Youth development is becoming a key component in football these days especially when clubs are working on tight budgets. ROSS PATERSON, coach of the Reserves and Head of Youth Development at St Mirren, spoke to Gianluca Lia about the youth structure at the Scottish club…

Globalisation has had a huge impact on football in recent years. Associations across the world have started to allow an influx of players to find employment in their leagues, whether it is in the top-tier or lower divisions.

Countries with a traditional and historic involvement in football such as England, Italy, Germany and Spain are embarking on innovative projects to exploit worldwide markets and make their product more engaging.

Automatically such manoeuvres give more weight to the clubs’ achievements and therefore, one may feel that in modern football, the pressure on the teams to achieve as much success as possible is felt more because extra silverware can mean additional funds.

In this scenario, players and coaches feel more responsibility on their shoulders as clubs demand immediate success, which leaves no time for experimentation.

This forces the clubs to spend heavily on ready-made talent that can satisfy their demands, even if it means projecting for just a short period of time.

Whether or not success comes, the youth systems are the ones that suffer.

Young players at big clubs are struggling to break through into the senior side before they are forced out to often less established clubs, even in lower categories.

Having said that, smaller clubs might find an upside to this situation.

While their financial and technical discrepancy with elite clubs can see a rapid increase, these teams have the possibility to bring in players who are on the fringe at bigger clubs and nurture their talent.

One club who is following this philosophy is St Mirren.

The Buddies are playing in the Scottish Premier, however, they are running their youth system with utmost professionalism to make it more competitive every season.

In the Scottish Premier League, there are no restrictions on the number of foreigners one can field. However, budgets have become more tight thus most of the investment is going into the academies, including St Mirren, to inject a blend of competitive youth players on which they can bank.

Through the Erasmus programme and aided by a good relationship with Maltese club St Andrews, the Reserve team of St Mirren are holding a short training camp here where the coaching staff had the opportunity to take a closer look at the players that form the squad.

Ross Paterson is overseeing the holistic outcome of the young players and admits that he is excited to see how this group develops because there are some good prospects.

“There are 22 players in the team that came over to Malta,” Paterson told Times of Malta.

“Sixteen of them are already on a full-time basis with us and are looking to sign a professional deal with our club in the near future.

“The rest of the players are members of the U-18's who are seeking to impress  to put pen to paper on an U-20/Reserves deal which sees them claim professional status.”

Paterson went on to explain that players in the U-18's or lower categories are considered amateurs who combine football sessions with school.

“Those who still go to school, usually have training sessions three times a week at night which include an overall six hours of football training and three hours of physical development, sports science and strength and conditioning,” he said.

“Unfortunately, not every player makes the cut from the U-18's to the U-20's because at that point, we are also looking at players who become available from other clubs thanks to our recruitment sector.”

Speaking about the club’s ideology in youth football, Paterson underlined the importance of patience and development.

“Youth football is about development, which eventually brings out competitiveness out of every member,” he said.

“By competitiveness we mean nurturing our players to maximise their potential and play the game the way we want it.

“The winning mentality does not come from winning at all costs, but from creating the right conditions on the field of play to make sure you are performing the way it is required.”

This methodology has driven the club to give a taste of senior football to some of their upcoming talents in the age group sides.

In fact, the squad which is in Malta includes two players who already made their senior debut in Sam Jamieson (vs Hibernian, on Match Day 7) and Cameron Breadner (vs Aberdeen, on Matchday 18).

Scott Glover and David Wilson have been part of the game squad during the 2018/2019 campaign as well.

Forming part of the staff is Reserves’ coach and Head of Professional Game Andrew Webster, who boasts a decent experience in British football while also having been capped by the Scottish national team, Craig McLeish who runs the Junior Academy, and Monica Carlin in the role of physio.

Throughout their stay on our shores, the coaches and the players kept themselves busy with visits to domestic games, meetings with local coaches and also a number of friendlies including a couple of sparring games against the Malta U-17’s and U-19’s selections, and St Andrews.

The emergence of technology has changed the way scouts observe players. Statistics have become more important and most of the clubs, including St Mirren, rely heavily on them.

“We use statistics as part of our recruitment network,” Paterson explained.

“We check players from grassroots level, both those who are unattached and from other clubs.

“Due diligence is very important when we want to acquire the services of a player.”

The process that the Saints use to bring in new players does not differ much from those of the top clubs, underlining the commitment and professionalism that this team shows.

“We speak constantly with our contacts and often, we send scouts to watch various players in action,” he said.

“The scouts would usually take with them a file where they have to compile a profile of the player with the following credentials – physical, tactical, technical and physiological aspects. 

“Afterwards, we have a scoring system and also a traffic lights code to judge these players before we take a final decision.”

Youth categories

The 120 players who form the St Mirren’s youth categories are spread between the Junior Academy and the Reserve league.

“The youth league system in Scotland sees our Reserve side play in the SPFL Reserve League alongside the likes of Celtic, Rangers and Hearts and we are also involved in youth cup,” Paterson explained.

“Leagues with points at stake go down until U-16’s – after that, there are only development or non-competitive games.

“Importantly, 11-aside football is ‘implemented from the U-13’s category. On the other hand, the U-11’s and U-12’s play eight- or nine-aside games with some five-a-sides as well to improve the basics of their football skills.”

Unlike Celtic or Rangers, St Mirren’s progress might not be under much scrutiny.

However, they are keen to reap the fruits of their hard work and become a far more competitive club overall in the coming future.

The tradition and culture at clubs like Celtic and Rangers might hinder the development of their own youth players which on the other side, might favour players from clubs like St Mirren to develop without any additional pressure on their shoulders and can be recruited from the top clubs at senior level.