LongTimeLurker

Incoherent bile rather than reasoned debate about the colt teams concept is clearly the order of the day now from people that don't seem to be able to grasp that it isn't just the OF that wants these teams. There's even a childish red dot from the Excelsior fan for doing no more than posting factual information. Truly pathetic school playground level stuff. Over and out for now.

^^^This is what Scotland has sunk to nowadays. Not exactly "Athens of the North" level discourse.

Again we get this fixation with the OF when the one that is most likely to actually happen is ICT in the Highland League's portion of the pyramid that will be emerging over the next season or two as tier 6 feeders get added. Worth noting also that Hibs had a colt team in the EoS in the not too distant past without the sky caving in on football as we have known it. That was probably not a high enough level pre-junior influx to be viewed as worthwhile from their standpoint, so it didn't last long. The LL portion of the pyramid currently allows second teams for PGB board level clubs in both the EoS and SoS but not at tier 5 in the LL. WoS didn't allow reserve or colt team type applications for year one by all accounts, but it remains to be seen what happens in future seasons once they have their own officeholders.

It's not a myth. Scotland hasn't qualified for a major tournament since 1998. There is a problem with our player development system that needs to be fixed.

The first application was well after the stated deadline. After that got knocked back, they soon put in another for 2021-22. There is speculation that if/when Bo'ness United get their entry level license and promotion to the LL, Livingston United will be voted in at the EoS AGM to fill the gap that opens up in the tier 7 conferences.

If 14-14-18 had been approved that would not have been the case. If colt teams improved player development sufficiently that the national team starts qualifying for major tournaments again, lower tier clubs would benefit from enhanced annual payments from the SFA.

...which in practical terms probably has the same effect.

Whisky tango foxtrot?

Doubt there is a uniform opinion on that. For some clubs a midweek game in Dundee is no problem at all, but for others it's a bit of a nightmare in travel terms. There is pressure building for the Club 42 boundary to be shifted north of Brechin, so it's the LL that might be more pivotal on this issue as that would place Tayside firmly in EoS territory unless all the parties involved were willing to sign off on a fourth tier 6 feeder.

How you made that inference is beyond me but whatever floats your boat.

^^^For anyone who sees things the JPL way, it's best to go on Fitba North to get the north of Stonehaven perspective. They tend to view what gets posted on P&B about the pyramid as comically misinformed and the Tayside angle never rates a mention except to laugh at clueless P&B posters from the central belt. The narrative in P&J country only revolves around the north region juniors and NCL as HL feeders and the HL will need to sign off on any changes in tier 6 feeder terms. Until recently the pyramid used to be largely ignored in HL circles but as with the west juniors there has been a sea change in attitudes. Having Brora publicly campaigning for SPFL entry would have been unthinkable a few years back.

Something to ponder is that the silent majority on the internet that never post and only read is who often really matter more than what the core obsessives think.

I'll reply to whoever I choose to on here and feel no need whatsoever to justify it to you or anybody else. I hope you realise that all you did with the rest of your post is provide an expanded version of the reply you had quoted?

Still prattling on based on his absurd initial misreading of the context of my post even after it has been clarified for his benefit. No point pursuing this any further.

A fairer reading of what's happening is that radical change was needed and having an integrated player pathway from the local youth setup into a WoS first team looks like the logical way to go about that. Many of these U20 teams appear to be rebranded existing setups rather than completely new teams as you are suggesting.

Unbelievable how words get twisted on here sometimes. The idea that I was suggesting what U-20 gets up to doesn't matter beyond the very narrow context of where home games get played is patently absurd. Sickening and beneath contempt what some people will stoop to.

There is no sign that the HL wants a Tayside feeder. They only ever mention the north region and NCL on that. Luncarty has set the precedent that the Tay bridge boundary isn't relevant for EoS entry. All Tayside clubs could apply to the EoS and have the membership decide whether they get in just as West Lothian clubs can.

^^^small minded trolling. What a U-20 development league gets up to does not matter because there is no expectation of a regular home support showing up beyond friends and family of the players. One of the positive developments in the west is that the unexpectedly large number of new entries from the WoS is happening because youth clubs are hooking up with junior teams to form player pathways as Edinburgh South could easily have done with a club like Dalkeith Thistle or Whitehill Welfare, if that's all that's on their agenda. If they have bigger ambitions than being a youth club feeding into senior football then they should have a viable plan for going about getting an enclosed home ground in their home area, so they can function properly as a senior club.

The reason there is no previous coronavirus vaccine is that unlike COVID-19 they tend to rapidly mutate, so you appear to have missed my point. There are rational reasons for optimism that a COVID-19 vaccine can be developed. Beyond that we should be feeling relieved that COVID-19 is nothing like as bad as the H1N1 flu of 1918 in terms of mortality rates. One of my grandfathers lost both his grandfathers in the space of a month to that. Respiratory infections like the flu could be very bad news for coal miners in later life in that era.

Good to see some of the clubs that were least enthused about the WoS taking advantage of the benefits of this setup.

Meanwhile as I have pointed out the club that is closest to actually getting a PGB league to accept a colt team is Inverness Caledonian Thistle precisely because there aren't huge numbers of people in Scottish society that have a visceral level hatred of them so the issues involved can be dealt with rationally. It would be better if Rangers took a back seat on this issue as there is zero chance of lower tier SPFL clubs ignoring the FTOF backlash they generate when they propose something like this. In reality it is not just the OF that would like to have colt teams operating at PGB level. The merits of the proposal from a player development standpoint need to be examined carefully for the overall health of the Scottish game because there is a widespread belief that the full time clubs' U-20 setups aren't working as intended, that reserve team games don't provide enough of a competitive edge, and that loaning young players out to be coached by another club is not ideal. A big part of the attraction of licensing for smaller pyramid clubs beyond the possibility of PGB league entry is the annual subsidy money they can expect to receive that is attracted into the SFA primarily by the fully professional level of the game and by the popularity of a tiny handful of clubs that generate most of the armchair fan and spectator interest in the game. Putting up with a few colt teams operating independently from the mother ship at entry level licensing standards doesn't seem to me to be an unreasonable request when that financial largesse is being provided and clubs like Irvine Meadow, East Kilbride, Auchinleck Talbot and BSC Glasgow have been regularly hitting the jackpot financially with Scottish Cup runs.

It was OK to have a bunch of French kids paying to play in our tier 5 through the weird Edusport setup and to still have Uni teams on board at that level with zero supporters but naw we cannae have colt teams that would help our best future fully pro level prospects develop because that would really mess things up in credibility terms.

^^^farcical stuff given I was posting about the Highland League's posture rather than the Lowland League's and used an Evening Express article from 5 days ago to back up what I was stating.

Now you are making stuff up. They left the door open to the possibility and this was the latest in the Evening Express: https://www.eveningexpress.co.uk/fp/sport/football/highland-league/secretary-open-to-b-teams/

That's far from being universally accepted on here, so I disagree with that assessment. I can accept the argument that something that is nothing more than a reserve team belongs nowhere near the lower tiers of the pyramid. However, if Edusport was OK for licensing and tier 5, having any fully professional club being able to set up a new free standing satellite club for long term player development with its own ground and subject to the same rules on transfers and loans as any other club in their division is not something to dismiss out of hand simply because a lot of people in Scottish society nowadays pure hate the Raingurs and the mere sight of a Union Flag. You get certain social misfits on here that will wander from thread to thread trolling certain posters that they have pigeonholed as being the enemy over brain dead flag waving identity politics. It would be nice to think that club representatives at SPFL meetings are above that sort of thing but in the age of the internet pressure can be brought to bear forcing clubs to take irrational postures in that context as well. Kelty and Brora's shot at SPFL entry next season will probably be over tomorrow because the logical 14-10-10-10 solution on how to deal with the fallout from the pandemic won't suit small minded bitter fans that are desperate to see Hearts relegated or ICT stay in the Championship etc and certain clubs will have to cave into pressure on that.