If you’ve seen the papers today you’ll know a major PR offensive is underway to convince the Sevco fans that their youth setup is on the brink of a Brave New Dawn, starting with their withdrawal from the Development League for next season.
The plan is to play a number of “glamour friendlies” instead, against teams from across Europe, academy teams in the UK and against first teams from the two Scottish lower leagues. The aim, they say, is to give their players tougher games, against better opposition.
And that’s the first place where I ask myself, “Eah? What?”
They finished sixth in the Development League this year. Sixth. The standard of opposition was easily good enough to match them; they lost eleven games out of thirty-two. Not enough of a challenge? Too easy for the future youth Champions of Europe? What planet are these people on? I can understand if they were consistently winning games at that level, and were clearly a cut above the opposition, but the first team did better than this lot. They certainly improved this year – last year they finished 13th in the same competition – but the idea that they find it a level below them is as laughable as it is risible for the press to accept it.
I read the media commentary on this today, and it’s full of ifs, buts and maybes.
The club will “try” to arrange glamour friendlies with clubs around Europe. But those clubs have lists of teams who want to play against them. Lists of them. Their youth academies have their own domestic schedules. They frequently travel abroad to play in high profile competitions.
Most of these clubs don’t have time for these games, and all can pick and choose who their opponents are going to be. You’d need to do one Hell of a sales job to interest them in taking on a Scottish club of limited accomplishments and no renown.
Sevco’s announcement also says they want the bulk of these games to be in Scotland, so they can stage them in front of crowds. This is a money making exercise; it’s got nothing to do with improving the quality of their youth team. And it’s a pipe dream. Because even if you could get these clubs to play friendlies against your team, you would have to do it on their terms, on their timetable, and at their place. Getting them to Scotland to make you money?
No chance in Hell.
Sevco won’t go abroad either; this is a partly a cost-cutting exercise and so there’s little chance of them flying this team of theirs here, there and everywhere.
The media has swallowed this when it has more holes in it than an Easterhouse alibi.
If there was merit in what they are proposing to do – if there was real merit in it, if it was feasible, if it was a good idea – then I can’t help but think we’d be there instead, doing this instead of them. As it is, we get invites to all the glamour tournaments and we play against these top teams on a regular basis, and we manage to play a domestic campaign at the same time.
The whole thing is nonsense.
They’ve pulled out of the Development League so they can make cuts to their youth system.
It is impossible to take these people seriously in anything.