Stephen Robinson has lifted the lid on St Mirren’s development goals as he reveals the plan behind players’ loan moves.
The Buddies boss highlighted how the club has “cherry-picked moves” for their younger players out on loan as they aim to get the best out of them.
Players such as Kieran Offord made the loan move across the water to the Northern Irish Football League Premiership side Crusaders where the young forward has scored four goals in four games.
Fraser Taylor has been capturing the eyes of the fans at Arbroath whilst Lewis Jamieson has been in and out of a competitive Raith Rovers team, and young Gallagher Lennon has been getting vital experience at Scottish League One side Annan Atheltic.
Speaking to St Mirren’s media team, Robbo opened up on the process of making sure the younger players get the development they need.
He said: “We have cherry picked the moves that we want for players. Sometimes they work out really well, sometimes they don’t get game time. Luke Kenny didn’t get a lot of game time at Cliftonville last year.
“Lewis (Jamieson) is in and out of the Raith team at this moment in time. But that develops them as well. Ultimately they need to come back good enough for the first team.
“The club has moved on, it has changed in terms of the levels needed to break into the first team now. That might take slightly longer or you need to be lucky in terms of injuries or suspensions and getting an opportunity.
“We felt that if they weren’t going to play on a regular basis right now then the only way they develop is by playing games [on loan]. And we have the belief that these younger players between 18 and 20 need to get game time.”
The Northern Irish manager knows all too well how vital game time is for players’ development through his own experience.
Robbo was on the books of English Premier League giants Tottenham Hotspur as a young player in 1994.
Looking to get essential game time, he moved to AFC Bournemouth looking for opportunities and kickstarted his career at the Dorset club where he went on to make more than 240 appearances.
Robbo went on to say: “The players get to 21 and 22 and they have sat on the bench and maybe came on 10 times. But they don’t develop as people, they don’t deal with disappointment.
“It is massively important we pick the right loan moves for them and we have had a lot of success in the Nothern Ireland market in terms of loans.
“Kieran (Offord) has hit the ground running….we expect Raith (Rovers) to be at the top of the division so it will be a challenge for Lewis Jamieson.
“With Fraser [Taylor], he had already been out in the Irish league, for Ballymena [United] who struggled last season and that was a different test for him. Now, he has gone out until Christmas to get game time as sitting on the bench they won’t develop.
“Standards have been raised and it is up to the young players to come back and be good enough, and show us they are good enough.”
Don’t miss the latestRenfrewshire headlines –sign up to our free daily newsletter here