Keep faith with kids: Longwell

The academy boss who helped St Mirren bank more than £1 million in transfer fees has urged Scottish clubs to keep faith with youth development.

Davie Longwell is responsible for shaping the careers of John Mcginn, Kenny Mclean, Stevie Mallan, Kyle Mcallister and new Celtic recruit Lewis Morgan.

All have been sold on by the Buddies for substantial profits and the sum could rise again this summer thanks to the 33% sell-on clause Saints inserted into the deal that took midfielder Mcginn to Hibernian.

Yet concern has been raised about the future of the club’s successful youth set-up after it failed to achieve ‘elite’ status as part of the Scottish Football Association’s new Project Brave system.

Top-flight outfits Dundee, Partick Thistle, Ross County and St Johnstone also missed out on the top banding – which requires clubs to hire six full-time academy staff – while Falkirk have taken the radical step of scrapping their successful youth set-up altogether in order to plough funds into their first team.

But Longwell says Saints’ example proves massive sums are not needed to generate talent.

“Even if clubs haven’t made it into the elite banding, they can still bring players through,” he said.

As long as they make sure there is a pathway to the first team, missing out on the elite status doesn’t have to be the end of the world.”