Where Have All The Heroes Gone?


Watching Scotland lose so abjectly to Wales on Saturday, which lead to the inevitable sacking of George Burley, I couldn't help thinking that I was watching the swift death of a once decent footballing nation. What made it even more galling was that Sky's resident Scottish doom merchant was present, Charlie Nicholas, talk about talent squandered in the pursuit of happiness, he's the perfect example.

Anway it struck me that you only need to look at the English Premiership on any given Saturday to see where Scotland have gone wrong over the years. Yes, Sir Alex may be the most successful manager in history and David Moyes might get Everton higher than tenth this year but where are the Scottish players?

When I was growing up there was Dennis Law, Dave MacKay, Billy Bremner, Bobby Collins, Eddie Gray, Peter Lorimer, Alan Gilzean all playing in England, in Scotland there was Jim Baxter, wee Jimmy Johnstone, John Greig (the owner of the finest sideburns in history) - all that lot needed was a decent goalkeeper and they could have been world beaters.

John Greig about to shake the throat of a Celtic player

After that came Bruce Rioch, Archie Gemmill, Graeme Souness, Alan Hansen, Willie Miller, John Collins, Pat Nevin, Gordon Strachan and of course King Kenny but where are there successors?

If I was watching England play Scotland would I feel threatened by James McFadden? Kenny Miller? Steven Naismith? No I wouldn't. It's the same with the Republic of Ireland, the successors to Frank Stapleton, David O'Leary, Liam Brady and Roy Keane are a bloke from Burnley, somebody who wasn't good enough for Sunderland and Stephen Hunt who saw a move from Reading to Hull as a career step-up! As Ray Houghton put it on Saturday, when Leon Best once again trapped a ball further than I can kick it, "That's because he plays for Coventry in the Championship and he's up against William Gallas and Eric Abidal who play for Arsenal and Barcelona respectively."

How has this happened? Well the obvious answer is that Premiership clubs no longer look north or west for their future stars, they look abroad. Only Darren Fletcher and John O'Shea at Manchester United and Robbie Keane at Tottenham could claim to be in a position to play International football and regular European football in the same season. I'm sure these things go in cycles but Scotland have now missed out on three World Cups and have not qualified for a European Championships since 1996, is it coincidence that these absences coincide with the flood of television money into England?Scotland currently have two players (Fletcher and Berra) who play in the Premiership regularly plus three others who aren't regulars for either club or country.

Scotland needs to look at why it can't produce players who are considered good enough to attract interest from south of the border because whether or not they like it if a top Premiership comes calling it means that a certain level of quality has been attained. Scottish football needs a top to bottom review of its coaching standards and coaching facilities. These things take time and even then there is no guarantee that success will be forthcoming, but Scotland will never be more than a third or fourth rate international football side unless it tries to rectify the current slow and sure slide into oblivion.