NOWT IN RESERVE
St Johnstone are set to snub Scottish football’s newlook reserve league when it kicks off in August.
Club chairman Steve Brown (right) has expressed concern over the second-
replace the heavily criticised Under-20 Development League – a revamp proposed as part of Project Brave.
However MailSport can reveal the end product has been diluted from the original proposal and Saints are hedging their bets on whether it has any financial or football value to them as a club.
The league will consist of 17 teams – 18 if the Perth club opt in by the end of July – but they’ll play each other only ONCE, either home or away.
The SPFLhave also deregulated, meaning clubs will be allowed to play at their training grounds as well as any licensed SPFL stadia.
And the original proposal of having a minimum number of senior pros required to school their development kids has also been scrapped.
Games will kick off on Mondays at 2pm – the aim is to persuade first team bosses to allow players to take part and still recover for the following Saturday – and teams will be allowed five subs.
The SPFL have also canvassed clubs on the creation of a Reserve League Cup to bring the number of games they play up to a maximum of 20.
Saints are the only current top-f light club not on board.
The 17 clubs currently listed are the 11 other Premiership clubs from last season, plus Championship sides St Mirren, Dunfermline, Dundee United, Falkirk, Morton and Queen of the South.
Newly promoted Livingston haven’t applied.
St Johnstone chairman Brown is worried the new set-up could hinder their on-field performances.
The club missed out on a top-six finish by three points and a dozen or so goals and Brown said: “Spending money there would mean pulling it back from the first team and we still have to decide whether that’s the right thing for us.
“It’s also important to see whether the whole concept is right in a football sense for the club.
“We’ll continue to use the loan structure set-up as the best development path for our young players to gain the experience they need.
“Jason Kerr said it himself recently. He went on loan to East Fife and Queen of the South, played 100 games and he believed even playing against League Two sides was better for him that going over to the development league.
“We have to consider that before we make up our mind if we want to take part in this rebranding.”