A Couple O' Jocks in Paris!

[fearisthekey]

I don't see how playing for your school can be of any benefit to a young players development.

LOL at you who had a go at Fear for taking things out of context.

If you read the full post it is referring to kids who are signed by clubs that don't allow them to play for there schools. Hence my answer, i think they will be developed far better at a football club than by Mr wilson the Geography teacher.

'

That depends on whether Mr Wilson is a protestant or a Catholic, no?

Comments like that don't really help now do they 

but they can't hurt can't they?..really?

lol you're the best, boldie, always give me a chuckle.

Wait til Thomas the Tank engine and the Fat Controller get here, they'll  you.

[BigTomatoes]

I don't see how playing for your school can be of any benefit to a young players development.

LOL at you who had a go at Fear for taking things out of context.

If you read the full post it is referring to kids who are signed by clubs that don't allow them to play for there schools. Hence my answer, i think they will be developed far better at a football club than by Mr wilson the Geography teacher.

 '' i dont see how playing for your school can be of any benefit  to a young players development ''

 hence my reply with some of the benefits , i played for Celtic Boys Club , Celtic Northern Area Boys Club , St Margarets High School and Scotland Y.F.A at age 16 , and believe me i benefitted from playing from my school team. i was simply listing some of the benefits i experienced. my opinion.

 lolwrongendofthestickaments

[johnbhoy76]

I don't see how playing for your school can be of any benefit to a young players development.

LOL at you who had a go at Fear for taking things out of context.

If you read the full post it is referring to kids who are signed by clubs that don't allow them to play for there schools. Hence my answer, i think they will be developed far better at a football club than by Mr wilson the Geography teacher.

 '' i dont see how playing for your school can be of any benefit  to a young players development ''

 hence my reply with some of the benefits , i played for Celtic Boys Club , Celtic Northern Area Boys Club , St Margarets High School and Scotland Y.F.A at age 16 , and believe me i benefitted from playing from my school team. i was simply listing some of the benefits i experienced. my opinion.

 lolwrongendofthestickaments

In what way did you benefit?

How many of your school team went onto become Pro footballers?

Don't you think you're time spent playing with your school team could have been better served by recieving expert advice from qualified coaches?

I mean it is a ridiculous notion that school teachers or janitors etc.. should be in charge of promising footballers and have any say in their development. If you had been good at golf when you were 15 you wouldn't have asked your Maths teacher to coach you would you?

This totally amateur attitude to football has set our game back 30 years and we are only now starting to catch on, mainly thanks to clubs like Hibs and (to a lesser extent so far) Celtic bringing players through.

We are still light years behind countries like Holland, Sweden, Denmark etc... in terms of youth development. I somehow cannot picture Dennis bergkamp having "Mr Bun the baker" as his coach when he was 15

[BigTomatoes]

 then it is an argument of Goverment / Football Association setup and procedure not of individual experience.

 just because you don't agree with the system doesn't mean thousand's of young players don't benefit from playing school football.

 and if you don't make it as a professional footballer it doesn't mean you didn't benefit playing school football.

 i don't see the point in posting an opinion on here , cos some people always have an angle or a hole to pick from.

[Bazzaboy]

Maybe my earlier post wasn't clear.  I was specifically referring to players who had signed with a club, not all school team players.

[johnbhoy76]

 then it is an argument of Goverment / Football Association setup and procedure not of individual experience.

 just because you don't agree with the system doesn't mean thousand's of young players don't benefit from playing school football.

 and if you don't make it as a professional footballer it doesn't mean you didn't benefit playing school football.

 i don't see the point in posting an opinion on here , cos some people always have an angle or a hole to pick from.

Now you're just being silly. You don't see the point in posting an opinion as folk "pick holes" in them.

is that not the main purpose of a forum i.e. to have opinions and have folk agree/disagree with them.

I'm not saying kids in general don't benefit from playing school football. Of course they do. But that wasn't what was up for deabte. The debate was wether kids who are potential first team players for Celtic should be allowed to play on sub standard pitches with incompetent (albeit well meaning) coaches.

What I am saying is that the elite kids i.e. the ones with a chance of becommimg proffesional footballers will benefit more from dealing with qualified coaches. This happens all over the world in all sports why should Scottish football be any different?


Serious question do you think looking back that if you had gone to some sort of football academy when you were 13 or 14 (or even younger) you could have made it as a footballer?

[BigTomatoes]

 i was simply replying to bazza's statement with a question , tbh i didn't read the full previous post , i was just pointing out benefits i had from personal experience playing both with Scotland and Celtic.

 and when i said people pick holes i wasn't talking about you specifically , just seems no matter what your opinion somebody will always disagree and that's fair enough , but picking petty little things to have a dig about gets pretty annoying after a while.

 to answer your question , yes i think i would have had a better chance of making it as a professional if i had gone at that age.

 when i was about 12 i played for All Saints in Coatbridge , i was standing out week in week out playing wide left.

 bags of skill , confidence , scoring goals , playing well but the coaches there were never going to make me a footballer.

 at that time there were scouts watching me , Celtic , Motherwell , Hibs , Nottingham Forest and Airdrie i think were all interested. i was offered a trial to go to Nottingham , before i went i played a match and after the game the referee came to me and said ' how would you like to play for Celtic ? ' of course i literally jumped at the chance and ran into the car park dancing and jumping to tell my Dad Celtic wanted me to play for them.

 i was told Jimmy Johnstone trained us etc this and that , given a tour of Parkhead , given a tracksuit and turned out it was Celtic Northern Area Boys Club. at that time there was no academys , there was also Celtic B.C , Celtic S.A.B.C and a while later came A.F.C. Celtic who were like the first real youth team of Celtic before the ' pro ' youth ' . dont get me wrong , i had many great years , scored in two derbys against Rangers B.C. and eventually signed for Celtic B.C and represented Scotland U '16s in Wales and Inverness , played at Hampden in Scottish cup finals etc etc.

 but i still wonder to this day what would have happened if id gone to Nottingham Forest. they had an academy , it was a few years before i found girls and nightclubs etc etc but i think if i had went to an academy at age 13 / 14 then i would have had a better  chance of being a professional than the way it panned out.

[bhoywonder]

Bump