The youth system

[2,562]

He’s got 7 assists and 2 goals in 19 appearances.

For a squad that is absolutely shocking I don’t think that’s bad at all.  Pretty sure he’s got the most assists in our team as well.  Young guy not putting in 10/10 performances every single week will never be good enough for fans though.

He’s playing pub football mate.

[564]

He’ll go to a better team than hearts and we’ll get no cash.

That’s a failure again on our part.  Don’t think he is shite tbh, another one of these players who we’ll write off because we can’t get the best out of him and they’ll go on to have a decent enough career at another team where they know how to play football.

Depends how you define better team tbf. He’ll probably end up at a side who are currently better than us (that could be a highland league side lol) but I don’t see him going to a bigger club than Hearts, definitely not as his next move anyway.

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He’ll go to a better team than hearts and we’ll get no cash.

That’s a failure again on our part.  Don’t think he is shite tbh, another one of these players who we’ll write off because we can’t get the best out of him and they’ll go on to have a decent enough career at another team where they know how to play football.

I can't think of one single youth player we've let go who's gone on to properly prove us wrong.

[1,087]

Arguably Scotty Rab.

Then again, many hearts fans including paolo Sergio rated him as a decent player.

[1,431]

I was thinking of him and he was why I said 'properly prove us wrong'. He's had a decent career, in fairness, but if the best example of us letting a player go and him going on to have a career is him being okay for Livi then we've probably not done too badly.

It's easy to just feel blanket rage at times like this, but for the most part we've not been regularly letting players go who came back to bite us (possible exception for guys we've let go earlier on, e.g. Cummings). Although again, that's arguably an indictment of the youth system in itself - we bring through guys who are okay for Falkirk.

[564]

Arguably Scotty Rab.

Then again, many hearts fans including paolo Sergio rated him as a decent player.

Dropping down the leagues seemed to be the making of him tbf. Might not have got to the level he’s at now if he hadn’t gone to be the main man  at East Fife (?) and Livi before they came up.

Edit: again this could be an indictment that we have no idea how to bring talented youngsters into the first team properly I suppose.

[1,087]

Cummings is a good shout aye. Keeping dross and letting go Cummings because he got an injury and deciding we couldnt be fucked rehabilitating him. Hibs snapped him up immediately and he was in their team less than a year later.

[25]

I don't really rate Josh Doig from what I've seen of him but it seems like he'll be another one who has a decent career after leaving. Liam Smith and Liam Gordon could probably count too but that's only because we're so shite rather than them being that good.

[917]

Doig is one that looks like we made a huge mistake with in hindsight as well.

Are Henderson and Irving the only youth products (not including returning vets like Gordon, Walker, etc) that have had meaningful game time? I dont rate Henderson or Moore that highly, but I don't see why we felt the need to spend money on players like Frear or pointless loans like Gashtaneer instead of them. 

I also think Cochrane and MacDonald would have thrived in this league.

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josh_Doig

This guy might eventually, not sure if he counts as "our youth system" though as he left us at 16

[564]

returning vets like Gordon, Walker, etc

PTSD would explain Walker’s form since he came back tbf.

[1,087]

I don't really rate Josh Doig from what I've seen of him but it seems like he'll be another one who has a decent career after leaving. Liam Smith and Liam Gordon could probably count too but that's only because we're so shite rather than them being that good.

We're good at replacing competent full backs on pennies and bringing in shambles full backs. Neilson has a cheek like.

I wasn't even a fan of Godinho but they played him all season and then binned him with a paragraph statement on the website. Same with McHattie and Liam Smith. Strange times.

[422]

Liam Gordon seems to have done alright for himself at St Johnstone.

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We had McFadden as a youth, but papped him out after a trip to Ireland. He was a nutcase of a laddie though.

[1,628]

We’re not letting Irving go though, we want to keep him and are going to lose him to another club for pennies.

Did the same not happen with funk where he went for pretty much nout but he made sure we got a sell on fee? We let these contracts run down and puts us in a difficult situation where we should be getting money for in demand players from our system.

I know he didn’t come through their academy but look at hibs with Kevin nisbet. They’ve identified he’s a talent, gave him a 5 year deal and then are in the position to turn down a 3m bid. I’m not saying Irving is worth that but if he’s got other options outside hearts then he’s worth something to someone.

[503]

We’re not letting Irving go though, we want to keep him and are going to lose him to another club for pennies.

Did the same not happen with funk where he went for pretty much nout but he made sure we got a sell on fee?  We let these contracts run down and puts us in a difficult situation where we should be getting money for in demand players from our system.

I know he didn’t come through their academy but look at hibs with Kevin nisbet.  They’ve identified he’s a talent, gave him a 5 year deal and then are in the position to turn down a 3m bid.  I’m not saying Irving is worth that but if he’s got other options outside hearts then he’s worth something to someone.

We did the 5 year contract with our youngsters too though and ended up tied to Clum and Jamie Mole

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Jamie Mole

[1,628]

We did the 5 year contract with our youngsters too though and ended up tied to Clum and Jamie Mole

I’m not saying the answer is to dish out 5 year deals to every single youth player but how much would players like clum and Jamie mole realistically costed us vs handing out long contracts to players at the end of their career with no sell on value at all. Or duds like damour.

We have got it back to front imo, at the very least when players start to break through into the first team we need to be thinking about getting them on to new deals to protect the value of them for us. Tbh I’d rather have some youth/younger players in and about the squad who have the potential to improve even if they’re not quite there than a lot of the shite we’ve brought into the club over the last how ever many years.

Again I think it comes down to if a player starts having bad games and don’t instantly turn it round they’re written off as pish and fans want them out the club. There’s no desire there to persist with anyone and try and make them better anymore, people want instant results.

I dunno, the youth academy has been pretty underwhelming and it’s frustrating when players do eventually come through and have a wee bit about them we never really seem to make the best of that situation.

[1,242]

Irving is clearly a good footballer.

Our youth system is a shambles; we don't give players a run out in games where they can achieve anything (away to ibrox - start. Home to hamilton - not even on bench). Players sent out on loan with no apparent structure. Contract fuck ups. it goes on.

[1,242]

I wasn't even a fan of Godinho but they played him all season and then binned him with a paragraph statement on the website. Same with McHattie and Liam Smith. Strange times.

That's just so hearts.