Steve Clarke the manager of Scotland looks on during the UEFA Nations League 2024/25 League A Group A1 match between Scotland and Portugal at on O…Photo by Alex Livesey – Danehouse/Getty Images
Steve Clarke urges Celtic and other Scottish Premiership clubs to help fix issue facing Scotland
Steve Clarke has urged Celtic and other top flight clubs in the country to sit down with the Scottish FA to help create a pathway for youngsters to thrive at senior level.
The Scotland head coach was addressing the hot topic of young players in the professional game and a lack of numbers for clubs in the Scottish Premiership.
The Hoops do not have a particularly strong contingent of academy graduates pushing for spots in Brendan Rodgers’ matchday squad.
In fact, according to data from analyst and Stenhousemuir scout Gary King recently published on social media, Celtic have handed opportunities to ZERO percent of under-21 players in their SPFL fixtures.
Some graphics I made showing under 21’s minutes in the SPFL. Pretty dire in the Premiership apart from Motherwell. pic.twitter.com/C3WVLWZnph
— buıʞ ʎɹɐb (@garyykingg) November 11, 2024
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Steve Clarke feels Celtic and other clubs must find a way to fix the youth system
The likes of goalkeeper Jack Clarke, 20, and Mitchel Frame, 18, have been involved previously and in friendly fixtures while Francis Turley is the latest to be pictured in the 2024/25 squad photo.
Greg Taylor and Anthony Ralston are away with Scotland and Clarke right now.
Luke McCowan, meanwhile, was somehow snubbed for Scotland.
MORE CELTIC STORIES
But the gaffer feels the big clubs in the country are not doing enough to preserve the future of our national team by blooding youngsters within the first-team set-ups.
The Scotland boss reckons it is time for the higher-ups within the governing body and the clubs – including Celtic – sit around a table and look to figure out a plan.
And he pointed to Croatia as a similarly smaller nation who, by comparison to the Scots, often achieve success at big international tournaments like the World Cup and European Championships.
How Scotland compares to Croatia on the international stage
“That’s a very, very good question,” Clarke said, when asked about what Croatia are getting right that Scotland have not clicked onto.
“They’ve got their system set up right from the young ages all the way through.
“Because they seem to have a conveyer belt of talent where they keep bringing these players through.
“They also have a lot of players with longevity at the top level with over 100 caps or getting between 75 and 100 caps. They’ve just got the balance right.
“They produce a lot of good young players, they bring them through, they allow them to play quite a lot of games in their own country before they move out.
“Which I think is a really good grounding and something that maybe we can get better at in this country.
“And show a pathway for the young players. There’s a lot that we need to keep trying to change in Scotland if we want to get better.
“We need to come up with something that’s maybe a little bit different because if we keep doing what we’re doing, it isn’t going to get any better.
Ryan Christie of Scotland scores his team’s first goal past Dominik Livakovic of Croatia during the UEFA Nations League 2024/25 League A Group A1 m…
Photo by Srdjan Stevanovic/Getty Images
“If we continue to do what we’re doing, we’ll always get what we get.
“So we have to try and find a way but the change has to be driven from the top so they have to understand that we need to change and then we try to change.”
Clarke does acknowledge that club managers have a difficult job as they live week to week depending on their results.
And that can prevent them taking chances on youngsters in a results driven business.
But he hopes something can be done in future to help the nation as a whole and bring through talent from the youth ranks worthy of a spot in the Scotland squad.
READ MORE: All 13 Celtic players on November international duty and how to watch their games live
What Steve Clarke said about Premiership clubs helping Scotland in the long-term
“It needs a collective understanding,” added Clarke. “It’s not just the people at the SFA, it’s the people that are in charge of the clubs.
“Everybody needs to sit down and try to work out a way that we can improve moving forward.
“I can’t speak for the clubs, whether they think the national team is more important than their club.
“Having been a club manager, you have got your own interests to look after, so I understand both sides of the argument.
“As a club manager you’re under pressure every week to get results and if that means playing more experienced players, sometimes that’s what you do.
“But what we have to do is we have to find more young players, the more young players you find the more likely it is that some of them will get into the first team.
“At the moment you’ve probably only got two or three (young Scottish players) who are in and around the fringes at most clubs.
“Can we get more? Can we get half-a-dozen? Can we get eight? That’s the sort of numbers we should be looking to get.
“It’s really important for young players to play. It’s to find a way to get these young players to play, not to stipulate that they have to be in the matchday squad.
“Because then they don’t play at the underage level, they don’t play in the matchday squad, they don’t get any minutes.
“The more minutes they get, the more likely they are to have a career.”
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