We note the newspaper article yesterday that revealed the eight clubs chosen to spearhead the Scottish Football Association’s elite level of Project Brave.
Some supporters have been in touch, disappointed with the decision not to include St Mirren as one of the club’s involved at the elite level of the programme. However, we can confirm that we did not apply for elite level status at this time.
Going forward we will be a part of the ‘Performance Progressive’ category. Having done our research on this we believe that with our current, sustainable business model this category will give us a best possible platform to work towards attaining elite level over the next three years.
To achieve elite level we will have to employ five additional members of staff on a full time basis (U18s Coach, Sports Scientist, Head Of Recruitment, Performance Analyst, Head of Children’s Programme). Over the next three years we will actively strive to recruit these positions as fits in with our business model and the timeframe given to achieve elite level status.
We are proud of the hard work we have done at the academy in recent years which can be seen with the likes of academy graduates Kenny McLean, John McGinn, Lewis Morgan, Kyle Magennis and Stephen Mallan all in the full and U21 Scotland squads in the last week, while Ethan Erhahon and Ben Cameron have been regulars in the U17 and U16 squads over the last year.
That hard work will continue as we look to keep producing players for the first team who can go on to play at the highest level.
