BACK IN BIG TIME Former Rangers youth chief Jimmy Sinclair set for key role as Sunderland’s new academy director The ex-youth supremo at Murray Park is set to join up with former Gers chief executive Martin Bain at the Stadium of Light EXCLUSIVE BY GARETH LAW JIMMY SINCLAIR is set to be appointed Sunderland’s new academy director. SunSport understands the former Rangers youth chief is close to securing a deal to join the Black Cats. please log in to view this image SCOTTISH NEWS AND SPORT 1 Jimmy Sinclair was youth supremo at Ibrox Stadium of Light chief executive Martin Bain appointed Sinclair to the same job at Murray Park in 2006. They now look to be on the brink of teaming up again at the Stadium of Light. Sinclair, 59, spent the end of last season as coach at Aston Villa after being offered the post by caretaker manager Eric Black. But they left their positions after the club were relegated from the Premier League. Sunderland have been looking to bring in someone since November, when Ged McNamee stepped down after 20 years at the club. Anybody know anything about this bloke. Can`t recall Rangers being famous for churning out top class players.
An interview with Jimmy Sinclair. I'll leave this with you all... Despite constant criticism from the stands at the lack of top-team talent emerging, Sinclair insists he can still look himself in the mirror every morning over a job he considers done to the best of his abilities. “You have a job to do and I remember Martin Bain saying to me, ‘Jimmy, we’ll expect two players a season’, and I had to stop him and say, ‘Those targets won’t be determined by me’. “I’ll work as hard as I can until you tell me it’s not good enough but I won’t have a view – and I still don’t – on any manager, particularly at Rangers , who decides to play a senior player ahead of a young player. “Because unless you’ve stood there, and I haven’t, thank God, then who am I to say, ‘Gaffer, you need to play the weans.’ “Maybe I should have tried to do things differently, cultivate a relationship with the manager where I could say, ‘I think Tom Walsh can do better than David Templeton’ or whatever but I didn’t. “I saw it as my job to set about producing as good a player as I could for Rangers’ first team. And the managers and coaches were at games and training sessions. In my mind it would be insulting for me to say, ‘Do you not think Walshy could do you a turn?’ “The gaffer will decide for himself if Danny Wilson, Jamie Ness, John Fleck, whoever it might be, is ready. “I understand the mechanics of how it should work – to say we need at least a player a year coming through as it’s part of the fundraising ethos of the club. “That’s great in a boardroom but stand out on the touchline and deal with the sh**e raining down on top of you, with the head of youth sitting at your back, shaking his head? “I don’t see that happening.” Sinclair was well acquainted with various online campaigns questioning his strategy for the club – but only because others made him aware. He sighed: “I stay well away from social media but the criticism filters down. “And it’s frustrating. Tam Wilson used to come and say, ‘Sinky, have you seen this website?’ I’d just look at him and say ‘Tam, why would I do that? It won’t make my day any better, will it?’ “I refused. Why use energy worrying about it? I can also say hand on heart that the parents of kids in the system were great. “But bottom line, the circumstances around the Old Firm are unique. It’s difficult, and it’s always going to be difficult, for me and Chris McCart or whoever occupies the seat at either club. “If there’s a big budget, and there generally always will be, it would take a brave manager to give kids consistent opportunities.” “Preparing kids for the first team isn’t easy, it’s compounded by everything else that goes on. Some are built for it and some aren’t.” Sinclair believes the reasons for the latter are more complex than simply a Rangers or Celtic issue. In his previous roles as the SFA’s Technical Director and Head of Youth Development he could see the socio-cultural changes affecting the national game. He said: “There’s a lack of drive. Kids expend a lot of time and energy coming to training, as do their parents, but there’s a lot of sacrifice and discipline as they get older that a lot aren’t prepared to put in. “They train three times a week but is that the only time they have a ball at their feet? “How do you ever make up that time? It’s a well-worn argument and it’s quite boring now as I was having it when I was sitting in the seat at Hampden as well all these years ago. “There have been great efforts made to up the contact hours but no amount of money can recreate the natural environment that existed before. It’s better organised now, there’s better coaches, better facilities and yet the organic way the game used to develop, you can’t replace it. “Football now is at training, they jump in the car, go to Murray Park, Lennoxtown, but it’s completely alien to them to throw the jackets down. I don’t want to despair but how do you get that back? It’s a societal thing. “The best ones will still have the hunger. A lot of youth international players won’t make it because they’re not driven enough but there will always be exceptional examples. “It’s just a shame football now has become so organised and dependent on adult supervision. It has become institutionalised. “I can look myself in the mirror as I couldn’t have tried any harder. I did the job as well as I could. If the perception is it wasn’t successful, I can’t help that. I also can’t criticise the club for its support of youth development. In difficult times they kept up a high level of support. “Unlike the websites, I’m comfortable with the job I did. Guys like Danny Wilson, Jamie Ness, Rhys McCabe, John Fleck, Kyle Hutton, Gregg Wylde and a host of others, they played in league winning teams. “Hutton played in the Champions League against Man United. I don’t have any sleepless nights that I short-changed Rangers – I worked as hard as I could and there were enough boys brought through.”
If it's true that your average bloke in the stands was pissed off at a lack of talent coming through then that makes me worried. He sounds blinkered and old fashioned from the interview.
Agreed, another dinosaur and miserable bastard. Should get on with Moyes. Scottish people are **** at football and now we have them running the club.
I'll give him a fair crack of the whip and judge him on results. Big bad unreasonable Bri being reasonable as a per.
Surely youve heard of Phil McCrackin, C Mike Crack, Clee Torres, Hugh Jardon, Mike Coxlittle, and Will U Suckminuts. Just a few of the gems hes unearthed.
Nah, I'm going to be protesting outside the stadium at the first match because expressing mild doubts is the same as refusing to give him a fair go clearly. Obviously all we can do is judge him on results.
As I have faith in Martin Baines and he has worked with Jimmy Sinclair - I'm fine with this as JS will bring his football experience to the club - onwards and upwards for me..... atm
Its not Just Sunderland who are not producing players that are any good, look at Liverpool against Wolves there young players are awful, to me its down to coaching all they do is pass square or pass it back or pass it wide, where is the dribbling running a defences it seems coaches don't approve of this, as its been said, Football is a simple game complicated by coaches, when a substitution is being made a coach shows a player a dossier of what to do, surely he should just say 'go on and make a difference'.
Apart from Henderson the others are fairly recent. As much as I liked Ball as a player the standard seems to have improved since he was moved on. Hopefully the same will apply with McNamee. Plenty have moved on to carve out a career in the lower leagues which is great for them but not the standard we need. The club must see this as a step up but for it to succeed the input must improve. That will be dependant on the scouts and I`m far from convinced on that score.
Jobs for the boys again, seriously man the club is dead and we are seeing the last scavengers picking the bones clean now
