Bhoys of Belgium

John Park's role as Football Development Manager, is a role, which is undefined and could be far reaching in the remits and decisions he has to make. I think he had a lot to do wie the Hoops signing Chris Killen, as the now legendary story of him dragging Tony Mowbrey to watch an Oldham reserve game in, which Chris was a sub and only got two minutes game time, shows just how much he rates the big Kiwi.

News that we have reached an agreement wie KV Oostende, to send 3 reserve and youth team players to the Belgian second division for guaranteed 1st team football is, while a first for a Scottish club, is not unusual as Arsenal and Man Utd have you used Belgium as an outpost to develop talent or, in Arsenals case, to park players wie work permit problems.

I find the last bit interesting as the story aboot 3 Trinidad and Tobago internationalist being on trial wie us and if follow up oor interest in any of them the chances of us getting a work permit are as slim as getting a sober caller on a radio phone in.

Now, recently the sharp suited man has bemoaned the tight work permit laws for non EU nationals in the UK. The PSV model, which Celtic are so in awe of, is successful because it is easier for the Dutch club to get non EU nationals work permits, the deal is they have to be given a set wage for a set period to qualify for a permit, means that the conveyor belt of South Americans that PSV "produce" seems to be never ending.

After FIFA cleared Arsenal of any wrong doing when they parked Toure and Eboue in Begium then will we see the Hoops sending players from far flung corners of the globe to Belgium to get round the work permit issues?

Also does this mean i will need to look for the Belgian second division results every week?

Forza