Unfiltered brings together the biggest names in Scottish football to debate the biggest topics. Episode 3 sees former Scotland managers Gordon Strachan and Craig Levein with Warm-Up regular Kris Boyd to answer: What can be done to promote more young Scottish players?
Gordon Strachan tells us about his experiences as a young player, and his obsessive pursuit of knowledge about youth development across Europe. Craig Levein explains at length about how “making players better” drove him as a manager, and the pleasure he took out of introducing young players, while Kris Boyd asks the questions about ‘elite’ youth set-ups.
*This episode was recorded in November 2024*
00:00 – Introductions
00:20 – What can be done to promote more young Scottish players?
01:00 – How do we learn that good players are good enough?
02:35 – Strachan remembers a bust up with twin brothers
04:00 – Does the risk of relegation prevent managers bleeding young players?
05:32 – Do young players travel too much?
11:27 – Should there be more first team opportunities for young players?
16:20 – What’s the step up to first team football like?
19:09 – Would a bigger league help develop young players?
23:25 – Does the Scotland team need a world class player?
27:40 – How do we produce a world class striker?
30:00 – It used to be easier to qualify for tournaments
32:50 – Buying experienced v playing young players
35:40 – Outros
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25 Comments
What do you think can be done to promote and develop more young Scottish players? Share your ideas below! 👇
I think Celtic and Rangers should join a European league with 2 tiers and an opportunity for the team that wins their national league to be promoted into the second tier of the European league. This would give teams time to develop in there national league within an equal playing field financially with the prospect of going into a league within larger financial gains.
Good debate but Jesus Christ man, stop talking over each other.
Also the argument with 'if you're good enough, you'll play' isn't really true.
Loads of kids at Celtic and rangers don't get a sniff, they can't all be shite, especially when some of them go away and make it elsewhere.
Tierney got into Celtic by accident almost. Celtic let Robertson and Hickey go. So it isn't always it you're good enough. If Scotland had Yamal, they wouldn't play him, Strachan would have played James Morrison or Anya ahead of him.
The problem is the transition from youth to adult. That means the managers and clubs have to take responsibility for it end of.
Great topic. But geez, they have got to stop talking over each other. It’s utterly excruciating at times.
When a was young yi were doon the park every day playing against older lads every night ,,NOWADAYS there's no bairns playing fitba doon the park due tae PlayStation s Xbox s etc n when a young lad or 2 do come along coaches knock there confidence and also totally agree wi Strachan kids diny want tae travel at a young age fi where they stay to to a 4 hour journey needs to change get the talented young lads n let them play we don't even produce wingers anymore likes of cooper n jinky
Strachan would give paracetamol a headache
Great to listen to three ex players of the game talk sense. We're a small country and the game needs to change. Two big leagues, bring back the reserve league and restructure into localised regional leagues below that. Instead of the stagnant stale football we have today.
Kris Boyd – Players have mortgages to pay 🤣🤣🤣 Earning what most people earn in a year, every month or so.
The league need 15/18 at minimum I think. We should make all the leagues bigger champ n league 1 and 2 and put more teams from highland and central in and then teams can take their place in their respective leagues
20 mins in Craig says he bought a player for £30k , then corrected saying the chairman actually bought out of own pocket (ie not the club/off the club books) is that even legal?? Perhaps this was before FFP etc an was back then…. With 115 ffp charges Man City have some of which is to do with off book payments etc… sounds dodgy
I got a job with Dundee’s Academy coaching the 3 youngest teams and i was there 2 weeks before i quit. For that 2 weeks the academy director who was so self centred didn’t ever speak about coaching, he only cared about how he was close to poaching a player from St Johnstones academy.
The standard of coaching was abysmal compared to what i’d seen from my previous 10 years at grassroots level. The grassroots coaches who actually care are the ones who should be in these roles not ex players or people only out for themselves.
Dundee have the players going to Newcastle for such small length games. When i was there they were organising a trip for the following week where game time was no more than 60mins. But 8 hours travel. This is happening in the club that Strachan works at, he’s apart of his own problem.
I think i’m a decent coach, the amount of players Dundee have poached from my grassroots teams would suggest that, but i could never justify to my family going 8 hours for an hour of football so i won’t coach within an academy and therefore can’t help develop the players once they’ve been poached at 7 years old. There are countless other coaches i feel would be brilliant with that higher standard of player, but don’t have access to them because of the difficulty in getting into an academy and the poor standard of people already in the academy.
If the best coaches can’t get access to the best players then it’s not a surprise to anyone that players can’t get a game in the top league.
That was a hard listen boyd an Strachan shouting over each other
There should be a new rule forced by the Scottish hierarchy, that every team has to play 3 or 2 players under 21,, the rule applys to all the teams, so its an level playing field, they play there best youngsters against each other, its not rocket science, get them playing somehow, whats the point in the academies if we dont play them ⚽️
As an English fan it infuriates me how small the Scottish leagues are. Why can’t you just have two main leagues with 20 teams in them?
Unfortunately 8 teams may suffer but your pyramid will have longer term benefits.
12 team leagues simply don’t work. You need more variety.
Where's Sam???
I think a bigger league would help but will never happen
I think Strachans just really passionate and talks loads of sense but give someone else a go eh.
Scottish football is stuck in the past, these old men talking about themselves, today the coaches are these idiots , they have no answers , and by the way useless coaches, there still 442 Levine gets it, bigger league ,more competitive Strachan the worst , he's a problem, Scotts listen to him
The problem we have in Scotland is the Celtic and Rangers dominance. The only way to improve Scotland's youth is for ALL the Scottish teams to improve. A wage cap would be a good start.
Negative attitudes like strachans will get you nowhere at least Levein had a more positive outlook to his negative attitude as manager Scotland never really had better players back in those days stop berating the current players
So if boys shouldn’t travel ayr to Inverness, what are the boys from Inverness supposed to do for a match then ?
Started well. How to get young players more game time etc. it then descended into the usual nonsense of ‘just need one or two world class players’ and better coaches will solve all the problems
I don’t buy Strachan’s “we’re too small” nonsense. He said himself that Spain is similarly afflicted, but they overcame that didn’t they, by developing a style of play that minimized their disadvantages and maximized their innate advantages, skill and quickness. And they did it with a domestic league slanted towards only two mega clubs. Sorry, this is not the first time Mr. Strachan has trotted out that excuse. It’s doubly strange especially considering that at 5’6” Gordon himself is not a big man, and I doubt if the national side had a half dozen Gordon Strachans it would be just as competitive as with bigger men.
Er…”don’t” doubt. 😊