RicoS321

It doesn't only protect us from relegation. It protects us from relegation and gives us a higher likelihood of playing in Europe. Which we've done, regularly. The fifteen year period you have taken spans two different approaches. Expensive European imports are a recent thing. Prior to that it was a mixture of expensive and inexpensive British imports. We have also increased the expenditure on our youth system as we've increased the spending on foreigners. You've also used Motherwell to make your point, who have probably had a similar return on youth investment to us, and aren't currently littering their team with youth prospects. In short, you seem to be mixing together various arguments to form a solution, or point, which will likely change to mean something closer to what you're actually trying to say (I'm not criticising here). As I mentioned previously, and on various other threads this season and in the past, the balance of our squad is the issue. We should be looking to have a good balance between players with SPFL experience, project players, other experienced players (if we can't get SPFL ones) and youth. Once again, in January, we brought in players without SPFL experience, which exacerbates the imbalance. In my opinion, for youth team players, we need a quota, publicly stated, that both forces the manager's hand, whilst giving him a bit more time and patience from fans (the equivalent of announcing a three year project).

This thread has gone wild. There a few points worth noting. Our goals scored would fair worse than. Motherwell's, because teams come to Pittodrie and sit in when we're good (and to a large extent away too). That doesn't happen to Motherwell as, for whatever reason, teams fancy their chances. We've had many more qualifications for Europe than Motherwell, which is probably a better indicator than league position. Our budget, when we get it right, allows us to blow most of the diddy opposition out of the water. When we get it wrong, it offers no advantage whatsoever, and is generally a hindrance. We don't spend enough money to consistently finish above the rest, it only takes two bad signings to completely nullify the additional spending. We've tried reducing expenditure under Paterson and others, and we saw the return too. Our budget seems to just keep our worst possible place at around tenth, with a ceiling of third. Reducing it could lead to relegation. The Dons seem to have a higher expectation when it comes to player salaries too. It's almost like Motherwell can afford to offer less for players as there is no expectation of a good salary there (Ged Brannan might disagree)! I don't think I'm imagining a premium for coming up here.

Does any club feature strongly for Scotland? Looking at the last u19s for example, half the players are in England and the rest belong to different clubs. Boyd is in it, as our representative in that regard. I can't find much on the u17s, I'm guessing that Masson and Carrol would be involved, with both at one point rumoured to be off down south too. It seems reasonable to say that we should be well represented, but I don't think anyone is, which suggests that young players are moving around a lot more.

Of course there will have been youth players that are better than Ambrose or Yengi, but they can be better than our shitest signings without being good enough still. The thing about youth players is that we know whether they are good enough or not (generally speaking), whereas players we've signed are comparatively unknown. Being better than the shite isn't a reason to play youth players, because they might have deficiencies in physical areas, whilst also being not good enough. I'm not totally sure what the benchmark of a successful youth development would be. One player per season? That would mean that you should have two or three minimum that have come through the youth system in the team. We have Milne and Lobban. Probably one short.

I don't think so. Shankland was better before we signed him. He also had the physique that had a chance of making it. Bavidge would be better compared to Anderson.

Shouldn't have said anything

We seem to be talking about different things. I thought we were speaking about strikers. I don't disagree that we have been poor in our transitioning of youth to first team. Personally, I think the club should go with quotas, and make it public so that fans can't complain when a youngster who possibly isn't up to it is getting minutes.

I was responding in context to Bavidge. When he signed his three year deal with us, Lewis Pirie (the striker with more potential) signed for Leeds. What happens when they go down there and languish on their B team bench, I guess is irrelevant. Again, we're specifically speaking about strikers, and there aren't many who came through the youth teams playing in the SPFL (our very own Bruce Anderson of course). If they show any potential in that position, they get snapped up. Even Wilson at Hearts, which is a strange one. Bowie went to Fulham from Raith. The Huns and Tims have both lost strikers in recent times. A bit like goalkeepers, it's a difficult position to break through in.

They're pretty thin on the ground in this country. Any young striker showing enough promise will now likely get snapped up down south. Pirie for example.

No surprise really. Never looked like he had the attributes to make it in the premier. Hopefully he'll go on to make a decent try of it elsewhere, as he seemed to have a decent attitude.

Fairly straightforward win for them to be honest. We looked a bit like a team of new players. Not many positive points for us. Would need to see more of the midfield two to judge, but neither looked better than those let go today. I think the shape is problematic, and has been consistently under Leven. It's a lopsided 4-2-3-1, where the right hand side is very narrow and the winger (Olusanya or Bilalovic) is told to drift inside, even off the ball. It leaves us completely exposed, whether it's Jensen, Devlin or Lobban. I don't think it's particularly necessary either. Not sure about that back two. Need's must I guess, but it doesn't look good.

We've got a lot of very stupid players, who seem to have zero game sense at all, constantly giving away stupid free kicks or getting drawn in unnecessarily (see that goal just now). Lazetic has been the stupidest today though.

Geiger knackered? Probably shouldn't have been playing ninety. He didn't look like he had it in him.

Saving the proper subs for Wednesday?

Nisbet been good today, although he should probably steer clear of the defending. Midfield looks okay, although I think Geiger can do more going back the way. He doesn't seem to have the workrate of Aouchiche so far. Cameron been okay, as has Keskinen, but nothing brilliant from either of them. Jensen fine, Frame struggling defensively. McIntyre looks good positionally, but looks very slow on the turn, which could be a big issue. Not sure about Morrison at all. The right side is an issue. I'm not going to blame Olusanya entirely for that though. When we've played Bilalovic recently, the problems have been exactly the same. I was blaming Bilalovic for not tracking his man and being very narrow, but perhaps it's actually a tactic. It means giving one of their best players, Longelo, complete freedom to drive forward, which I think is a mistake. The up-side to this approach is that we should be able to exploit the area left behind to get Olusanya driving at pace. Unfortunately his touch is fucking awful, and there are greater problems than his lack of marking! I'd hook him at halftime. I thought Milanovic did well tracking back the other week and might be worth just chucking in. He's pish in attack of course, but as long as he remains disciplined, it'd be an improvement. Which is not a compliment.

Agreed. I just wonder if doing it from the start might mean us missing out on the chance to bring him on and do it later when others are knackered. The classic Morris issue!

He wasn't particularly good at that with St Mirren, his best work was balls over the top and harassing defenders, so hopefully we've spent two weeks training him to cut the ball back. The biggest problem will be his lack of defensive abilities. Not convinced he has the temperament to track his man.

Oops. Chubby fingers. 4-2-3-1.

Fairly straightforward 4-2-3-2 I'm guessing. Be interesting to see how the two new midfielders get on. I suspect the defence might be a touch weak, but nothing new there. Not convinced that Olusanya is a wide player, but not many other options.

New goalie starts. Wild.

Aye, investment basically. It's also not really a London thing.

Surely his loon's loon?

Fuck off

Why, has Dave MacPherson died?