Youth Development Update
As previously communicated, the club have been conducting a strategic review of our youth development set up with the aim of creating a sustainable and successful elite player pathway for the future to support the 1st team.
There are issues with the current set up. It is:
- Not producing players capable of playing for the 1st team in sufficient numbers
- Not financially sustainable
- Not focused enough on elite performance
From next season, we will be moving from 3 age-group teams of 57 players to a youth development squad of 24 players. We will have a team in the Lowland Development League with an additional games programme for younger players, including in the Scottish Youth Cup and against academy sides. We are creating a player pathway from the Junior Academy through the introduction of performance groups and we will also have multiple other pathways into our youth development squad, including for local recruitment, something which is lacking in the current set up. We will have a framework to develop our coaches as well as our players and we will introduce improved sports science monitoring and evaluation. We will create a performance culture aimed at giving elite players the best chance to develop.
This new youth development set up will:
- Be a much more focused, professional and manageable set up
- Be aimed solely at elite performance and the development of our young players
- Allow better player review and monitoring, with individual development plans
- Provide greater competition and challenge for talented players
- Create a stronger link up with the Junior Academy
- Give exposure to the 1st team environment for more players and at a younger age
- Be financially sustainable
We believe this new set up will meet our objective of creating a sustainable and much-improved elite player pathway to support the 1st team into the future and I am excited to see what this future holds.
On behalf of the board, I’d like to thank Tony McMinn, Interim Head of Youth Development and Andy Kennedy, Football Operations Support, for leading this strategic review.
Alasdair Dunn
Chairman
Stirling Albion Football Club
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