Steve Clarke urges Rangers to sit down with SPFL to solve issue plaguing Scottish football
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Scotland manager Steve Clarke has challenged Rangers to sit down with the rest of the SPFL and work out a way to get more young players playing top level football.
The lack of young players in Scottish football is a hot topic of debate at the moment, with statistics revealing the SPFL severely lags behind other comparable nations when it comes to minutes for U21 players.
With the discussion sparked by data released by analyst Gary King on X, Motherwell lead the way in the Scottish Premiership with 18% of their minutes this season handed to youth players.
Rangers – rather depressingly – sit at 0%. As do Celtic and Aberdeen.
To go a step further, when you compare Scotland's top three clubs to similar sized nations the results are equally damning.
The situation has been directly linked to Scotland's consistent underachieving of the last few decades and the discussion has taken a new dimension ahead of the UEFA Nations League clash with Croatia.
The Croats consistently punch above their weight on the national stage and even reached the 2018 World Cup Final in Russia.
Motherwell manager Stuart Kettlewell referenced the statistics in a recent interview (BBC Sport) and now Steve Clarke has found himself answering questions on the situation.
Discussing Croatia, Clarke reckons Scotland can learn from what the Balkans nation is doing and has urged the country to change direction with how it brings through youth talent.
Scotland 'needs to change' youth set-up
"That's a very, very good question," Clarke told Sky Sports when asked about what Croatia are doing right and Scotland aren't.
"They've got their system set up right from the young ages all the way through.
"Because they seem to have a conveyer belt of talent where they keep bringing these players through.
"They also have a lot of players with longevity at the top level with over 100 caps or getting between 75 and 100 caps. They've just got the balance right.
"They produce a lot of good young players, they bring them through, they allow them to play quite a lot of games in their own country before they move out.
"Which I think is a really good grounding and something that maybe we can get better at in this country.
"And show a pathway for the young players. There's a lot that we need to keep trying to change in Scotland if we want to get better.
"We need to come up with something that's maybe a little bit different because if we keep doing what we're doing, it isn't going to get any better.
"If we continue to do what we're doing, we'll always get what we get.
"So we have to try and find a way but the change has to be driven from the top so they have to understand that we need to change and then we try to change."
Rangers must bang heads with other SPFL clubs
Steve Clarke has also urged the SPFL clubs to come together and agree on a new set of standards which will drive player development in Scotland.
With the pressure rising at Rangers, Philippe Clement insists the club will take a more youth-focused approach in both the transfer market and on the pitch.
But so far the likes of Robbie Fraser and Cole McKinnon have had fleeting opportunities, whilst once bright talents Leon King, Adam Devine and Alex Lowry find themselves on the fringes of the team.
It's a situation which needs to change with the likes of Findlay Curtis turning heads in the Rangers B team, but Philippe Clement & co reluctant to throw the 18-year-old into action.
Others such as Bailey Rice have found their Rangers chances limited even if there have been positive steps forward in this regard at Ibrox this season.
"It needs a collective understanding," said Clarke. "It's not just the people at the SFA, it's the people that are in charge of the clubs.
"Everybody needs to sit down and try to work out a way that we can improve moving forward.
"I can't speak for the clubs, whether they think the national team is more important than their club.
"Having been a club manager, you have got your own interests to look after, so I understand both sides of the argument.
"As a club manager you're under pressure every week to get results and if that means playing more experienced players, sometimes that's what you do.
"But what we have to do is we have to find more young players, the more young players you find the more likely it is that some of them will get into the first team.
"At the moment you've probably only got two or three (young Scottish players) who are in and around the fringes at most clubs.
"Can we get more? Can we get half-a-dozen? Can we get eight? That's the sort of numbers we should be looking to get.
"It's really important for young players to play. It's to find a way to get these young players to play, not to stipulate that they have to be in the matchday squad.
"Because then they don't play at the underage level, they don't play in the matchday squad, they don't get any minutes.
"The more minutes they get, the more likely they are to have a career."
