Country on a downer?
Is Scottish football in decline already?
As Scotland slid down 10 places from 16th to 26th in the latest round of FIFA’s world rankings, is it possible that the country’s hysteria over the exploits at both club and country level last term has finally died down?
Consider the evidence; Rangers fell at the first hurdle as they were dumped out of Europe altogether by Hearts’ reserve team (Kaunas to you and me), Queen of the South and Motherwell are out of the UEFA Cup, and Celtic will need a minor miracle to reach the last 16 of the Champions’ League after an unimpressive start.
Scotland suffered defeat to Macedonia and despite winning over Iceland, the nation’s default setting of pessimism has set in. It’s a long way off the smiling faces of a year ago.
So is Scottish football in decline already?
Probably not. Rangers were cocky if anything, feeling that as UEFA Cup runners up, a win over Kaunas was a given. This certainly seemed to be the case as the club was prepared to launch its new European kit just a week after the Kaunas clash, plans which, of course, were thrown out the window.
Celtic’s group is a tough one, they were drawn with the holders (for the second year running) and a highly impressive Villarreal side who finished second in La Liga last season. Aalborg have also proved themselves a banana skin for Gordon Strachan’s side. Queen of the South were never going to go particularly far and Motherwell were beaten by a well put together Nancy side, who themselves had a very good league campaign last season.
Perhaps luck just hasn’t been on their side. Aberdeen certainly had lady luck shining down on them when they reached the last 32 of the UEFA Cup last season, as did Rangers on their way to the final. Werder Bremen, Sporting and Fiorentina are all undoubtedly better sides than Rangers, but hard defending and often playing for the draw won the day for Rangers, all the up till the final itself.
The national team are in yet another process of rebuilding under their third manager in almost as many years. They’ve missed the presence of captain Barry Ferguson and highly talented right back Alan Hutton, both injured. But two games into the qualifying campaign is still too early to tell anything concrete, and dropping ten places is not the end of the world, given that the rankings mean little on the football pitch itself.
So what happens next? Can Celtic as Scotland’s only European representatives get it together and reach the fabled last 16? For football’s sake all of Scotland should be hoping so. It’s not over until it’s over, and Manchester United are beatable. It’ll be a stern test but one that Celtic can manage to pass. Maybe that, coupled with a win in the next round of internationals, will see a proud country’s spirits raised once more to the jubilant scenes of last year.
We can only hope.
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I dont think England and Scotland has alot of differences between them when comparing their national teams. In a way Scotland as a more stable and united look in them compared to the multi personalties of the English players and its team as a whole. Scotland has always been unlucky with its qualifiers opponents. France and Italy last time round LOL!!! It took alot out of them and many of the games the players gave the performance of their lives. France.. Home and Away for Gods sake. Firstly they need to rank higher next qualifying pick secondly Celtic and Rangers and maybe Hearts need to get out of SPL and enter EPL to toughen up and finacially grow. Then only Scotland and her teams can make a name as a football power and plant their own flag in Europe. Lets face it, the SPL sucks and the Scots have to swallow their pride and seek English FA help or else their biggest teams and the majority of the national players are always going to suffer because of the gulf in league standards.
Alan, you’re a lot younger than me and it shows! For me it’s not about this season v last season but the total decline over a decade or more. I grew up watching classic encounters between England and Scotland at a time when Scotland were full of top class players. In the 70’s and 80’s the Scotland squad was full of players playing at the top English clubs and Celtic/Rangers/Aberdeen(in their hay day).
The names are too many to mention: Macari, Hansen, Dalglish, Durie, McCoist, McLeish, McAllister, Strachan, Ferguson, McClair, Masson, Jordan, McQueen and that still leaves out a host of top names.
Scotland used to be a strong favourite to qualify for every major competition and I supported them through many, being a fellow Celt.
What’s gone wrong I don’t know but they are not alone. If you look at Wales and the 2 Irelands also, I have never seen a period where there is such a lack of quality or star players. All the talk is of England and the lack of youngsters coming thru but, in truth, the problem is worse in the smaller ‘home’ countries.
I don’t believe that it has anything to do with foreign players or coaching, the common theories, but then again, I don’t have my own theory.
BD, I agree with what you’re saying, and yes I’m no doubt younger, this was more in response to my own article a few months back about Scottish football being on the up. Comparing and contrasting I saw a clear difference and thought this was worth pointing out.
If we’re essentially looking for a ‘theory’, I think the main issue is that we’re a country of just 5 million, and cannot compete with the larger countries with far greater infrastructure. Nor can we with countries of similar size but with greater infrastructure (i.e. Holland, Portugal, etc.) Looking at youth, grass roots, etc, in essence what England need to be doing, is what Scotland started doing a few years ago and it will bear fruit, so long as the country on the whole remains confident in our future.
Or at least that’s the theory.
And to add, I really only got into football some ten years ago (not from a football family) and I can clearly see the decline. I watched Scotland at World Cup 98 and that was the only time I’ve seen them on the competitive international stage. That being said, I think our team overall is just as good as that team was. Man for man, the 98 World Cup squad probably wasn’t any better technically than the current squad, right?
Alan,
Best case scenario would be to join forces with England - regardless of what happened at the Euros, you’d still have a better chance of winning something
Fair point Alan, I probably should have said 20 years not 10. It just seems to me that Scotland and the other ‘home’ countries have no longer any star players playing at the top clubs like they used to.