Scottish football’s deep-lying problems
After an embarrassing string of results, George Burley’s reign as Scotland manager has come to an end, costing the SFA an estimated £300,000 after he recently signed a contract extension.
The vast problems with Scottish football are not down to George Burley. Granted he hasn’t had the most fruitful of terms in charge, but give him some credit, he was better than Berti Vogts. The problems in Scotland are evident at all levels.
The SFA should not just be doing more to improve the national side, but also the Scottish Premier League. With Rangers and Celtic looking for the nearest open window south of the border, it is down to the SFA to give them something worth staying for.
Football is taken very seriously in Scotland, and they have brought through some promising young players. The problems seem to emerge when these players start their professional careers. The U19 team came runners up to Spain in the 2006 European Championships. This was heralded as beginning of a new era for Scottish football.
However, Scottish football has been brought down to earth with a large thud, as only two players from the U19 squad have really made any sort of name for themselves. Hearts players Lee Miller and Calum Elliot have had good starts to their professional careers, and have flirted with the Scottish national side.
The ‘Scottish Wayne Rooney’ is currently stuck in the Rangers reserve squad, not worthy of a place in the SPL after a spat with Ally McCoist. John Fleck is a raw talent with an attitude problem, but he is still only 18. However, the Scottish youth system has let him and other promising stars down.
There is no investment in youth football. It of course costs money, but SPL clubs are in the perfect position to use youth football as an investment. By investing in talent, clubs bring through their own players, without needing to splash out on transfer fees and will produce players who are likely to remain loyal to their club. It works well in Germany and the Netherlands, and SPL clubs need to seriously look into it as there is definitely raw talent available. Falkirk and Hibs had and still have to an extent good youth systems, but that leads us on to the next problem.
Once clubs bring through their stars, if they perform well or get called up to the national team they immediately jump ship to sunny Glasgow. But this is a one-way ticket. It must be a dream to sign for Rangers or Celtic, but if you are good enough, why not make the move a few years down the line when you have proved yourself good enough to start for your team of choice.
There is an endless list of players who made the jump too soon. They should be setting the league alight for smaller clubs while they sit on a bench in the rain, praying for the chance to prove themselves.
Proof of this is Steven Naismith who occasionally dons a Rangers shirt. He was prolific for Kilmarnock, and Rangers most likely signed him to stop Celtic getting their mitts on him. He was arguably the best player on the pitch when Scotland bravely crashed out of the World Cup to Holland.
His work ethic is extremely impressive and he creates his own scoring chances. However, he is overlooked for players such as Kris Boyd who sometime looks like he would prefer to be gnawing on a pelican than tracking back to help out in defence.
Hibs looked like they had finally put together a young talented Scottish team. Their team included Scott Brown, Kevin Thompson, Steven Whittaker, Gary Caldwell, Steven Fletcher and Gary O’Connor. Since they all left Hibs they have all taken a bit of a nose-dive.
Fletcher and O’Connor have ended up in the English Premier League, along with fellow Scots James McFadden, Darren Fletcher and Craig Gordon. As it is a much higher standard of league it pretty much guarantees them a spot in the Scotland team, but not a starting place for their club side. Darren Fletcher is the exception that proves the rule, as he is possibly Manchester United’s most underrated player.
The problems with Scottish football are certainly not going to go away overnight. And frustratingly for the unlucky guy who will take the blame for it going wrong, it isn’t down to the players. They are a decent side – on paper. But the infrastructure and mentality are huge barriers that neither John Collins, Craig Levein or Walter Smith can break down.
Topics: Celtic, Rangers, Scotland, Scottish Premier League
Football News 24/7
Good article and I agree with most of it. With rangers financial position I was praying this season they would ditch some of the more senior players and throw in their youngsters, Fleck, Wilson, Little etc.. I think the fans would rather see young Scots like these guys playing and maybe not winning than watching guys like Rothen or Novo putting out rubbish performances week after week.
Only one point about Steven Naismith though, he was being bled into the team slowly when he first signed only to pick up a serious cruciate ligament innjury which kept him out and struggling for fitness for around 18 months. I think now he is back to fitness you can see he is playing every week so I think the transfer had more to do with than only stopping celtic signing him.
I agree though that it would be nice to see guys stay at their clubs, Riordan is the perfect example, good at hibs, never played for celtic now back playing well for hibs again. Sometimes the old firm hampers careers rather than helping them/
November 18th, 2009 @ 11:25Can’t agree. It IS down to the players I’m afraid. As one who was around in the 70′s and 80′s (being from the ROI) I always supported Scotland at major tournaments.
They always had lots of quality in those days, players playing with the top English clubs and for quality Rangers and Celtic teams. The fact is they haven’t produced anything like that quality of player for over 10 years now.
But they’re not alone. I look at both the Irish teams and Wales and the dearth of talent is scary. Even England can only produce a quality 11 but after that it’s back to average players.
I’ve no idea why this is but forget coaching. In the 60′s, 70′s and 80′s acadamys were unheard of. There were no 10 or 12 year old kids being taken on to be ‘groomed’ for greater things. Talent emerged from the streets and parks and stars found their way to the top.
Are kids being runied by coaching? Has the gene pool just disappeared? Has the expansion of cities eaten up all the places that kids used to have to play or has traffic put an end to street football? Maybe it’s the electronic age and the fact that kids spend too much time playing Football Manager instead of the real thing?
I don’t know the answer but in relation to your article the answer is that it is down to the players and the lack of talent. Just compare the current Scotland squad to any during the 70′s or 80′s and the gulf in class is glaring.
November 18th, 2009 @ 13:13Being a hardcore Scotland fan i watch, or go to every game i can.
November 18th, 2009 @ 17:53I can safely say i haven’t watched an SPL game for nearly 5years.
The jist is :[SPOILER ALERT]
Rangers or Celtic will win the title, the Edinburgh clubs behind them and the team who comes up form the 1st division will most likely go down.
I was in the Kilmarnock youth programme for 4 years, until i was 17, the coaching was lacks, the Club had a little money invested but alot of the genuine good players left for university and that ment the lesser players were taken into the resereve team (i could name some of the ‘lesser players’ i played with, but that would be crule)
One on them has broken into a first time of a SPL club when he wasn’t a starting pick for the U18,. and this was only 4/5 years ago.
ill stop this here, you get my point.