Having spent the last few posts looking at individual youth players, I thought it would be interesting to try and rank the Premiership sides if they were only to use players brought through
their own youth systems. To try and keep it fair, I’ve applied the following rules.
1) Only players brought through the club’s own youth system or bought from another team before the age of 19 will be eligible
2) Players must still be actively playing or looking for a new club.
3) If the player has played for another club’s first team before the move, they can’t be used – for example Tony Watt from Airdrie to Celtic.
4) In an attempt to avoid creating teams with 1 defender and 9 strikers (AKA Garth Crook’s attempt at creating a team of the week) only normal formations can be used.
5) I've tried to assess players on their current ability and not their peak or possible future potential ability.
Up front disclaimer – I will almost certainly have missed out someone obvious at some point here, please point any of these out in the comments and I will keep the blog updated. Additionally, Ross County do not produce a lot of youth players so don’t worry if you haven’t heard of most of their selections either...
Before getting into the Premiership rankings, here are some notable mentions for a few lower league teams.
Queens Park - Andy Robertson is the most famous player here but for a League 2 side they have produced a few good players.
Dundee United - This side would easily rank highly if the Arabs were a Premiership team, but following defeat to St Mirren at least one more season of Championship football awaits them. United have produced a lot of players who have represented Scotland. The defence may be a bit shaky but lots of talent going forward.
And the final honourable mention goes to Falkirk. There was a time where it seemed every summer 1 or 2 Falkirk players would move to Swansea for 200k, only really Jay Fulton and Stephen Kingsley have gone on to establish themselves down south through that path. Unfortunately Falkirk decided to scrap their youth set up to put all their focus on getting out of the division ( spoiler alert - it technically worked ! ) this is the sort of side they would be able to field ..
The Premiership teams - In order of worst to first of where I would expect them to finish if these teams played out a league season.
12 - Ross County
Lets preface this a little bit, County have changed strategy recently and have put money and emphasis into their youth academy. They rose through the leagues quickly and during their last Premiership seasons they did throw a lot of money at the squad. The approach worked for a while as they stayed up but it did block the pathway to the first team for any young talents they may have had. For every Liam Boyce and Jackson Irvine there was a David N'Gog and Chris Eagles. Things do look bright for County, but the only thing this squad looks capable of challenging for is Gretna's record for the worst team ever in the top flight.
11) St Johnstone
The Saints team has the defence and attack to appear higher on the list but the midfield lets it down with a mixture of league 1 players and a couple who may step up this season. Stevie May has a Scotland cap and it seems likely Kerr and Clark will follow with a call up in their career at some point.
10) Kilmarnock
Killie have produced a lot of "good" players over the year but only Kris Boyd and Steven Naismith have gone on to be better than that. A combination of injuries and moving too early have stalled the careers of others but this is still a solid team that you would fancy to avoid relegation easily. Rory McKenzie is unlucky to miss out but Greg Kiltie looked brilliant before his injury and last season at Morton.
9) Hibs
As much as I hate the "golden generation" tag, the Hibs side of 10-15 years ago was probably deserving of that. Boasting Ian Murray, Garry Caldwell, Steven Whittaker, David Murphy, Scott Brown, Kevin Thomson, Derek Riordan and Garry O'Connor in their prime it was a brilliant team who should've achieved more. There are a couple still going from that era and it's a solid team if a bit light in midfield and lacking a quality goalkeeper. I really wanted to bend the rules to include Yves Ma Kalambay but he misses out.
8) Motherwell
Its mainly the defence that holds this team back from appearing higher in the list. You can legitimately argue that Chris Cadden, Jake Hastie and David Turnbull will earn Scotland caps sooner or later and the rest are solid top flight players. Lee Erwin's bizarre move to Iran didn't work out and Jamie Murphy could still be a big player this season coming back from injury.
7) Livingston
Another club who has produced great players but recently announced a drastic scaling back in their youth teams. Perhaps more understandable than Falkirk as Livi have had a lot of financial trouble and managed to reach the Premiership. A better defence and goalkeeper could have seen them sneak into the top 6.
6) Hamilton
Renowned for bringing through young players and being a Premiership barnacle, Hamilton take on their 6th successive season in the Premiership this year. They seem to bring through a lot of great midfielders and Eamonn Brophy is now a full Scotland international. Although approaching the end of their careers, James McCarthy and James McArthur are still lower English Premiership/higher English Championship standard players.
5) St Mirren
Another team that seems to produce an incredible amount of technically gifted midfielders who have gone on to a higher level. They have bounced back from the bizarre strategy of allowing Alan Stubbs to throw money at English 5th and 6th tier players, and if they can establish themselves as a Premiership team again it will allow a stable platform for more young players to come through in the future.
4) Aberdeen
We never got to see the best of Ryan Fraser, Fraser Fyvie and Jack Grimmer because they moved south so early in their careers, and its only really worked out for Fraser who is the pick of this team. Aberdeen could put out a solid team with top flight experience and a decent goalkeeper which gives them the edge over a few other squads on the list.
3) Hearts
One of the positives to come out of Hearts' administration and relegation was the amount of young players who got to play first team football and developed into key parts of the team that dominated the Championship in the 14/15 season. Most have moved on with varying levels of success but a solid squad and an international keeper sees Hearts up to 3rd in the list.
2) Celtic
Celtic do have a good record of producing young players but it always seemed that players would have to move away to play regularly and show their ability. That thinking has been altered with Kieran Tierney, Callum McGregor and James Forrest all being key members of the "treble treble" squad but plenty of others including Liam Henderson had to move on. Stuck in 2nd place on the list mainly due to the lack of a decent striker.
1) Rangers
Which leaves Rangers ranked as the number 1 side in this list with the most talented and balanced side. There are no real weaknesses in the team and probably the strongest in terms of players left out too. I do always wonder what would have happened to players like Lewis MacLeod, Rhys McCabe, Jamie Ness and Gregg Wylde if they had made different moves, but a combination of injury and not playing has seen their careers fizzle out. With an immediate "win now" attitude and focus on winning the title it may be that Rangers don't bring as many players through in the next few years but at least they have the prestigious honour of winning the top spot in these rankings !
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