FOLLOWING on from yet another poor showing by the Scottish national team against England, there has been much discussion lately regarding Scottish football and the lack of young talent coming through for the future prospects of the game.

Tom Ewing is the Director at Cowdenbeath Football Club with responsibility for the club's youth set up and he provided an overview of the youth system currently being developed by Cowdenbeath FC.

He said this week: "One of the main problems is the constant calls for change. We never seem to allow a plan to run its course and see if it will work.

"There is no quick fix unfortunately, it will for example take 10 years for any system to take a potential talent at around 10 years of age and develop him into a young top professional at 20.

"The current system does need change but not broken up to start again. Cowdenbeath is currently part of a three year pilot system participating in a Regional Academy with the other Fife professional clubs.

"Before the Regional Academy, all the Fife Clubs operated academies at Development level as the financial burden to operate an academy at Elite level is out with the financial means of any single Fife Club.

"The difference between Development level and at Elite level is in the opportunity for the player in training time, coaching ability, sports science, medical provision and most importantly in the talent level of opposition.

"The Regional Academy concept was developed by Mark Wotte in his time as Performance Director at the SFA. His argument was that to develop top players, they need to play against top players week in, week out. In his view there were too many academies and too many players in the system, the solution being to amalgamate academies so that they could meet the elite criteria and develop a lesser number of players to a higher level."

The Fife Clubs saw the advantages of a Regional Academy as the only route to an Academy at Elite level. The problem faced by all the Fife Clubs was in attracting top young talent when they could be tempted by clubs with Elite Academies in Dundee and Edinburgh in addition to the obvious clubs in the West of Scotland.

Added Tom: "In Fife, we have developed a model with partners which has real potential to give talented players in Fife the best opportunity to be professional footballers.

"The Regional Academy works very closely with the Fife Football Performance Academy which is a joint venture between Fife Council and the SFA Development Team. These coaches take kids from a very young age and provide an introduction to football. They work within all Fife Schools and with local Boys Clubs. Boys who show potential are invited in to receive additional training which is provided by SFA Coaches at the Lumphinnans Sports Facility.

"The Fife Elite Academy teams begin at under 11 age group and the SFA Development coaches recommend players for consideration for trials to the Elite Academy. This Fife model is unique in Scotland and provides a clear pathway for a player to progress from grass roots football at a very young age to gaining a Modern Apprenticeship professional contract at 17 years of age."

Cowdenbeath FC has a long history of producing good home grown talent. Dean Brett and Kyle Miller from the current squad came through the youth system and 19 year old goalkeeper Jamie Sneddon is still a Modern Apprentice at the Club but has already played 19 first team games. 18 year old Cameron Muirhead was the club's first signing from the Elite Academy last year and he has already made five first team appearances from the bench this season.

The Club made 3 signings this year from the Fife Elite Academy, Jordan Leslie, Lewis Turnbull and Sean McManus and they are regularly playing with the Under 20 side. The remainder of the under 20 side is made up from players that the under 20 coaching staff Brian Nelson and Dean Ewing have identified as having potential to progress.

The Club currently has a very young under 20 team with most being in the 16/17 age bracket. The emphasis is on these young players gaining game time against strong opposition so that physically, mentally and in ability they are best prepared for the step up to first team football.