STUART ARMSTRONG and Kieran Tierney may be team mates at both Celtic and now – after the former made his long-awaited international debut in the Russia 2018 qualifier against Slovenia at Hampden last night – Scotland, but the paths each player took to reach the peak of their professions couldn’t be more contrasting.
Tierney joined Celtic at the age of just seven and progressed through the youth ranks at Parkhead before making his first-team debut on a pre-season tour when he was 17 in 2014.
Remarkably, that was how old Armstrong was when he joined Dundee United in 2009. He may have made the breakthrough at Tannadice after little over a year and then gone from strength to strength but, prior to that, he had a brief spell at Inverness Caledonian Thistle in his home city and represented Dyce Boys Club in Aberdeen.
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The midfielder, the form player in the Ladbrokes Premiership at the moment, looked back fondly on his five years with Dyce as he prepared to win his first cap for his country last week. “I had a lot of good times there,” he said. “It’s something different that I have experienced from other boys who have been at professional clubs since they were young.
“I think KT [Tierney] joined Celtic when he was one! He’s been there forever! I came into professional football when I was 17. But it was nice not to have that club football element when I was growing up.”
Armstrong’s remarks brought to mind a conversation with the father of a nine-year-old boy who contacted The Herald last year to voice his deep concerns about the “dysfunctional” and “horrible” Club Academy Scotland system.
His son was a gifted footballer who had been named Player of the Year two seasons running at his boys’ club in Glasgow, had attracted the attention of no fewer than three Labdrokes Premiership clubs and had started training with two of them.
His old man – who had grown accustomed to his child making close friends and having lots of fun in both coaching sessions and games at boys club level over the preceding years – was horrified by what then ensued.
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He discovered the pressure on his son to perform and win a place in the pro-youth set-up was, despite his tender years, intense. He witnessed hostility from other kids that bordered on bullying as a result of that. He was also alarmed by the devastating impact on those, and there were plenty of them, who were blithely discarded.
He took his boy back to his old club where he has, mercifully, since rediscovered his love of the sport. But others are less fortunate. Many grow disillusioned and are permanently scarred as a result of their experiences and drift away from the game.
Armstrong, an intelligent individual who is studying for a law degree through the Open University, certainly had chances aplenty to join a senior club as a youngster and opted not to take them. He has no regrets. In fact, he remains relieved he didn’t go down the route taken by so many of his contemporaries. With, it would seem, good reason.
The changes which are set to be implemented into the controversial programme – the number of academies and players who attend them are to be substantially reduced – are designed to increase the number of footballers who progress to first-team level at our senior clubs.
But it is to be hoped that another by-product of Project Brave is that there are far fewer casualties of what can be, at its worst, a cruel structure.
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Tierney is, as well as being an exceptional talent who could serve his country with distinction for the next two decades, a personable and well-balanced young man. Growing up at a professional club hasn’t damaged him one bit. Quite the opposite. But he is one of the success stories. There are many others who have suffered from being a part of such an environment at such a young age.
Jim McInally, the former Dundee United and Scotland midfielder who is now Peterhead manager, caused a storm of controversy a couple of years ago when he claimed the pro-youth set-up was driving kids to the brink of suicide. But he wasn’t exaggerating.
With any luck, Armstrong’s success will show kids and their parents there is more than one way to fulfil your dreams of becoming a full-time footballer and underline that being rejected by a club before you have even reached puberty doesn’t mean you won’t be good enough to make it at some point in the future.
Armstrong's rise to prominence will also serve as a reminder to clubs not to disregard the players who were overlooked or decided to keep playing with their pals and are excelling in our flourishing boys’ club scene.
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