Okay, listen. What is the problem with us? Let's look at some common points that are often raised (I'm adapting this from a post I made elsewhere, responding to other people raising them):
"We are a small country with a small pool of people to choose from for elite sport. Other small countries do better than us and that is where there is understandable cause for concern."
Yes it is indeed a cause for concern. Scotland's population: 5.425m
Croatia: 4.154m
Serbia: 7.022m
ROI: 4.784m
Belgium: 11.35m
So we can dispense with that old chestnut. So what are the other possible factors?
"We are a nation of idle, druggy, drunken negative thinkers who absolutely revel in pointing out the shortcomings or failings of anyone and everyone else - then demand the same people fix all those ills for us."
I realise this looks facetious, but there's a grain of truth. The Republic of Ireland is probably the best example here. Almost exactly as big as us population-wise, most of their players based in the British Isles, and culturally very similar apart from in one crucial aspect (in my opinion, before anyone starts frothing). That aspect is that they are a fully-fledged country, and consequently don't have the dour, blame-everything-on-powers-beyond-our-control attitude that's so prevalent here (and of course informs the fact that even while we are witnessing lies and incompetence on a truly staggering level in Westminster, there are still people up here who don't think we'd be better off managing our own affairs. But that's another thread...). Anyway -
Factor 1: national psyche.
"Another thing that causes the problem and it's been touched on above, is that almost all football has to be "organised" My eldest's (9) team got beat 4-1 on Saturday morning and I was expecting a reaction, a go out, call on your friends and play football for a few hours and try and improve type reaction. Instead, he wanted to play fortnite all day. I can guarantee, that when we get to training on Wednesday and I ask the boys who all has been out playing football since Saturday that 1 or maybe 2 out of 10 hands will go up.
If folk aren't out there playing with their pals, and learning through doing, what chance have any of them got? Part of the problem as well, is that half of their parents won't let them out of their eyesight. Ohhh i can't walk the 300m to that grass pitch, my mum/dad says it's too far. When the parent themselves would have been allowed a much freer reign!"
I think this aspect also can't be ignored. My ex is Romanian, and in her family, quite apart from the fact that Xboxes and the like aren't standard issue in every home, the idea that the kids would be allowed to sit in the house all day is absolutely absurd to them. It doesn't matter if they want to go out or not, they are booted out the door. In Romania, most of the boys would go out and play basketball, weirdly enough, but they play football too, obviously. However, this is really difficult when it's become so ingrained in our culture; i.e. if I was to boot my daughter out the door, there would be no-one else there to actually play with. Nevertheless-
Factor 2: kids indoors too much.
"The middle class thing is simplistic nonsense from Boyd. The SFA have no interest in change which is why Mark Wotte was forced out."
This was in response to a tweet from someone pointing out that the class thing is a red herring, considering Kevin de Bruyne comes from a wealthy family, and speaks three languages fluently. I'm actually going to interpret the Kevin de Bruyne thing a little more obliquely. It was as I say noted that he speaks three languages, and I don't think this is an insignificant observation, but it's not related to class, imo. Look at the where the recent starting line-ups of the following teams play their club football:
Belgium: Spain, England, Japan, France, Belgium, Italy.
Serbia: Spain, Italy, Germany, England, Holland.
Croatia: Croatia, Scotland, Turkey, England, Denmark, Italy, Spain, Russia, Germany.
See where I'm going with this?
Scotland: Scotland, England.
I don't think it's insignificant that pretty much 100% of Scottish players seem utterly allergic to pursuing their fortunes overseas, which I think is in large part due to fear of learning other languages. In our entire squad last night, only Johnny Russell plays outside this island (in the USA). I can think of Bates and of course Liam Henderson Delivers (who isn't even in the conversation?), but other than that, you get the drift. Our footballers are incredibly parochial, and I think that has a bearing on being able to adapt to different styles of play at international level, and also in a subtler sense, they are simply not used to being outside their own wee bubble in general, other than transferring to a big hotel in Dubai. So -
Factor 3: Our footballers never leave the domestic scene (or British scene, more accurately).
As a final observation, the Croatian league is also utterly dominated by two teams (Dinamo Zagreb and Hadjuk Split), going back to 1992 its top league has only been won twice outside those two sides. Similarly, going back to 1992, the Serbian league has only been won once by a team other than the Belgrade two, Partizan and Red Star. My instinct though is to say that, related to the above, their players perhaps see playing for the big two sides as simply a stepping-stone to leaving, whereas in Scotland, so many seem satisfied with that being the pinnacle of their career - at best, they will try their hand in England for a wee while.
Factor 4: The Old Firm are not in and of themselves the problem.
Any of these four factors in isolation would constitute a problem. The fact that all four are pertinent to us is, imo, killing us. So what is to be done? Fcuk knows, I'm afraid. The situation seems endemic, and it doesn't help that the people charged with driving our game seem to have all the vision of a Morningside golf club committee.
