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Celtic development side
Topic Started: 22 Oct 2014, 09:33 AM (448,943 Views)
ssmith81
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remy mcswain
4 Oct 2016, 09:21 AM
At least blows away the myth that we pick young players solely on their size.
We used to. As did all the Scottish clubs sadly. One of the many reasons why we're now a football backwater.
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murphio
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ssmith81
4 Oct 2016, 02:20 PM
remy mcswain
4 Oct 2016, 09:21 AM
At least blows away the myth that we pick young players solely on their size.
We used to. As did all the Scottish clubs sadly. One of the many reasons why we're now a football backwater.
The reason Scotland is a footballing backwater has nothing to do with picking players for size. It's because the facilities and coaching aren't good enough. Simon Donnelly, Brian McLaughlin, Liam Miller, Shaun Maloney, Aiden McGeady, Paul McGowan... the players get the chance if they are good enough simple as that.
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ssmith81
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murphio
4 Oct 2016, 02:25 PM
ssmith81
4 Oct 2016, 02:20 PM
remy mcswain
4 Oct 2016, 09:21 AM
At least blows away the myth that we pick young players solely on their size.
We used to. As did all the Scottish clubs sadly. One of the many reasons why we're now a football backwater.
The reason Scotland is a footballing backwater has nothing to do with picking players for size. It's because the facilities and coaching aren't good enough. Simon Donnelly, Brian McLaughlin, Liam Miller, Shaun Maloney, Aiden McGeady, Paul McGowan... the players get the chance if they are good enough simple as that.
Don't agree Murph. Lots of young talent was overlooked in Scotland due to their size at 10/11/12.
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coltheball
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ssmith81
4 Oct 2016, 02:35 PM
murphio
4 Oct 2016, 02:25 PM
ssmith81
4 Oct 2016, 02:20 PM

Quoting limited to 3 levels deep
The reason Scotland is a footballing backwater has nothing to do with picking players for size. It's because the facilities and coaching aren't good enough. Simon Donnelly, Brian McLaughlin, Liam Miller, Shaun Maloney, Aiden McGeady, Paul McGowan... the players get the chance if they are good enough simple as that.
Don't agree Murph. Lots of young talent was overlooked in Scotland due to their size at 10/11/12.
Happened to my brother :thumbsup:
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danbhoy09
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ssmith81
4 Oct 2016, 02:35 PM
murphio
4 Oct 2016, 02:25 PM
ssmith81
4 Oct 2016, 02:20 PM

Quoting limited to 3 levels deep
The reason Scotland is a footballing backwater has nothing to do with picking players for size. It's because the facilities and coaching aren't good enough. Simon Donnelly, Brian McLaughlin, Liam Miller, Shaun Maloney, Aiden McGeady, Paul McGowan... the players get the chance if they are good enough simple as that.
Don't agree Murph. Lots of young talent was overlooked in Scotland due to their size at 10/11/12.
Is that the date when everyone stopped growing?
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SaMule
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danbhoy09
4 Oct 2016, 02:43 PM
ssmith81
4 Oct 2016, 02:35 PM
murphio
4 Oct 2016, 02:25 PM

Quoting limited to 3 levels deep
Don't agree Murph. Lots of young talent was overlooked in Scotland due to their size at 10/11/12.
Is that the date when everyone stopped growing?
I'm as critical of the standard of coaching in Scotland as anyone, but even I find it hard to believe that Scottish coaches are unaware of that whole growth spurt thing that generally happens some time after the age of 12 :lol:
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FergusMcGrain
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We can but hope he has parents that can and will keep him grounded and do the best they can for him. Think Chelski bought Feruz's mum and dad a house plus gave the boy silly money.

No idea what young Dembele's situation at home is and the reasons they arrived here from the Ivory Coast, but hopefully they will be able to turn away the inevitable suitors with wads of cash.
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SaMule
4 Oct 2016, 03:41 PM
danbhoy09
4 Oct 2016, 02:43 PM
ssmith81
4 Oct 2016, 02:35 PM

Quoting limited to 3 levels deep
Is that the date when everyone stopped growing?
I'm as critical of the standard of coaching in Scotland as anyone, but even I find it hard to believe that Scottish coaches are unaware of that whole growth spurt thing that generally happens some time after the age of 12 :lol:
From the STV website

http://stv.tv/sport/football/303738-why-your-birthday-might-help-you-become-scotlands-next-football-talent/


Why your birthday might help you become Scotland's next football talent




STV

30 December 2014





When you are born has an impact on how likely you are to play professional football. Thom Watt explains.








Andrew Robertson
SNS Group

Has your child shown a bit of early aptitude with a ball at their feet? Are they that bit quicker than their peers at spotting a pass, running into space, anticipating an opposition space?

Yes? Congratulations, they might have a chance to make it to the top.

Were they born in January, February or March? Even better.



Why? More footballers in Scotland are born in the first three months of the year than at any other period. In fact, almost half are born in the first four months of the year, and you are twice as likely to make it as a professional in Scotland if you are born in January rather than December.



This all sounds highly implausible, or perhaps just a simple coincidence, but there are interesting reasons why players born in January, February or March have an advantage, and why we might be losing out on great players born later in the year.

We do also have to point out a great deal of credit for this thinking has to go to Malcolm Gladwell, whose Outliers book first highlighted some of the ideas here. Needless to say, it’s well, well worth tracking down.

The advantage of being born early

In theory, it shouldn’t matter what time of the year you are born. If you push yourself, train hard, listen to your coaches, stay injury free, and dedicate your developing years to football, you’ll have a chance of being a professional. It should be that simple.

There should be no reason at all that a player born in October has any advantage or disadvantage over one born in March. If we built a diagram showing which months of the year top-flight Scottish professionals were born, we’d expect a fairly even distribution throughout the year.

The following diagram shows a breakdown of when top-flight Scottish players were born in any given year. We’ve split the year into three separate time periods, January to April, May to August, and September to December. We’ve only recorded players who were born and trained in Scotland, and who have a squad number in the 2014/15 Scottish Premiership.


Months players were born
STV

As we can see, far from there being an even distribution of birthdays across the year, there are far more top-flight professionals born at the start of the year, between January and April. 41% of the players in the Premiership were born in the first third of the year.

Furthermore, these numbers suggest a player is almost twice as likely to make it as a professional in Scotland’s top flight if they were born in January, February or March (61 players) than if they were born in October, November or December (36 players).

Of course, we’re only looking at one season here. Although the numbers appear significant in this one season (187 players counted), we probably should delve a little deeper and make sure this isn’t a fluke.

Widening the net

We’ve applied the same set of rules as we did in the above example, but this time we’ve applied it to every Scottish player who has appeared in the top flight over the last five seasons. Does the pattern still hold true?


Month of birth
STV

Not only do we again see the largest group of players being drawn from that January-April age bracket, we can start to see a trend. There are less top-flight players born in the later months of the year than there are born in the earlier months.


Months of birth (line)
STV

Why?

The age cut-off for each year at Scottish schools is between the start of March and the end of February. Kids who turn five in February will start primary school in August with kids who don’t turn five until the end of March. In teaching circles there has been great debate about “The Rising Fives”; should children start school at four if they are a year younger than some of their classmates?

While this seems relatively innocuous, it can make a significant impact on development and education standards in the early years. Children with March birthdays have had a year longer to develop the life skills that will help them at school than those born in February.

Age cut-offs for football in Scotland run from January to December. A child born on January 1 2001 will play in the same under-13s division at those born in December 2001, even though he is a year older and in a higher class at school. Just as there are obvious educational advantages to an extra year’s experience before you start school, there are even more pronounced advantages in sport.

Not only do children born earlier in the year have more time to learn, they can also have a significant physical advantage from up to an extra 12 months development. This advantage may seem slight, but coaches and parents are far more likely to focus their efforts on children who show great aptitude at this level.

It’s not that children born in January are better players, or their star sign has determined their aptitude, it’s that they have physical and developmental advantages. If the football cut-off ran from December to the end of November, we’d see a huge spike in the number of players born at the end of the year within a couple of decades.

Naturally, coaches who want to develop talent focus more time, effort and physical training on the “best” players at youth level, and the “best” players are most likely to be the ones who have had more time, effort and physical training, namely, the oldest. By contrast, those who are younger are less likely to have developed physically, have spent less time playing the game, and so receive less attention from elite coaches. If that happens, they’re more likely to give up.

Solutions

It isn’t especially problematic that those born earlier in the year get an advantage. The problem lies in the fact that those born later in the year are at a serious disadvantage. While those born in November and December aren’t dropping out of football altogether, the fact that there are significantly fewer footballers born in these months is problematic. Potentially, we are talented losing players, by putting them at a disadvantage.

One possible solution would be to break up the age ranges at under 13 and under 15 into two or three sub-levels. If there were no more than four or six months between the oldest and youngest in a certain age range, there would be less discrepancy between physical development and match savvy. It would be easier to identify talented players born later in the year, who may have been otherwise lost to the game.

We’ve all heard the stories of a talented player being released by a club because he was “too small” or “wasn’t strong enough”. Players reach maturity at different times, but the advantage of an extra year’s training means older players are always more likely to stand out. More concentrated age ranges during developmental years could only increase the numbers of talented players we produce.

I never had a chance as a professional football in Scotland. I was born on December 30. That’s my excuse.



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jow
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Dr Huffarr
4 Oct 2016, 12:02 PM
jow
4 Oct 2016, 11:48 AM
heisenberg88
3 Oct 2016, 11:39 PM

Quoting limited to 3 levels deep
Decent prospect ?. He's absolutely outstanding,I know most 13 year old talents rarely fulfill their talent,but this wee guy is very special.
He physical strong and quicker at that age group(03), but there are better technical players at that level. Also, the other 03s might get a chance to shine now.

The lads will catch up with him physically. He'll get ruined.




Your post makes absolutely no sense.
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SwavBhoy
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greenjedi
4 Oct 2016, 03:57 PM
SaMule
4 Oct 2016, 03:41 PM
danbhoy09
4 Oct 2016, 02:43 PM

Quoting limited to 3 levels deep
I'm as critical of the standard of coaching in Scotland as anyone, but even I find it hard to believe that Scottish coaches are unaware of that whole growth spurt thing that generally happens some time after the age of 12 :lol:
From the STV website

http://stv.tv/sport/football/303738-why-your-birthday-might-help-you-become-scotlands-next-football-talent/


Why your birthday might help you become Scotland's next football talent




Spoiler: click to toggle


Used to be August 1st when I played. My birthday is in March and I played with boys that were mainly in the year above me at school. The ones that turned pro, that were in my class or year all played in the 'unders' below me.

It's the same thing, except it's now January.
Edited by SwavBhoy, 4 Oct 2016, 04:24 PM.
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TheGloryYears
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greenjedi
4 Oct 2016, 03:57 PM
SaMule
4 Oct 2016, 03:41 PM
danbhoy09
4 Oct 2016, 02:43 PM

Quoting limited to 3 levels deep
I'm as critical of the standard of coaching in Scotland as anyone, but even I find it hard to believe that Scottish coaches are unaware of that whole growth spurt thing that generally happens some time after the age of 12 :lol:
From the STV website

http://stv.tv/sport/football/303738-why-your-birthday-might-help-you-become-scotlands-next-football-talent/


Why your birthday might help you become Scotland's next football talent




STV

30 December 2014





When you are born has an impact on how likely you are to play professional football. Thom Watt explains.








Andrew Robertson
SNS Group

Has your child shown a bit of early aptitude with a ball at their feet? Are they that bit quicker than their peers at spotting a pass, running into space, anticipating an opposition space?

Yes? Congratulations, they might have a chance to make it to the top.

Were they born in January, February or March? Even better.



Why? More footballers in Scotland are born in the first three months of the year than at any other period. In fact, almost half are born in the first four months of the year, and you are twice as likely to make it as a professional in Scotland if you are born in January rather than December.



This all sounds highly implausible, or perhaps just a simple coincidence, but there are interesting reasons why players born in January, February or March have an advantage, and why we might be losing out on great players born later in the year.

We do also have to point out a great deal of credit for this thinking has to go to Malcolm Gladwell, whose Outliers book first highlighted some of the ideas here. Needless to say, it’s well, well worth tracking down.

The advantage of being born early

In theory, it shouldn’t matter what time of the year you are born. If you push yourself, train hard, listen to your coaches, stay injury free, and dedicate your developing years to football, you’ll have a chance of being a professional. It should be that simple.

There should be no reason at all that a player born in October has any advantage or disadvantage over one born in March. If we built a diagram showing which months of the year top-flight Scottish professionals were born, we’d expect a fairly even distribution throughout the year.

The following diagram shows a breakdown of when top-flight Scottish players were born in any given year. We’ve split the year into three separate time periods, January to April, May to August, and September to December. We’ve only recorded players who were born and trained in Scotland, and who have a squad number in the 2014/15 Scottish Premiership.


Months players were born
STV

As we can see, far from there being an even distribution of birthdays across the year, there are far more top-flight professionals born at the start of the year, between January and April. 41% of the players in the Premiership were born in the first third of the year.

Furthermore, these numbers suggest a player is almost twice as likely to make it as a professional in Scotland’s top flight if they were born in January, February or March (61 players) than if they were born in October, November or December (36 players).

Of course, we’re only looking at one season here. Although the numbers appear significant in this one season (187 players counted), we probably should delve a little deeper and make sure this isn’t a fluke.

Widening the net

We’ve applied the same set of rules as we did in the above example, but this time we’ve applied it to every Scottish player who has appeared in the top flight over the last five seasons. Does the pattern still hold true?


Month of birth
STV

Not only do we again see the largest group of players being drawn from that January-April age bracket, we can start to see a trend. There are less top-flight players born in the later months of the year than there are born in the earlier months.


Months of birth (line)
STV

Why?

The age cut-off for each year at Scottish schools is between the start of March and the end of February. Kids who turn five in February will start primary school in August with kids who don’t turn five until the end of March. In teaching circles there has been great debate about “The Rising Fives”; should children start school at four if they are a year younger than some of their classmates?

While this seems relatively innocuous, it can make a significant impact on development and education standards in the early years. Children with March birthdays have had a year longer to develop the life skills that will help them at school than those born in February.

Age cut-offs for football in Scotland run from January to December. A child born on January 1 2001 will play in the same under-13s division at those born in December 2001, even though he is a year older and in a higher class at school. Just as there are obvious educational advantages to an extra year’s experience before you start school, there are even more pronounced advantages in sport.

Not only do children born earlier in the year have more time to learn, they can also have a significant physical advantage from up to an extra 12 months development. This advantage may seem slight, but coaches and parents are far more likely to focus their efforts on children who show great aptitude at this level.

It’s not that children born in January are better players, or their star sign has determined their aptitude, it’s that they have physical and developmental advantages. If the football cut-off ran from December to the end of November, we’d see a huge spike in the number of players born at the end of the year within a couple of decades.

Naturally, coaches who want to develop talent focus more time, effort and physical training on the “best” players at youth level, and the “best” players are most likely to be the ones who have had more time, effort and physical training, namely, the oldest. By contrast, those who are younger are less likely to have developed physically, have spent less time playing the game, and so receive less attention from elite coaches. If that happens, they’re more likely to give up.

Solutions

It isn’t especially problematic that those born earlier in the year get an advantage. The problem lies in the fact that those born later in the year are at a serious disadvantage. While those born in November and December aren’t dropping out of football altogether, the fact that there are significantly fewer footballers born in these months is problematic. Potentially, we are talented losing players, by putting them at a disadvantage.

One possible solution would be to break up the age ranges at under 13 and under 15 into two or three sub-levels. If there were no more than four or six months between the oldest and youngest in a certain age range, there would be less discrepancy between physical development and match savvy. It would be easier to identify talented players born later in the year, who may have been otherwise lost to the game.

We’ve all heard the stories of a talented player being released by a club because he was “too small” or “wasn’t strong enough”. Players reach maturity at different times, but the advantage of an extra year’s training means older players are always more likely to stand out. More concentrated age ranges during developmental years could only increase the numbers of talented players we produce.

I never had a chance as a professional football in Scotland. I was born on December 30. That’s my excuse.



This was all documented in Malcolm Gladwell's book , can't remember which one though !

Plagiarising STV bassas.
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randombloke
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ssmith81
4 Oct 2016, 02:35 PM
murphio
4 Oct 2016, 02:25 PM
ssmith81
4 Oct 2016, 02:20 PM

Quoting limited to 3 levels deep
The reason Scotland is a footballing backwater has nothing to do with picking players for size. It's because the facilities and coaching aren't good enough. Simon Donnelly, Brian McLaughlin, Liam Miller, Shaun Maloney, Aiden McGeady, Paul McGowan... the players get the chance if they are good enough simple as that.
Don't agree Murph. Lots of young talent was overlooked in Scotland due to their size at 10/11/12.
I've always been of the opinion that clubs telling kids they aren't making the cut because they are "too wee" is just an attempt to let them down easy.

Don't think any coach really wants to tell a 12 year old he's been working with for the last couple of years "sorry son, you just don't have it" IIRC even Drunken Ferguson was told he was too wee at one point in his youth career (by the huns no less :lol: )

Anyhoo, plenty of short players do make it though (FFS our development squad seemed to specialise in them for years!), but they tend to have at least one of strength, pace or bags of talent to compensate.

I suppose if a club is looking at a 12 year old who is short for his age, skinny, and not particularly fast then it's going to take a huge amount of raw talent to make him worth the punt of another couple of years.
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markiebhoy7
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Saw him on SSN today, was pretty surreal... He looks brilliant enough already to have a career before starting bevvying and hitting Kushion so high hopes for him :)
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ssmith81
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randombloke
4 Oct 2016, 05:10 PM
ssmith81
4 Oct 2016, 02:35 PM
murphio
4 Oct 2016, 02:25 PM

Quoting limited to 3 levels deep
Don't agree Murph. Lots of young talent was overlooked in Scotland due to their size at 10/11/12.


I suppose if a club is looking at a 12 year old who is short for his age, skinny, and not particularly fast then it's going to take a huge amount of raw talent to make him worth the punt of another couple of years.
You just described me at that age and that was precisely when Celtic overlooked me :lol:
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Milton
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the mighty sparrow
4 Oct 2016, 02:16 PM
Can someone who saw Islam Feruz play as a Celtic youth compare him with the young(er) Dembele?
Only video I can find of Feruz at a similar age (14).

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remy mcswain
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TheGloryYears
4 Oct 2016, 05:05 PM
greenjedi
4 Oct 2016, 03:57 PM
SaMule
4 Oct 2016, 03:41 PM

Quoting limited to 3 levels deep
From the STV website

http://stv.tv/sport/football/303738-why-your-birthday-might-help-you-become-scotlands-next-football-talent/


Why your birthday might help you become Scotland's next football talent




STV

30 December 2014





When you are born has an impact on how likely you are to play professional football. Thom Watt explains.








Andrew Robertson
SNS Group

Has your child shown a bit of early aptitude with a ball at their feet? Are they that bit quicker than their peers at spotting a pass, running into space, anticipating an opposition space?

Yes? Congratulations, they might have a chance to make it to the top.

Were they born in January, February or March? Even better.



Why? More footballers in Scotland are born in the first three months of the year than at any other period. In fact, almost half are born in the first four months of the year, and you are twice as likely to make it as a professional in Scotland if you are born in January rather than December.



This all sounds highly implausible, or perhaps just a simple coincidence, but there are interesting reasons why players born in January, February or March have an advantage, and why we might be losing out on great players born later in the year.

We do also have to point out a great deal of credit for this thinking has to go to Malcolm Gladwell, whose Outliers book first highlighted some of the ideas here. Needless to say, it’s well, well worth tracking down.

The advantage of being born early

In theory, it shouldn’t matter what time of the year you are born. If you push yourself, train hard, listen to your coaches, stay injury free, and dedicate your developing years to football, you’ll have a chance of being a professional. It should be that simple.

There should be no reason at all that a player born in October has any advantage or disadvantage over one born in March. If we built a diagram showing which months of the year top-flight Scottish professionals were born, we’d expect a fairly even distribution throughout the year.

The following diagram shows a breakdown of when top-flight Scottish players were born in any given year. We’ve split the year into three separate time periods, January to April, May to August, and September to December. We’ve only recorded players who were born and trained in Scotland, and who have a squad number in the 2014/15 Scottish Premiership.


Months players were born
STV

As we can see, far from there being an even distribution of birthdays across the year, there are far more top-flight professionals born at the start of the year, between January and April. 41% of the players in the Premiership were born in the first third of the year.

Furthermore, these numbers suggest a player is almost twice as likely to make it as a professional in Scotland’s top flight if they were born in January, February or March (61 players) than if they were born in October, November or December (36 players).

Of course, we’re only looking at one season here. Although the numbers appear significant in this one season (187 players counted), we probably should delve a little deeper and make sure this isn’t a fluke.

Widening the net

We’ve applied the same set of rules as we did in the above example, but this time we’ve applied it to every Scottish player who has appeared in the top flight over the last five seasons. Does the pattern still hold true?


Month of birth
STV

Not only do we again see the largest group of players being drawn from that January-April age bracket, we can start to see a trend. There are less top-flight players born in the later months of the year than there are born in the earlier months.


Months of birth (line)
STV

Why?

The age cut-off for each year at Scottish schools is between the start of March and the end of February. Kids who turn five in February will start primary school in August with kids who don’t turn five until the end of March. In teaching circles there has been great debate about “The Rising Fives”; should children start school at four if they are a year younger than some of their classmates?

While this seems relatively innocuous, it can make a significant impact on development and education standards in the early years. Children with March birthdays have had a year longer to develop the life skills that will help them at school than those born in February.

Age cut-offs for football in Scotland run from January to December. A child born on January 1 2001 will play in the same under-13s division at those born in December 2001, even though he is a year older and in a higher class at school. Just as there are obvious educational advantages to an extra year’s experience before you start school, there are even more pronounced advantages in sport.

Not only do children born earlier in the year have more time to learn, they can also have a significant physical advantage from up to an extra 12 months development. This advantage may seem slight, but coaches and parents are far more likely to focus their efforts on children who show great aptitude at this level.

It’s not that children born in January are better players, or their star sign has determined their aptitude, it’s that they have physical and developmental advantages. If the football cut-off ran from December to the end of November, we’d see a huge spike in the number of players born at the end of the year within a couple of decades.

Naturally, coaches who want to develop talent focus more time, effort and physical training on the “best” players at youth level, and the “best” players are most likely to be the ones who have had more time, effort and physical training, namely, the oldest. By contrast, those who are younger are less likely to have developed physically, have spent less time playing the game, and so receive less attention from elite coaches. If that happens, they’re more likely to give up.

Solutions

It isn’t especially problematic that those born earlier in the year get an advantage. The problem lies in the fact that those born later in the year are at a serious disadvantage. While those born in November and December aren’t dropping out of football altogether, the fact that there are significantly fewer footballers born in these months is problematic. Potentially, we are talented losing players, by putting them at a disadvantage.

One possible solution would be to break up the age ranges at under 13 and under 15 into two or three sub-levels. If there were no more than four or six months between the oldest and youngest in a certain age range, there would be less discrepancy between physical development and match savvy. It would be easier to identify talented players born later in the year, who may have been otherwise lost to the game.

We’ve all heard the stories of a talented player being released by a club because he was “too small” or “wasn’t strong enough”. Players reach maturity at different times, but the advantage of an extra year’s training means older players are always more likely to stand out. More concentrated age ranges during developmental years could only increase the numbers of talented players we produce.

I never had a chance as a professional football in Scotland. I was born on December 30. That’s my excuse.



This was all documented in Malcolm Gladwell's book , can't remember which one though !

Plagiarising STV bassas.
I'm guessing it was Outliers :suspect:
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Bawman
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TheGloryYears
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From the STV website

http://stv.tv/sport/football/303738-why-your-birthday-might-help-you-become-scotlands-next-football-talent/


Why your birthday might help you become Scotland's next football talent




STV

30 December 2014





When you are born has an impact on how likely you are to play professional football. Thom Watt explains.








Andrew Robertson
SNS Group

Has your child shown a bit of early aptitude with a ball at their feet? Are they that bit quicker than their peers at spotting a pass, running into space, anticipating an opposition space?

Yes? Congratulations, they might have a chance to make it to the top.

Were they born in January, February or March? Even better.



Why? More footballers in Scotland are born in the first three months of the year than at any other period. In fact, almost half are born in the first four months of the year, and you are twice as likely to make it as a professional in Scotland if you are born in January rather than December.



This all sounds highly implausible, or perhaps just a simple coincidence, but there are interesting reasons why players born in January, February or March have an advantage, and why we might be losing out on great players born later in the year.

We do also have to point out a great deal of credit for this thinking has to go to Malcolm Gladwell, whose Outliers book first highlighted some of the ideas here. Needless to say, it’s well, well worth tracking down.

The advantage of being born early

In theory, it shouldn’t matter what time of the year you are born. If you push yourself, train hard, listen to your coaches, stay injury free, and dedicate your developing years to football, you’ll have a chance of being a professional. It should be that simple.

There should be no reason at all that a player born in October has any advantage or disadvantage over one born in March. If we built a diagram showing which months of the year top-flight Scottish professionals were born, we’d expect a fairly even distribution throughout the year.

The following diagram shows a breakdown of when top-flight Scottish players were born in any given year. We’ve split the year into three separate time periods, January to April, May to August, and September to December. We’ve only recorded players who were born and trained in Scotland, and who have a squad number in the 2014/15 Scottish Premiership.


Months players were born
STV

As we can see, far from there being an even distribution of birthdays across the year, there are far more top-flight professionals born at the start of the year, between January and April. 41% of the players in the Premiership were born in the first third of the year.

Furthermore, these numbers suggest a player is almost twice as likely to make it as a professional in Scotland’s top flight if they were born in January, February or March (61 players) than if they were born in October, November or December (36 players).

Of course, we’re only looking at one season here. Although the numbers appear significant in this one season (187 players counted), we probably should delve a little deeper and make sure this isn’t a fluke.

Widening the net

We’ve applied the same set of rules as we did in the above example, but this time we’ve applied it to every Scottish player who has appeared in the top flight over the last five seasons. Does the pattern still hold true?


Month of birth
STV

Not only do we again see the largest group of players being drawn from that January-April age bracket, we can start to see a trend. There are less top-flight players born in the later months of the year than there are born in the earlier months.


Months of birth (line)
STV

Why?

The age cut-off for each year at Scottish schools is between the start of March and the end of February. Kids who turn five in February will start primary school in August with kids who don’t turn five until the end of March. In teaching circles there has been great debate about “The Rising Fives”; should children start school at four if they are a year younger than some of their classmates?

While this seems relatively innocuous, it can make a significant impact on development and education standards in the early years. Children with March birthdays have had a year longer to develop the life skills that will help them at school than those born in February.

Age cut-offs for football in Scotland run from January to December. A child born on January 1 2001 will play in the same under-13s division at those born in December 2001, even though he is a year older and in a higher class at school. Just as there are obvious educational advantages to an extra year’s experience before you start school, there are even more pronounced advantages in sport.

Not only do children born earlier in the year have more time to learn, they can also have a significant physical advantage from up to an extra 12 months development. This advantage may seem slight, but coaches and parents are far more likely to focus their efforts on children who show great aptitude at this level.

It’s not that children born in January are better players, or their star sign has determined their aptitude, it’s that they have physical and developmental advantages. If the football cut-off ran from December to the end of November, we’d see a huge spike in the number of players born at the end of the year within a couple of decades.

Naturally, coaches who want to develop talent focus more time, effort and physical training on the “best” players at youth level, and the “best” players are most likely to be the ones who have had more time, effort and physical training, namely, the oldest. By contrast, those who are younger are less likely to have developed physically, have spent less time playing the game, and so receive less attention from elite coaches. If that happens, they’re more likely to give up.

Solutions

It isn’t especially problematic that those born earlier in the year get an advantage. The problem lies in the fact that those born later in the year are at a serious disadvantage. While those born in November and December aren’t dropping out of football altogether, the fact that there are significantly fewer footballers born in these months is problematic. Potentially, we are talented losing players, by putting them at a disadvantage.

One possible solution would be to break up the age ranges at under 13 and under 15 into two or three sub-levels. If there were no more than four or six months between the oldest and youngest in a certain age range, there would be less discrepancy between physical development and match savvy. It would be easier to identify talented players born later in the year, who may have been otherwise lost to the game.

We’ve all heard the stories of a talented player being released by a club because he was “too small” or “wasn’t strong enough”. Players reach maturity at different times, but the advantage of an extra year’s training means older players are always more likely to stand out. More concentrated age ranges during developmental years could only increase the numbers of talented players we produce.

I never had a chance as a professional football in Scotland. I was born on December 30. That’s my excuse.



This was all documented in Malcolm Gladwell's book , can't remember which one though !

Plagiarising STV bassas.
The Outliers
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greenjedi
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SwavBhoy
4 Oct 2016, 04:24 PM
greenjedi
4 Oct 2016, 03:57 PM
SaMule
4 Oct 2016, 03:41 PM

Quoting limited to 3 levels deep
From the STV website

http://stv.tv/sport/football/303738-why-your-birthday-might-help-you-become-scotlands-next-football-talent/


Why your birthday might help you become Scotland's next football talent




Spoiler: click to toggle


Used to be August 1st when I played. My birthday is in March and I played with boys that were mainly in the year above me at school. The ones that turned pro, that were in my class or year all played in the 'unders' below me.

It's the same thing, except it's now January.
It used to be October when I was wee as well.
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GetFunky
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Should be forbidden to report on sporting prospects under the age of 16.

Disgusting to heap loads of pressure on youngsters. Let them focus on their school work and developing as a player before hyping them.
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Interview with the guy who apparently discovered the Wee Dembele at 5yrs coming up on Clyde apparently.
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