The long term plan for the club is to have a high amount of academy graduates playing in the first team, whilst having a conveyor belt of talent coming through to take their place when they move on. Sprinkle that with signings like Fuchs, Shankland, Siegrist and we are on to a winner.

The problem we have at the minute is that its not really kicked in yet, but we all want it to!

So right now we've got Robson, Appere and Chalmers (maybe) who are boys that are now in their 20s and you'd call them established first team squad players. Robson is a regular starter. Chalmers and Appere look like over the next year or two they will be. So thats the start of it.

We then have boys like Graham and Freeman who are at the stage where they need to step up and show they can be part of the first team. Both 20 (I think) so their current loan spells is the time for them to show what they can do. Glass sits on his own as this injury has set him back massively - interesting to note that his injury could have been career ending. But it looks like he'll be back for pre-season.

You then have your very young guys that we have to be patient with. Neilson, Mochrie, Fotheringham, Meekison K Smith, Watson, Hutchison are all boys still only 18 or younger but the club appear to have very high hopes for. They need to be given time and in my eyes you can have a real opinion on them when they are 20 years old and have had at least 1 loan spell and a few first team games under their belt.

The plan appears to be working, we have a conveyor belt, but its only just about to start moving. I'm excited about the future our of club with the way the Youth setup looks at the minute. It's important to strike a balance of having good first team players mixed with promising youngsters. We havent had this since 2013. And it was a massive part of the reason that 2016 happened.