Educating for on field dominance

An interesting opening to my Web Summit this morning.

“Inside Benfica: The standard setter in talent development”.

Pedro Marques is the man who is running the Benfica academy and he seems to be delivering success.

So far this season NINE academy graduates have had first-team minutes.

The Lisbon side is going for their 38th national title so these kids are obviously making a contribution at the highest level in Portugal.

This discussion made me think of my own side, who has a passing association with this city, about how academy players can be crucial.

Although the term is a marketing creation James Forrest IS a homegrown hero.

Players like McGeady and Tierney have earned many millions of pounds for Celtic.

There are also the players that are sourced as young professionals before anyone else knew what they could become.

Van Dijk, Wanyama and Moussa Dembélé.

Of course, Celtic has another Dembélé who could earn the same title as Jamesy.

Wee Karamoko is ripping it up too.

Look across the city and Celtic’s seven-year-old rivals are not doing so well in this regard.

The recent fine imposed on Sevco regarding the kid Billy Gilmour simply comes down to the fact that the basket of assets were desperate for lights on money at the moment.

Consequently, they let a genuine quality player go for just £500k.

I suppose it is difficult to do any long-term planning when your..ahem…holding company vehicle is synonymous with going concern warnings.

If any sports journalists arrived in the West of Scotland, apart from looking at the two stadiums, I think that the academies would show that Celtic are without equal on Planet Fitba.

Now I have to go and listen to a guy called Ronaldinho…

 

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9 thoughts on “Educating for on field dominance”

  1. It worries me that young Dembele has decided that his international future lies with England. He’s possibly being quietly persuaded by “advisors” that his career lies down there as well.

    Remember what happened with young Feruz. I don’t even know if he’s still playing. A terrific young talent given appallingly bad advice by people who knew nothing of football but saw a fast buck to be made from him.

    Reply

    • Can you blame him? The Scotland team is going nowhere fast, young Dembele knows his only attempt at an England cap is proving himself at somewhere like Celtic- he won’t go too quickly, I would give him another 2- 3 seasons here, and if he proves himself THEN he will be shopped around….gives Celtic time to type up a decent sell on fee on his next contract- it’s all good.

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  2. They can’t keep hold of their youngsters as they see i or should that be the CHISLER sees pound signs in them and panics and punts them . It’s the same with Kamara a 50 grand purchase the y want 10 million quid for him but a team will offer 250 grand for him and he is gone . KERCHING .

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  4. Development Squads can be a costly upkeep but if a club isn’t prepared to invest in the future then they’ll reap what they sow. Even some of the smaller clubs in the country get it and that’s why they are still afloat and not scrabbling down the back of the sofa or resorting to pay-day loans to survive. The financially doped club on the sooside would do well to try it instead of attempting to buy the Scottish League in a very, very risky gamble. HH

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    • Ah but they don’t have a registration genius in place unlike the SFA.
      A registration genius who should have been shipped out along with that despot Farry but miraculously he stayed in situ and Farry took the hit.
      An imperfect solution if ever there was one!
      I’ve ofter wondered where in the SFA rule book the term ‘imperfect’ appears before Bryson deemed it appropriate?
      Yet another question that those in the Hampden bunker won’t go near.

      Reply

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