Malky Mackay believes Carl Tremarco's loan manager is example of fine margins that will help Ross County develop more youngsters into professional players
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Ross County manager Malky Mackay believes the implementation of a loan manager is simply an example of best practice being implemented in Dingwall.
The Staggies appointed Carl Tremarco to a dual role in a recent restructuring of the club's academy, pairing up a head of professional academy role with being a point of contact with players out on loan away from the club.
Developing young players has long been high on Mackay's agenda, even before he was trusted with overhauling the Scottish FA's high performance programme.
One of the lessons learned from his time with the governing body was that there is no one size fits all policy that works for every club's youngsters, but for clubs like County who send players out on loan he feels it is vital to have someone assigned to overseeing their progress.
"Each club has to have a process, and people at each level where there is communication – that should happen, but a lot of the time it doesn't," he explained.
“It’s a process of whether players stay in, go out, who they go out to and what level they go to, how their journey looks, where they go next, are they sold, or do they come into the first team squad.
“All those questions are the reason there needs to be a loans manager. Carl is doing that, along with the job he’s already doing.
“He will speak to the player, and a member of staff at the club after the Saturday game. He has then got a process where he files a report and sends it to Fiona (MacBean, club secretary). That then goes to me on a Monday and I see everything that has happened.
“It will show what the club think of how the player did at the weekend, what his minutes were, how he played, and feedback from the boy himself.
“Carl will go to one of the games as well. It’s an extra little marker down as to how we can improve these young guys, to give them the best chance to either play here, or play professional football somewhere else."
Mackay is realistic that not every player in the Ross County academy will go on to play first team football for the Staggies, but he is adamant youngsters will get the best possible chance of making a career for themselves in the professional game one way or another.
He added: “It’s our duty to do that, because if you invest in these players and ask them to become part of your academy, with all the criteria attached to it and all the things they can’t do because you’ve taken them through their journey it’s our obligation to do the next bit.
"There’s nothing better than seeing players that we know playing professional football.
“They might not be with me here, it could be somewhere else. If I see the player getting a big move, or playing for Scotland, it’s the best thing ever."
