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The Airdrieonians Off Season Thread 2015


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The point I'm trying to make about the youth is ,how do you know what they can do if you don't give them a chance

It's a no-win, play youth (give them the chance) and lose games then the fans will be on Bollan's back and telling him to play experience. Play experience and lose games, the fans will get on Bollan's back and say we need to give youth a chance.

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Personally don't give a f**k if Bollan gives youth a chance or not. If he builds a winning and successful team, which I have faith he will, then I don't care what age they are or where they came from.

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The point I'm trying to make about the youth is ,how do you know what they can do if you don't give them a chance

By that logic he should give every player in the Under 20's squad a run in the team next season, after all, how else would we know they aren't good enough?

Or perhaps, like for every other player, he sees them in training, he sees them in Under 20s games and sees them in bounce matches and makes an opinion on whether they are capable of playing in the first team.

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He's doing alright? We finished 5th in league one against a shower of shite, with loan players from Motherwell ,Partick,Rangers,and Dundee Utd we never brought one youth player through the system this year so if that's what you think is alright for Airdrie then your easily pleased

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He's doing alright? We finished 5th in league one against a shower of shite, with loan players from Motherwell ,Partick,Rangers,and Dundee Utd we never brought one youth player through the system this year so if that's what you think is alright for Airdrie then your easily pleased

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He's doing alright? We finished 5th in league one against a shower of shite, with loan players from Motherwell ,Partick,Rangers,and Dundee Utd we never brought one youth player through the system this year so if that's what you think is alright for Airdrie then your easily pleased

He finished above a full-time (albeit shitfest) Dunfermline side and missed out on the play-offs by a matter of points after having the club record worst start in its history and not being able to compile the team he wanted becuase of a lack of budget.

He's done very well in my book.

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While the club is obviously not where we would want it to be, Bollan has done an excellent job as manager and appears to be getting a decent squad together for the coming season. While it's far too early to say, I have no reason to doubt he will continue to do well and can hopefully get us challenging for promotion.

The idea that he is some sort of failure because he hasn't brought through any youth players is frankly nonsense. With the exception of Andy Duncan (who it turned out wasn't very good) and Kyle Richford, I can't think of any U20s player who has deserved a run in the team or a chance of filling in due to injuries or suspensions. Hell he's given Scott Stewart much more of a chance than he merits.

Which U20s player would have been better than any of our starting XI last season?

And look how well our last manager who regularly played youth players in the first team did...

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Our last manager kept our club going this year,with the money the club brought in from the sale of youth players plus the add ons from the sale of Tony Watt, Jimmy had nowhere near the budget Bollan had last year

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Our last manager kept our club going this year,with the money the club brought in from the sale of youth players plus the add ons from the sale of Tony Watt, Jimmy had nowhere near the budget Bollan had last year

One big sale maketh not a good manager. Jimmy was a youth coach, not a manager and his remit was to use youth. Can't compare Boyle and Bollan.

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Time will tell,but I would bet other than O'neil no one will play any part next season other than maybe keep the bench warm

It's no as simple as chucking them in like you're making it out to be. We will see if you're still greeting about this if the players brought in instead of youth do us a turn and have us challenging at the right end of the table!
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Do we not have 7 under 20's signed up already? McCue, Richford, Stewart, Ferguson, O'neil, Wilson, and Cadden. Not being funny but is that not enough to satisfy the youth element?

You would have thought so. Especially given O'Neil is a regular starter and more than good enough to be playing in the first team every week. Again the theory that Bollan doesn't use youth players or he should use them more being disproved.

Can I ask Airdrieman how many 20s games he's actually seen, and how he can say that none of them deserve a run in the team

None - and even if I had the skill level is not comparable with first team football. And given our excellent run in the second half of the two seasons Bollan has been in charge and the fact that, apart from the aforementioned players, none of the U20s players were anywhere near the first team at the start of the year (suggesting that they weren't good enough to improve our position) I think Bollan is justified in his use of youth players.

I didn't say none of them deserved a run - Andy Duncan, Richford and arguably Ferguson all deserved a run. O'Neil is IMO one of our best players. I wasn't at the last game of the season but heard good things about McCue - Bollan seems to rate him too and perhaps he will be a handy player for us.

But the idea that Bollan should be criticised for not using youth players is rubbish - his job is to win games and select the best players at his disposal to do so. If an U20s player is one of them (O'Neil) then he will pick him. If he's not, then he won't.

Still want to know which U20s players were better than our starting XI last season.

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Quite a few managers get stick for not playing youth players, I remember Brian Reid particularly getting stick for this. I always find it a really weird criticism, why on earth would a manager be against certain players just because they are young? Their job and reputation is on the line, if they thought any of the youth players would add to the team they'd be playing, plus there's the added value of being seen by others to be a manager who brings through young players.

The one argument against this would be that there might be an initial period where the player might need to find his feet before he comes good, and that the manager isn't willing to put up with this. This may be true but if you are only giving a manager a year long, or 18 month long contract, then you can't complain about him not planning further ahead than that. Why would a manager take a short term hit for a long term benefit which he probably isn't even going to see? That's part of the problem of employing managers on a short term basis, unless the youth player is exceptional and can come in and make an immediate difference then they aren't going to be 'given a chance' because a few bad results and they will be out of a job.

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Our last manager kept our club going this year,with the money the club brought in from the sale of youth players plus the add ons from the sale of Tony Watt, Jimmy had nowhere near the budget Bollan had last year

Jimmy Boyle would have had us in the 2nd division.
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