Shiels concerned by Killie’s toil to snap up stars of tomorrow
KILMARNOCK manager Kenny Shiels knows that the only way for the Ayrshire club to reduce debts of £9.5million is to find and develop young talent which can subsequently be sold on at a profit.
However, the Northern Irishman revealed that the Scottish Communities League Cup holders are struggling to compete for the country’s best kids, admitting that they are effectively being priced out of the market for 14-year-olds.
All of which makes life more difficult for provincial clubs attempting to trade their way back into the black. Shiels, though, refuses to give up the fight.
‘We are a selling club but that has become harder because the system has changed in the last four or five years. Of the 22 players in the most recent Scotland Under-15 squad, 10 of them were from Celtic,’ said Shiels, whose point is also underlined by 10 Celtic players featuring in the latest Scotland Under-20s squad.
‘As things stand, the Category A players are currently signed for Celtic. When it comes to the future £1-£4m players, we wouldn’t be getting that kind of stock, so it will be difficult for us to become a selling club.
‘Our youth set-up is good but I want to make it better. I’ve only been at the club for two years and only been manager for a year. These things take time but I want to improve things.
‘We need to spend more time with our youngsters to develop them into Category A players.
‘We’re priced out when it comes to 14-year-old players but I’m not blaming anyone for that because it happens in every country in the world.
‘If you’re in Portugal, the best kids will have signed for Benfica and Porto. In Scotland, they should be at Celtic and Rangers or at Manchester United, Arsenal or whoever in England.
‘However, the system has become more loaded in favour of the big guns in recent years. Celtic won the recent Youth Cup Final 8-0, which tells its own story.
‘We used nine youth players in our first team last season, which is more than most. I wanted to give them that experience and maybe the possibility of getting that chance quicker than they would at Parkhead or Ibrox will persuade parents to trust us with their sons.
‘Our two most viable assets at present are Cammy Bell and Liam Kelly. We want to keep them but, if we have to sell, then the club will benefit from that.
‘I’m looking at those two because of the potential that they have. There are others as well — if Ben Gordon and Dean Shiels choose to sign for us, then they’ll belong in that group, too.’
Ideally, Shiels would prefer to field an entire first-team of players who had come through the ranks at Rugby Park.
‘That would be Utopia because it would mean that the model was working to perfection,’ he said.
‘Unfortunately, you never get perfection in life. It would be asking a lot but what a great aspiration to have.
‘We’ll do our best to pull it off — although we might end up in the First Division!’
At least Shiels will be spared the hectic activity he endured last summer, when 13 players left the club and another 16 were brought in, with varying degrees of success.
‘As far as the numbers are concerned, this summer won’t be as busy — indirectly, we have the same embargo that Rangers have!’ he joked.
‘I had to bring in a lot of players last year because we’d lost a lot, but that hasn’t been the case this time.
‘Danny Buijs, David Silva and Zdenek Kroca have been told they won’t be staying with the club.
‘There are leagues in Europe which still have games to play and I was at one of them on Monday night, so there is the possibility of bringing players in — but only if they are better than the ones already here.
‘I’m just trying to establish what our needs are. We finished the season with two young fullbacks — Lewis Toshney and Gordon — on loan from Celtic and Chelsea respectively.
‘We’d like to sign them on permanent deals but I don’t know yet whether we’ll need to replace either of them.’