From the Sunday Times........

Kenny Dalglish's foresight in developing the young Caldwell brothers at Newcastle can benefit the nation. By Douglas Alexander

Brothers earn their stripes

EXTENUATING circumstances have caused Kenny Dalglish to relinquish his youth development role at Celtic, but Scotland may still benefit from his legacy at Newcastle United. When he took over at St James' Park from Kevin Keegan in March 1998, Dalglish inherited a club without a reserve team or adequate youth structure, but immediately set about changing that - Stephen and Gary Caldwell may be the first fruits Scotland sees of Dalglish's foresight.

The brothers were raised in Stirling within sight of the Wallace Monument and are considered as potential full internationalists by Craig Brown, Scotland's manager, and his staff. Stephen, 19, will link up today with Alex Smith's Under-21 squad for the friendly against France at Rugby Park on Tuesday night.

Gary, 17, who has captained Scotland at under-16 and under-17 level, will join Ross Mathie's under-18 squad for a tournament in Portugal next month, though Smith already considers him capable of playing at under-21 level.

Mathie, who has worked with both brothers, describes the Caldwells as "magnificent learners and listeners - a credit to their upbringing".

The former Wallace High school pupils are rated so highly within the technical department at Park Gardens that it's not out of the question that they could form a Scotland central defence of the future. In recent times, the only brothers capped by Scotland have been Derek and Barry Ferguson, but the 11-year gap between the award of their caps meant that a partnership was never a possibility.

At Newcastle's youth academy, near Durham, the Caldwells' continuing development is also monitored by Scots. Alan Irvine, the former Everton and Dundee United player recruited by Dalglish from Blackburn, where he helped nurture players such as Damien Duff and Damien Johnson, is director of the club's youth academy. Tommy Craig, Smith's predecessor as Scotland under-21 coach, is involved further up the production line, which the Caldwells hope will lead them to Newcastle's first team.

"They are both big, competitive lads," Irvine said. "They are a bit of a throwback in that they both like defending, but they are both comfortable on the ball and come out with it well." "We like getting stuck in," confirms Stephen.

Gary, who can also play midfield, is more of a natural footballer than Stephen, who has had to work at his distribution. Both are right-footed, although Gary has played on the left. The upbringing Mathie refers to, comes from Tom, their father - he played for East Stirling and won the Scottish Junior Cup with Bo'ness - and Marylynn, their mother.

Jennifer, their younger sister, has had the run of the family home since Gary decided to follow Stephen south two years ago. Stephen recently received a new 12-month contract and knows he must make the breakthrough to the first team soon - an onerous task given the preponderance of central defenders wandering around the club due to the differing preferences of Keegan, Dalglish, Gullit and Robson.

"The changes of manager do affect you," Stephen said. "It takes six or seven months for the next manager to work his way down to looking at the young players. Until they do that, they don't know if you are a player or not and any progress you made under the previous manager is wiped out."

Don Hutchison, who Dalglish signed for Liverpool, used to be invited to his manager's home to watch matches on television. Other examples of Dalglish's concern for his young players' development as people include a string of phone calls he made to Keith Gillespie, the troubled Northern Ireland winger, even after he had been replaced by Gullit at Newcastle.

The Caldwells provide further evidence of a side to Celtic's caretaker manager rarely glimpsed by the press or public. "Kenny Dalglish was one of the biggest factors in me coming here. It was a blow, particularly to the young players, when he left and Ruud Gullit came in," Gary said. "I don't think a lot of people appreciate how much he did on the youth and reserve side of things in a short time. He cares how people feel and he always took time to speak to the younger players."

"It's great having a friend at the same club," Gary said, "but it's even better to have a brother."

-- Anonymous, March 25, 2000

Answers

>>>>>He (Dalglish) cares how people feel

Not the bliddy fans he didn't!!!!! Can you remember packing the defence and clinging on for a 0-1 defeat? Awful, absolutely bliddy awful. Compare that with how we came at Pool yesterday after going behind and nearly won it but for a post and a bent referee.

Interestingly enough, Gullit has been praised in some quarters for his tactical nous so it seems that had KD had Gullit's tactical ability or Gullit had KD's man management skills we might have got somewhere. We are fortunate that YBR is better than both in both departments.

-- Anonymous, March 26, 2000

Compare that with how we came at Pool yesterday after going behind and nearly won it but for a post and a bent referee.>>

Hey Jonno.......what game was that in mate?? It wasn't the one at Anfield that's for sure.

-- Anonymous, March 26, 2000

It certainly was Dancing......Gerkin is one of the most bent referee's I have had the misfortune to see this season.

Even the father in the Simpson's couldn't have been more of a homer.

At the very least there were two blatant obstructions in the area and the first one, on the Big Yin was a very close run thing between obstruction and foul play and therefore a penalty....but by god....not in front of the Kop.

Big Al even ended up in the front row of the Kop for his trouble.

-- Anonymous, March 26, 2000

I didn't see the whole match, but I've changed my opinion on bent refs only having it in for Newcastle after seeing the west ham game today. Poor old Paulo di canio, had two blatent penalties turned away , simply because of who he is and what he did to a ref last season. Then just to make it look as if it wasn't Di Canio that he was picking on he denied an even more blatent penalty decision for Trevor sinclair. If it had been a Saturday, I would have swore that the ref needed the game to end in a score draw, so he could collect his winnings from the pools.

-- Anonymous, March 26, 2000

Perhaps the refs have been instructed to call fewer penalties? Or maybe Rob Harris didn't want anyone to think he'd spent his suspension studying the rules. ;-)

-- Anonymous, March 26, 2000

I had the same view as Dancing Dave on Saturdays match and can concede that Gherkin was a homer....the Red two away from me was relieved to say the least at the obstruction on Ferguson.

-- Anonymous, March 27, 2000