SOUND common sense this week from Scotland's women's goalkeeper Gemma Fay, who thinks the SFA ought to give central professional contracts to the women's elite squad, to enable them to train and prepare properly for the big tournaments.
It has maybe passed almost unnoticed amongst the Tartan Army and the Hampden blazers but, whilst not yet actually qualifying for the Women's World Cup or European Championships, the Scotland Women's team has at least managed to regularly get to the qualifying play-offs, or a lot closer to the countries qualifying than the Men's team has this past decade or more.
Also, lassies such as Kim Little and Jennifer Beattie are featuring week-in, week-out for Arsenal Ladies, the top team in England, who are certainly doing better than Arsne Wenger's Arsenal Men at present - whilst, in the twilight of a marvellous career, Julie Fleeting, now more a mother than a player, still knows the way to the net.
Central contracts, allowing the girls to fulfill their potential is a great idea. Mind you, not least because their season operates more in the better weather, our lassies have been showing-up our men for a wee while now.
That said: Ms Fay didn't look too clever, being beaten at her near post for the Spanish winner which did for the Scottish girls this week. But, she's by no means the first Scottish goalkeeper to be embarrassed in internationals; and she will not be the last.
I might advocate pooling the top Scottish talent into two clubs and getting them used to playing together, but that idea has still to be proved to work across at Scottish rugby - maybe success is simply not for the Scots.
It is, however, a wee bit late for the implementation of another more long-term suggestion for the good of Scottish football which I came up with. A few years ago, when both were scoring for fun for the Arsenal sides of opposite sexes, I suggested to Jim Fleeting that he encourage Julie to get very friendly with Thierry Henry - at least we had the chance of a fabulous Scottish striker in time for the World Cups of 2022 and 2026 at least.
I FELT for Celtic this week, being beaten right at the death in Barcelona - however, how often have we seen them seeing-off a brave challenge from a lesser team in domestic football? On Tuesday night, unfortunately, the boot was on the other foot. However, they now have a terrific chance to make the last 16, which would be marvellous for Neil Lennon, his squad, and Scottish football.
I WON a watch on Wednesday. Killing time before a meeting in Ayr, I popped into one of the local charity shops and, browsing their book shelves, I spotted a rare football book: Puskas on Puskas - a transcript of a series of interviews the great man and several others associated with the Golden Squad of Hungarians who, under Puskas's captaincy, revolutionised football in the early 1950s.
This book cost me a mere £1.50 and was a steal at this price. It is a marvellous read, a great story about one of the all-time legends of the game.
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