Zeb Jacobs, Academy Director Leaving At End Of The Season For Feyenoord

Always thought he looked like he'd be more suited to playing bass in Vampire Weekend than youth coaching.

Huge move for him. Hope he does well there.
 
Time to scrap the Academy?

Or rethink the way to get young players into our team?

Lewis Mayo spent years at Ibrox and never put a foot wrong when he did get into the team. He's now at Killie and McInnes saying he should get a Scotland call up.

Might be we sell our best prospects to another team with a buyback clause?
 
Ampersand said:
Time to scrap the Academy?

Or rethink the way to get young players into our team?

Lewis Mayo spent years at Ibrox and never put a foot wrong when he did get into the team. He's now at Killie and McInnes saying he should get a Scotland call up.

Might be we sell our best prospects to another team with a buyback clause?
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Don’t you need an academy to be eligible for European football?

Just because it isn’t working doesn’t mean you should scrap it. So the second point is likely the way forward.

In recent years we’ve had King step in, albeit he came in during a horrific European run and suffered as a result.
Devine as a stand in for Borna in a couple of games and back up to Tav. Currently away on loan but likely not to see any future with us based on his performances at Motherwell unless I’m mistaken.
Lowrie clearly has talent but there’s questions over his attitude apparently. Hopefully Clement is able to grow him as a player when he comes back.
McAusland who while not sparkling has stepped up as a member of the First Team and been competent.
Rice has started to break in, but no idea what’s happening with him.
Patterson who we made a large sum of money on.

I’d say that’s not the worst story and, disregarding clubs outside of the UK like Barca and Ajax, are we in any worse/better a position?
 
Ampersand said:
Time to scrap the Academy?

Or rethink the way to get young players into our team?

Lewis Mayo spent years at Ibrox and never put a foot wrong when he did get into the team. He's now at Killie and McInnes saying he should get a Scotland call up.

Might be we sell our best prospects to another team with a buyback clause?
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Why not just loan them for a few seasons and get them the games the need to develop ?
 
Bristol_bnose3 said:
Keep hearing the rumour and innuendo on here that he's 'not well liked' within the club.

Well, if clubs the calibre of City and Feyenoord are looking at him, the problem is perhaps with the mindset within Rangers rather than Jacobs.
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Not a good look for the club. I'm tempted to use shambolic to describe his shortlived tenure, but there are several sides to a story.

Permaflux seems to be the way of things, sadly.
 
For all this criticism of him Rangers and then Feyenoord (Allegedly Man City interest) is some going before hitting 30.

Cameron Campbell got a good move as well so I'd be more inclined to believe it's the other people running the club higher up who as always cause unnecessary hassle.

Who is the person responsible for the state of B Team fixtures? The lowland league is a good standard for boys miles off even league 1 or 2 yet.
 
Ampersand said:
Time to scrap the Academy?

Or rethink the way to get young players into our team?

Lewis Mayo spent years at Ibrox and never put a foot wrong when he did get into the team. He's now at Killie and McInnes saying he should get a Scotland call up.

Might be we sell our best prospects to another team with a buyback clause?
Click to expand...
UEFA requirement is it not?
 
TonyAtTheBing said:
For all this criticism of him Rangers and then Feyenoord (Allegedly Man City interest) is some going before hitting 30.

Cameron Campbell got a good move as well so I'd be more inclined to believe it's the other people running the club higher up who as always cause unnecessary hassle.

Who is the person responsible for the state of B Team fixtures? The lowland league is a good standard for boys miles off even league 1 or 2 yet.
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This is the problem, lads like Jacobs and Campbell will be good in their areas of work but will still need someone above them to advise and guide them. The problem we have is that the people in the high up jobs are hopeless with no football experience. Until we address this we will keep going round in circles.
 
ProYouth and, ostensibly, Rangers and Celtic hoover up the best talent in the country.

Where’s the disconnect?
 
Big Negri said:
This is the problem, lads like Jacobs and Campbell will be good in their areas of work but will still need someone above them to advise and guide them. The problem we have is that the people in the high up jobs are hopeless with no football experience. Until we address this we will keep going round in circles.
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Our current manager has plenty of experience and comes across as the type of guy will now know that the flow of young guys into our first team has been more than disappointing and is likely to want to have a say in how our academy is being run.
 
Hallers said:
Brentford scrapped it then got promoted to the EPL
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We can’t get promoted to the EPL and can’t play in Europe without one.

They are doing well for their position in the food chain, but wouldn’t class Brentford as a top club in terms of European stature and competing for trophies.
 
Could an academy not be set up as a feeder club for say a lower league club either this country or a European club. A club that would take a few of our players and they’d be developed there. Players aren’t getting a chance in our first team and just wasting away.
I know we already have players out on loan but have one or two decent clubs not lower league shite in Scotland where the football is shit and there’s no benefit.
 
Hallers said:
Brentford scrapped it then got promoted to the EPL
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They reinstalled there’s as their plan didn’t work out the way they expected and they believe they’ll be playing European football soon and need it to play in uefa competitions.
 
Supermac1872 said:
We can’t get promoted to the EPL and can’t play in Europe without one.

They are doing well for their position in the food chain, but wouldn’t class Brentford as a top club in terms of European stature and competing for trophies.
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They are playing in the richest league in the world. That's quite incredible isn't with no reserves

can’t play in Europe without one. - everyone knows that. We should run it as cheaply as possible & therefore will be allowed in Europe

B Rice, Lovelace, Connor Young all cost fees. Young now plays for Clyde

We've spent a fortune on the academy.

Tony Weston cost money then was released. The lad would have been on a good wage.
 
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Our fans could do with helping young players at Rangers. One bad pass and they get it in the neck every time. There's a reason why we are the worst and always have been from my memory of bringing young players through.

Patience is needed, but too many just don't want to afford them the time.
 
Ampersand said:
Time to scrap the Academy?

Or rethink the way to get young players into our team?

Lewis Mayo spent years at Ibrox and never put a foot wrong when he did get into the team. He's now at Killie and McInnes saying he should get a Scotland call up.

Might be we sell our best prospects to another team with a buyback clause?
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Buy-back clause should be something we look at, 100%.

We don’t give any of our youth players a chance, either to get in the team or to develop once they get in. Manager after manager has paid lip service to playing academy players. But we as fans have to be a bit more understanding. We’ve had Leon King thrown in at the deep end in recent years and slaughtered by the fans for underwhelming performances. Now Ross McCausland is getting it to some extent too - we need to remember he’s barely played 20 games of football for us.

Also I don’t think Lewis Mayo ever played a competitive game for Rangers first team. How can we judge someones ability without ever playing them?
 
Gameboy said:
They reinstalled there’s as their plan didn’t work out the way they expected and they believe they’ll be playing European football soon and need it to play in uefa competitions.
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Did they scrap it? Yes.

Keep it but reduce costs.

How much do you think Lovelace/Rice/Stevens are on?
 
SuperGers07 said:
The last year at academy level to B team has been underwhelming to say the least.


Lack of competitive games at B team level is piss poor.

Not the loss some will make it out to be I’d say. Now to get the right person in who will address stuff such as the above as a priority
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Yet he was wanted by a team and from a country that put great emphasis on youth development and also Man City but you don't think he will.be a great loss.

You wonder what these clubs see in him
 
Derek76 said:
Yet he was wanted by a team and from a country that put great emphasis on youth development and also Man City but you don't think he will.be a great loss.

You wonder what these clubs see in him
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He's not going to be running their academy though like he was here. He could be a great coach at that level but not fit for leading and developing strategic plans etc.
 
Hallers said:
Did they scrap it? Yes.

Keep it but reduce costs.

How much do you think Lovelace/Rice/Stevens are on?
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Yes they did scrap it, they had a b team idea that would do friendlies and it failed and had to bring it back.

We get credits towards losses in ffp with the cost of the youth academy and the women’s side of the game, cutting the cost would hinder our ffp.

Them players will be on less than what players at Brentford are on. I know two lads who left Scotland to play for them and getting more than what we and them offer.
 
Gameboy said:
Yes they did scrap it, they had a b team idea that would do friendlies and it failed and had to bring it back.

We get credits towards losses in ffp with the cost of the youth academy and the women’s side of the game, cutting the cost would hinder our ffp.

Them players will be on less than what players at Brentford are on. I know two lads who left Scotland to play for them and getting more than what we and them offer.
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We shouldn't be making a loss. Probably for another thread but it's disgraceful way to run a business

Lovelace is on a big wage for his age. He was making appearances for Millwall years ago. We've ruined him tbh

Tony Weston left on a free. He cost 3/400k
 
Bristol_bnose3 said:
Keep hearing the rumour and innuendo on here that he's 'not well liked' within the club.

Well, if clubs the calibre of City and Feyenoord are looking at him, the problem is perhaps with the mindset within Rangers rather than Jacobs.
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It's the mindset within Scottish football in general.

It'll take a lot of work to turn things around and while an appointment like Jacobs is ambitious, a non-Scot is unlikely to remain in Scotland for the required duration to see it through.Thus, a quick departure.

Ultimately our Academy should be about providing squad players for the first team. We might be fortunate and get someone who becomes a first XI starter but in reality that quality will have already gone to England.
 
Big Negri said:
This is the problem, lads like Jacobs and Campbell will be good in their areas of work but will still need someone above them to advise and guide them. The problem we have is that the people in the high up jobs are hopeless with no football experience. Until we address this we will keep going round in circles.
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I think that's exactly the problem we have, the people higher up are bigger fans than I'll ever be but ultimately know very little about football and it repeatedly has us stuck in a cycle that's ensuring we never really overtake Celtic.

The summer was supposed to be the new response to the last few years of domestic failure and it's been the exact same. Manager sacked, money burned and no assets to fuel a rebuild of the rebuild.

We don't have someone at boardroom level who can be trusted to make good decisions in the absence of a manager or director of football who will always come and go, when that has happened they've picked the wrong people and enabled them to burn the clubs resources.
 
Ampersand said:
Time to scrap the Academy?

Or rethink the way to get young players into our team?

Lewis Mayo spent years at Ibrox and never put a foot wrong when he did get into the team. He's now at Killie and McInnes saying he should get a Scotland call up.

Might be we sell our best prospects to another team with a buyback clause?
Click to expand...

sure its needed for some sort of playing license which is fine but time to decrease investment with the income it brings along with players who actually make it with us seems daft the big sale once or twice a decade cant cover it
 
I feel, looking at the role he is going to, that perhaps his step up here wasn't working for him and he's returning to a role that's more his skillset.

A bit like when a coach steps up to being a manager ans misses the coaching.
 
Derek76 said:
Yet he was wanted by a team and from a country that put great emphasis on youth development and also Man City but you don't think he will.be a great loss.

You wonder what these clubs see in him
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My old pal used to say " bullshit baffles brains"
 
Jacobs will have been used to a more technical and less physical style of football compared to what he found in Scotland.

The hammer throwing culture in Scottish football affects every level of the game.
 
Hallers said:
They are playing in the richest league in the world. That's quite incredible isn't with no reserves

can’t play in Europe without one. - everyone knows that. We should run it as cheaply as possible & therefore will be allowed in Europe

B Rice, Lovelace, Connor Young all cost fees. Young now plays for Clyde

We've spent a fortune on the academy.

Tony Weston cost money then was released. The lad would have been on a good wage.
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It’s impressive for a club like Brentford yes. They do have a B team. It doesn’t really work as a direct comparison to our situation or indeed any clubs that have aspirations of winning trophies and in turn European football.

For our budget and standing within Scotland, we should be able to bring in and develop players for our first team.
 
Supermac1872 said:
It’s impressive for a club like Brentford yes. They do have a B team. It doesn’t really work as a direct comparison to our situation or indeed any clubs that have aspirations of winning trophies and in turn European football.

For our budget and standing within Scotland, we should be able to bring in and develop players for our first team.
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But we don't though

Weston cost 400k then got released. Lovelace was making appearances for Millwall & we had to offer him a good wage to get him up here.

It's really not worth spending to much on. Keep it but reduce costs
 
Bristol_bnose3 said:
Keep hearing the rumour and innuendo on here that he's 'not well liked' within the club.

Well, if clubs the calibre of City and Feyenoord are looking at him, the problem is perhaps with the mindset within Rangers rather than Jacobs.
Click to expand...
Exactly this. We haven’t exactly produced a plethora of talent. So maybe he was making the overdue changes and clearing out deadwood.

These “good coaches” that left because of him certainly haven’t ended up at Man City or Feyenoord.
 
dopeydaz said:
Exactly this. We haven’t exactly produced a plethora of talent. So maybe he was making the overdue changes and clearing out deadwood.

These “good coaches” that left because of him certainly haven’t ended up at Man City or Feyenoord.
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This
 
Folk saying he is well sought after etc.

What is it he has done to make him so ? By all accounts our youth system is pretty dire according to some on here (despite us making the final of the scottish youth cup yet again for Wed)

If you are Feyenoord or Man City, what appeals? What is it that stands out and tells you he is the man to look after your youth system?
 
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