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Bit parts for our home grown players?


MrTumnus

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Like most I’d prefer to see home grown talent in the team. However after several years of watching drivel I’m delighted to be watching winning football again especially at home. For that reason I’ll happily settle for experienced players giving 100% and winning games. Even went to Murrayfield and Perth expecting to get a result....when was the last time that happened !! However the main thing for me was a home win. Not only for my boy who was getting fed up watching a losing team, but hopefully to entice some lapsed Killie fans off the couch and back to the games.

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Fans of every club love to see boys come through their own academy into the 1st team & at Killie we've always given our own a chance which personally is something I'm really proud of but in recent times we've been playing them week in week out from 18 onwards in teams that are struggling & that's never going to be the best thing for their long term development,maybe that's why very few who've had the chance have gone on to bigger & better things. It would be much better for the group of talented youngsters we have now & those in the future if they could be brought into a more stable team/club in stages without the pressure of relegation battles & 6/7 month run of games without a home win. The norm would be to give them a run of games in the 1st team before being returned back into the U20's/reserves regardless of how they've played but the likes of Greg Taylor have had far too much expectation placed on their young shoulders without being given a proper rest,Kiltie is another who a lot of us expected to carry the team in the past because of his ability but again he's just a young lad even if he was potentially the most exciting player we have. Maybe now we have a manager who will put together a good squad of players with enough experience & quality that will mean we can nurture our talented youngsters in the correct manner & play them at appropriate times mixed in with the senior players.

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It's great to see our youngsters getting a chance at first team football and Killie over recent years have enabled many of them to do so. What we don't want however is to act as some form of charity set up that prioritises local youngsters no matter the results outcome. If they are good enough then obviously it's a great celebration we can all enjoy at their success linked to our youth development programme.

A far better route is to introduce quality Killie youngsters into a mature team unit that gives newcomers the comfort of knowing quality experienced back up is on hand to support their initial efforts. A background of pending relegation does nothing to promote confidence in young players, surrounded by other inexperienced youngsters particularly when any error is greeted by the well known Killie supporter intolerance.

I think Steve Clarke will build up the overall strength of the team and use our youngsters as substitutes initially, then leading on to their regular slots in the team. Kiltie, Taylor and Frizzell have already done enough to merit first team appearances  and I'm sure several others in the current development team will come through in time.

Alan Hansen famously declared " You win nothing with kids" and with the exception of Alex Ferguson's Man Utd babes, it's difficult to argue. A successful development programme resulting in exciting new players coming through is of course vital but when you marry that strategy with quality experience on the pitch, the chances of career progression for them is far more likely. 

Historically so many of our talented youngsters have not pulled through to the successful careers we all hoped for them but in part they may have been thrust into the front line too soon.

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