Almond is definitely the next one to come through after Neil, IMO. Brandon Taylor will be released at the end of the summer and I’d be surprised if Younger stays on if we don’t go up, despite being very impressive for me, as he will be 23 in November. Wouldn’t have a problem with Almond, Younger or Patterson being in and around the first team squad if we go up. PA, whilst a hell of a unit for his age does need to be careful with his conditioning and injuries. He needs to keep trim and be careful with muscle injuries because of his side. He’s a good passer of the ball from what I’ve seen of him as well.
No, hopefully with the new upgraded streaming services etc we will get to see some live games where possible.
Most of the top clubs do this and I and think we will follow suit as it would help with the integration of players. I hope we start playing one or two fringe players into the line ups to foster bonding and development. I may be old fashioned, but I still hanker after the old reserve team set up tbh. I now wonder if Parky in trying to humiliate McGeady spectacularly backfired and has in part inspired his amazing come back, I would like to think so, one thing we can say with certainty is that it did the U23's no harm .
Younger was outstanding in the cup game earlier in the season, once again ruined by an unfortunate injury, ( this happens so often it needs looking at ) he should be re-signed and loaned out , we have to use this pathway for a while until the re-structuring of the club is completed. Showing these young players that they are appreciated will do wonders for them and even if they all don't break into the first team it would be priceless in attracting top youngsters to this club we all love.
I wouldn’t be against it per se but like I said, the lad is 23 early next season. He’s no longer a young’un really. If he’s not going to be pushing for a place in the first team at that stage of his career, when is he? He was brought in basically as a squad filler for the Development squad due to the abject failures of Donald, Metheven and Paul Reid etc. I’ve been impressed by him when I have seen him especially in the Papa Johns game when he came off at HT due to injury. I thought he was the best player in that 45 minutes. The fact is though, unless he’s good enough to be a regular in the squad for the rest of this season and next season then he’s not getting a contract and rightly so, especially if Almond is progressing as well as we believe.
Almond was born 16/04/03 and Younger was born 14 /11 /1999 and is the better of the two imo. although both look very promising first team material as does Patterson, they form the basis of a very good defensive unit that could easily make the step up in the next 12 months.
