Comments on: Scottish football’s deep-lying problems

By: Iain

Iain — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 16:53:46 +0000

Being a hardcore Scotland fan i watch, or go to every game i can.
I 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.

By: BD Condell

BD Condell — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 12:13:29 +0000

Can’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.

By: Gary

Gary — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 10:25:43 +0000

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/