We are never slow in this country to give managers, players, chief executives, sporting directors and club owners a kicking when our leading clubs slump to heavy defeats or the national team suffers an ignominious failure.
When Scotland lost 1-0 to Hungary in their final Euro 2024 group game in Stuttgart back in June there were deafening calls for Steve Clarke, the man who had been hailed as a hero in his homeland after securing qualification for the finals in Germany with two games to spare, to be sacked by the SFA.
Introducing Game Changer – A Herald investigation into repairing our national sport
When Rangers were beaten by Dynamo Kyiv in Champions League qualifying back in August and when Celtic were thrashed by Borussia Dortmund in the league phase of that competition earlier this month, it was Philippe Clement and Brendan Rodgers as well as their directors who got it in the neck.
The failure of the Scottish youth football system to produce a generation of technically proficient, mentally tough and physically robust players who are capable of competing at the very highest level for their clubs and their country is seldom lambasted by seething supporters or outspoken pundits.
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The reluctance to follow the lead of major football nations like France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal and Spain and incorporate B teams into the senior leagues in a meaningful way – Celtic and Hearts have second string sides in the Lowland League but they cannot win promotion – is never blamed.
The absence of homegrown or locally trained player quotas at Premiership clubs – something which the Premier League, who stipulate that eight members of a first team squad must have spent a significant amount of time at an English or Welsh academy, down south have had in place since 2010 – is ignored.
So, too, is the stubborn refusal to expand the top flight on these shores from 12 to 16 or even 18 clubs and so ease the pressure on managers who are afraid of blooding up-and-coming prospects because of the potentially devastating ramifications which a draw or a defeat may have for them.
Yet, for the Scottish game to flourish, for our clubs to produce their own talent, serve up entertaining fare for their fans and excel, not just make up numbers, in the Champions League, Europa League and Conference League every season, there has to be seismic change from grassroots level up.
For Scotland to compete with larger rivals – or even just rivals who have long ago tackled the issues which were preventing their youngsters from fulfilling their dreams of becoming professional footballers - for a place in the knockout rounds of major tournaments there has to be an acceptance that how this country produces and promotes talent needs to overhauled and upgraded.
The move to a “cooperation club” system, which would see between three and five young players under a certain age who are eligible to represent Scotland move freely from their parent Premiership or Championship club to a lower league club outwith transfer windows, is a fine idea which will help to ensure our outstanding prospects develop and fulfil their potential.
A gifted young footballer like Robby McCrorie should not be forced to sit warming the bench for months on end simply because his parent club needs to satisfy UEFA homegrown player quotas in continental competition.
McCrorie, drafted into the Rangers starting line-up due to a Covid-19 outbreak at Ibrox in the August of 2021, was showered with praise for his performance in a 1-0 league win over Celtic in Govan. Incredibly, the goalkeeper did not feature in a competitive fixture again until the May of 2023, fully 20 months later.
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Clarke has tipped the 6ft 4in 26-year-old, who had previously enjoyed loan spells at Berwick Rangers, Morton, Queen of the South and Livingston and is now a regular starter at Kilmarnock, to represent his country at full international level and has named him in his squad for the Nations League matches against Croatia in Zagreb tonight and Portugal at Hampden on Tuesday.
But he expressed concerns about the lack of game time his fellow Ayrshireman was getting when he was not involved. And rightly so. Something must be done to ensure our stars of tomorrow make the often difficult step up from age-group sides into the first team. Cooperation clubs would go an awfully long way towards addressing that.
Will our lower league outfits put the greater good of the Scottish game first and accept the proposal? Will they see the bigger picture and realise there will be myriad benefits both for them and for others? Or will the “aye been” mindset which has held the sport here back for far too long prevail once again?
There are already fears the plan will not get the green light. An ambitious but deeply flawed bid to create a fifth tier Conference League with four B teams was given short shrift last year. It was dropped before it got to the SFA AGM.
Denmark, who failed to qualify for both the World Cup in Brazil in 2014 and Euro 2016 in France and who tumbled to 51st place, an all-time low, in the FIFA World Rankings in 2017, are a major force in the global game today.
Norway might, after losing to Scotland at home, have failed to make it through to Euro 2024. However, they have Erling Haaland, the best striker on the planet, and Martin Odegaard, one of the best playmakers in the world, and very high hopes for the future.
Investing in youth, as those Scandinavian nations and others have shown, can bring rich rewards down the line. Clubs have banked millions, tens of millions even, from selling the players they have reared to counterparts in larger and richer leagues across the continent. Does it not make perfect financial sense for Scottish outfits to take the same approach during these challenging economic times?
There are many excellent suggestions contained within the Transition Phase paper. With a bit of luck, they will get the go-ahead in the coming months. Something has to happen somewhere for the steady decline in standards to be halted and reversed. What is the famous phrase about the definition of insanity again?
But if they are then it should only be the start. More, far more, needs to be done. We are calling for three things to happen. For all of Scotland’s clubs to put petty tribal rivalries to one side and shelve self-interest for once so that the game as a whole can flourish. For the cooperation club scheme to be approved so that more exceptional youths can gain invaluable experience of the senior game and increase their chances of breaking into the first team at their top flight clubs. And for a serious academic study into the benefits of homegrown player quotas to be carried out and the findings acted upon.
Lamenting the ineptitude of our footballers and demanding that managers be sacked have become popular pastimes in Scotland modern times. Celebrating momentous wins and lauding our heroes would be far better uses of our energies. Great things can be achieved with a long overdue change in attitudes, some out-of-the-box thinking and a concerted push from everyone involved.
