Championship B teams & bigger top flight - Old Firm bosses suggest youth puzzle solutions

Philippe Clement and Brendan Rodgers would both like to bring more young players into their first team

Scottish Premiership B teams in the second-tier Championship, or more clubs in the top flight?

The managers of the country's top two clubs have offered their take on why Scotland is failing to bring through players from their academies to first-team football.

Celtic's Brendan Rodgers and Rangers' Philippe Clement were asked to respond to this week's report for the Scottish FA that suggested the country is "significantly underachieving its potential" in youth development compared to countries of a similar size.

Among the recommendations, the report suggested changes to competition rules to force the fielding of young players and their ability to move clubs outside of transfer windows to encourage more game time - as well as ways to discourage cross-border compensation transfers on a player's 16th birthday.

However, Rodgers and Clement had their own suggestions on the subject:

'Patience rewarded but league too small'

Rodgers was talking on a day when Millwall confirmed they had signed 18-year-old Daniel Kelly from Celtic for an undisclosed fee, with the midfielder having previously agreed a pre-contract to join the Championship club at the end of his current deal in December.

This summer, 19-year-old winger Rocco Vata also joined Watford after his Celtic contract ran out, while 21-year-old defender Bosun Lawal was sold to Stoke City.

Rodgers, though, suggested that, for young players coming through Celtic's youth system, "it is all about patience".

He cited the examples of James Forrest, captain Callum McGregor and Arsenal's Kieran Tierney as players whose patience was rewarded by becoming first-team regulars, while Tony Ralston and Stephen Welsh are currently key squad players.

"The young players who have showed patience with Celtic and put their trust into the club in their development, those are the guys who have come through here and done really well," Rodgers said.

"It is a real challenge to become part of a Champions League squad at 18. That doesn't mean you can't be ready at Celtic, but there's definitely a lack of patience between 18 and 21, which means that some players decide to move on - and that is something that's out of Celtic's control."

Rodgers thinks that a 12-team Premiership is "fundamentally too small".

"With the number of teams in it, it becomes quite cut throat - you're either in the top six or you're not," he said.

"If you are in the bottom six, you are fighting for your life at the end of the season. If you are in the top six, people want to be in there to avoid that stress.

"That can be a difficult environment to put young players into. There's no doubt the league format could help."

'Crazy' rules and B team step too far

The compensation Rangers had to pay Aberdeen for Connor Barron irked Philippe Clement

Celtic and Heart of Midlothian are the only two Premiership clubs to have their B teams in the current Lowland League, with Rangers having withdrawn their young side last season.

However, Clement thinks there is merit in having such sides higher up the Scottish football pyramid, citing his own experience with Club Bruges in his native Belgium.

"I think what this country misses is that the B teams can play in the second league," he said. "That would help a lot and you see that in countries where a lot of young players get chances and can grow.

"You get also more players who are at the age of 20/21/22 who are ready to play in the first league because they played at 17/18/19/20 games in the second league and they could make the step in between."

Clement reckons that it is "a big step that people are not open for yet" in Scotland.

He considers B-team football superior to sending young players on loan because the parent club has more control over their development, pointing to Rangers midfielder Alex Lowry's experience with Hearts last season.

However, he stressed that it would not only be the clubs who have B teams who would benefit but also other clubs who would be able to sign players from the top clubs who are more ready for first-team football.

"In Holland, they have been doing that for a long time," he pointed out. "And, in Belgium, it took also a long time before the teams agreed to do it because in the beginning everybody was also afraid of it.

"Now everybody's winning out of that."

Clement also highlighted the "crazy situation" he encountered when signing 21-year-old midfielder Connor Barron from Aberdeen this summer.

That the compensation Scottish clubs need to pay for players from a rival Scottish club's academy is greater than if the player is signed by a club from another country.

"Even to Premier League where they have all the money in the world," Clement complained.

"So it's more expensive to keep them in Scotland. I don't think it's logical in Scotland to make rules like that. You need to make rules to keep players in the league here."

Like Rodgers, Clement points to the difficulty of bridging the gap between academy football and the first team at a club like Rangers but insists he is "passionate" about bringing young players through.

"You saw at the end of the last game, we had several young players from the academy on the pitch," he added. "Before, it was less the case."