Hibs were beaten 6-1 on their last visit to Celtic Park Group 28 Get the latest Celtic news sent straight to your inbox with our daily newsletter Invalid email Something went wrong, please try again later. Sign Up No thanks, close We use your sign-up to provide content in the ways you've consented to and improve our understanding of you. This means that we may include adverts from us and third parties based on our knowledge of you. We also may change the frequency you receive our emails from us in order to keep you up to date and give you the best relevant information possible. As always you can unsubscribe at any time. More info Group 28 Thank you for subscribing! We have more newsletters Show Me No thanks, close See our Privacy Notice It's almost exactly 20-years to the day that I should have reported a robbery at Celtic Park. A referee stole my hat-trick from me, I'd scored two goals only to have one chalked off for offside. That decision was so poor I should have headed straight to Baird Street
police station. Johan Mjallby scored in the 96th minute to beat us 3-2. I still think about it often, it would have been a huge moment in my career but it wasn't to be. There were a couple of statistics thrown my way this week that have left me saddened and embarrassed. Astonishingly, it's been 13 years since a Hibs player scored a winning goal in Glasgow against Celtic. The fact it was a teenager makes the other statistic all the more damning but I'll get to that in a second. Take a bow Danny Galbraith who netted the winner in a 2-1 victory as a 19-year-old. Read More Related Articles How Hearts and Hibs plus Aberdeen qualify for Europe after Scottish Cup semi-final draw threw a curveball Read More Related Articles Hibs and Hearts set for Edinburgh derby lunchtime kick-off after game snubbed by Sky Sports Danny was someone I played with, he's a great lad but who would have guessed that afternoon in 2010 would prove to be a feat we are still waiting to be repeated. It's not good enough. Now to the daddy of all damning stats. This season over half of the Scottish Premiership have given a league start to just one (or zero) homegrown players aged 21 or younger. When I first read this my jaw dropped, I had to take another few moments to make sure it was accurate. It's an eye-popping statement of fact which tells a story about the state of our game. Let me declare a vested interest in this. I coach at one of the SFA's performance schools at Braidhurst High. I know the current landscape with young players in this country so I had a fair idea there weren't many young players starting games in the
Premier League but I didn't think it was anywhere near as bad as that. You can't dress this up as anything other than damning statistics for Scottish
Football as a whole. It should also be taken in context and looked at in a number of ways. The basic issue is that managers are under far too much pressure to throw kids into the first team and I completely understand that. I look at Hibs, not one under-21 player has started for my old club so far this season and it's enough to bring a tear to your eye. Alex Lowry of Rangers (Image: Getty Images) That said, the manager Lee Johnson has been under severe pressure and he's only just in the door so he needs to prioritise getting results over promoting young players into his team. He has to get results so is he really going to throw in one or two kids at this time and discover they aren't ready? No chance. It's his neck which is on the line. How do we solve this problem? It's time to look at a bigger league with 16 teams which allows clubs to breathe a bit but I've been banging this particular drum for over a decade now. We need to try and take a bit of the pressure away from managers as it seems that every week there's someone tipped for the chop and that's due to the nature and make-up of the league. There are currently six or seven teams looking over their shoulder at the risk of being relegated and that's not a healthy state of affairs. Then you have the expectation levels at Hibs, Hearts and Aberdeen. I have no doubt we have good young players, I see that day in and day out but managers are reluctant to throw them in and it's a shocking situation which needs to be answered. There are high quality kids within my own performance school, I watch Scotland's under-16 and 18 games, I watch Pro-Youth games and we do have the quality. They are being stifled out of the game for a variety of reasons but a big bugbear of mine is the amount of mediocre loan players arriving from
England. (Image: SNS Group) Ross County and Motherwell are two clubs which spring to mind and they are stunting the growth of our young players with this dreadful recruitment policy. Journeymen from League One and League Two are coming up here for a few bob and we need to get away from that. These guys aren't any better than some of the boys who are currently within the youth set-up at some of our clubs and this issue is as bad now as it has been in a very long time. When I was at Hibs we had a thriving youth set-up which I won't bore you with the names such as Scott Brown , Kevin Thomson and Garry O'Connor etc. These were home grown players which effectively carried the club under Bobby Williamson and then Tony Mowbray. It's all about handing boys an opportunity to prove they can be regular first first team players.
Social Media is also a factor, fans demand results and if they don't come then they are on Twitter, tagging clubs, managers and players and dishing out abuse. Thankfully I didn't have that when I was coming through as a young boy. You can force momentum towards changing a manager through Social Media so that works against boys being blooded into teams. We need to find ways to help improve things but answers on a postcard for that one. READ NEXT: Read More Related Articles Barry Robson given Aberdeen confidence vote as legend says club should wait to appoint new boss Read More Related Articles Rangers and Celtic should push for the Premier League as it's one of two options to save the Scottish game - Hotline Read More Related Articles Celtic are light years ahead of Hearts but Robbie Neilson could do with a result against them - Ryan Stevenson Read More Related Articles The 14
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