Reaping what you sow.

Scotland, the gorgeous land of my birth, with its mountains, glens, kilted men and  pale skinned women, and now the shittiest football team representing it that I can ever recall. EVER.

Scotland losing to Japan and then a complete humiliation in Cardiff to an understrength Welsh team was enough for the head honchos at the S.F.A  to call time on George Burley's tenure. And no, SFA does not stand for Sweet Fuck All, although you might be surprised because that has often been their M.O.

Of the names being touted around to succeed Burley I think that John Collins would be my pick, and of those not beng touted I would say Stevie Nichol but more of that later. Because if Jim Jeffries gets it then it shows that Scotland have chucked it, also Walter Smith is the man the bookmakers believe will take it. Yes, the same Walter Smith who left Scotland in the lurch to go to manage Rangers a few years ago. It seems some have a short memory, or should that be selective memory.

So Scotland are back to where we were 8 years ago, looking for a coach who can get us to a major championship. The major difference is the coach coming in then had some good players to pick. Well maybe not good but better than now. Darren Fletcher apart I do not think we have one other World Class player. and here is the point of my rambling "Why is that?" Why do Scotland not have any good players?

The answer I believe is a complex one that begins with Celtic and Rangers and carries on to the S.F.A, and other scottish clubs.

When Rangers changed the face of Scottish football in the 80's with Murray's millions little did we know that we would see the boom and bust in a matter of 20 years. Rangers (a club now toiling so badly in debt they can't find a buyer) can be credited for starting the demise of the Scottish national team. But they are not alone.  Celtic obviously followed suit with spending money and so a period followed when both clubs spent lots of money. But the thing is, I do not blame them. Celtic and Rangers could afford to spend. My problem lies with the smaller clubs who tried to emulate them.

As a player in the lower leagues, I saw first hand the 'foreign is better' mentality that swept Scotland in the late 90's and early 00's.  Managers all across the leagues were dying for that foreign flair. Why invest in youth, when it takes time to produce, when you can go get a 'complete' player. Now I happened to play with a huge amount of foreign guys and I can safely say the majority of them were average, one stands out because he was fantastic, Cedric Anselin but he played for Bordeaux with Zidane, so I expect him to be decent!! But the rest, well the rest all came from countries where they had their youth systems in order. So by the time these guys were failing in France or Spain, they could come to Scotland and look better in the lower leagues, and get payed good money for it too. Thus taking up the spots that would be filled with Scottish talent, the lower leagues should be a breeding ground of talent, where kids are given a chance to express themselves, and learn their trade.

Now this may sound like sour grapes, but believe me it is not. I ultimately was not good enough to succeed at the highest level but I had fun trying. My concern here is not for myself, but in trying to show where Scotland went wrong and how they can get it right. The current Scotland squad has no leaders. Players who are age 30+ the players who in any other international squad are the experienced ones, the calm heads, the lead by example men. Beckham and Ferdinand for England, Gallas and Henry for France, Buffon and Cannavarro for Italy. Scotland's best player of this generation was Barry Ferguson, and he told every one to Fuck Off, the other player in the squad of this age group is Barry Robson. I played against both and they were good players but the drop off after them is incredible. Yes we have a little talent-ish Riordan, Maloney, McFadden but they all share the distardly 'potential' tag, I'm sorry but by 25 you should be consistent with your 'potential'.

My point is Scotland is currently reaping what was sown well over 10 years ago. We have a dearth of talent in the country because the smaller teams tried to cheat the system and buy success. There was no emphasis on youth, our leagues were full of teams playing average foreign players instead of Scottish talent. This filtered down from the top two at times outrageously so. Hearts were paying some players $20,000 a week in 2000!

I think the penny dropped and now Scotland, again starting with Rangers and the completion of Murray Park (the fantastic training facility) Celtic followed with Lennoxtown (another superb facility) teams are trying to do the correct thing and focus on youth.  It just saddens me that I can not see Scotland qualify for a major tournament.The days of Dalglish, Souness, Hansen etc when England's best teams were littered with the cream of the Scottish crop seems like a far too distant memory, I think it will be even more distant until it happens again. And these fans deserve better than that.

P.S Stevie Nichol won't get the job because Scotland is too xenophobic for him to get a chance because he is coaching in an' inferior' league...newsflash Scotland, the MLS is every bit as good as the SPL. Beckham, Ljungberg, Donovan, Blanco...that is far more talent than plays in Scotland.