Blue said:
The reality is that with most clubs very few first team players come through. I remember going to a coaching session at the Astro park opposite Ibrox ,must be 30yrs ago. The session was taken by Co Adriaanse who directed Ajax youth system . He said that if they got on average 1.5 players into their first team squad they were doing very well. While we are not doing this at the moment if we get near that it would be fantastic.


Per season?
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The Moon on Mars is Blue said:
The reality is that with most clubs very few first team players come through. I remember going to a coaching session at the Astro park opposite Ibrox ,must be 30yrs ago. The session was taken by Co Adriaanse who directed Ajax youth system . He said that if they got on average 1.5 players into their first team squad they were doing very well. While we are not doing this at the moment if we get near that it would be fantastic.
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Our 1.5 people should be Patterson and Kennedy this season.
 
jomacbe said:
Do we have too many Youth players on our books?
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Possibly, its hard to gauge though. Our youth players generally play a year or two up so it's more of a test. So sometimes there is a mismatch and you can have 21 year old Barjonas playing with 17 year old's. This for me makes it difficult to say we do or do not have too many youths as the players will generally play two age groups and thus its not as cut and dry as "there is your u18 team and your u21 team". Regardless, we need a great deal of players to make up a squad at each age, not all of these players will make or even be near first team football but they are needed to allow the better ones to flourish. It's a poetic dream some fans have of hoping our u21 team will replace our entire first team etc. You will see the players who have came to the end now being moved on for a fee alas Rudden, Dallas and Atakayi, this is the business model the academy should have been focusing on and now means we haven't lost a great deal of money on youth players.

I've waffled a fair bit haha, I would imagine the recently signed James Graham or young Alex Lowry would now take NYC's place so we do have quite a few players for each position.
 
elfideldo said:
I would like to make a few points here.

To say he hadn't kicked on is a bit harsh, he is still an under 18 player, barely played U18 last year when he was under 17, as he was pushed up to development squad.

Dapo is two years older in football terms than NYC. Dapo not involved pre-season, contract issue ?

There are a number of reasons youth players are unsettled. At an important stage of their career where and when will they play their next game ? U18 & U23 leagues in England will get up and running, it is not certain Scotland's U18 league will happen. And above that age group Rangers are looking at friendlies at best.

Fairness and money is of course also a factor, it would appear that a EPL academy player is valued significantly more than our own academy players.
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So what's the answer Elf ,what can we do to keep these talents because as I hear there are 5/6more coming at Kennedy and Coombes back surely it isn't right for our club to fund them then see them go at the factor end.
 
PerthBear said:
Kennedy should’ve been in France with the first team, I don’t know what’s happened there but Patterson and big Mayo look like they’ve got lots of potential.
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I was delighted to see them involved in France, but our academy player's involvement, McCrorie and Barjonas are no longer academy players, totalled 35 minutes.

The academy has to publicise it and promote themselves, but of the four clubs involved we had the least involvement of academy players.
 
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jomacbe said:
Do we have too many Youth players on our books?
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I think what you have to remember is a number of our academy players will be number fillers. They'll look the part to your average guy like you and me, but in reality the coaches will have no aspirations for them at all. They are there to provide the playing numbers for the real prospects.
 
The Moon on Mars is Blue said:
The reality is that with most clubs very few first team players come through. I remember going to a coaching session at the Astro park opposite Ibrox ,must be 30yrs ago. The session was taken by Co Adriaanse who directed Ajax youth system . He said that if they got on average 1.5 players into their first team squad they were doing very well. While we are not doing this at the moment if we get near that it would be fantastic.
Edit 1.5 players a season was the target
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Ajax have 220 players in their academy, Rangers are allowed to have a maximum of 110.
 
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