ALAN Campbell is arguably the most-under-rated sports writer on the Herald's roster. He's the guy who covers those parts of the Scottish football scene deemed to beneath the dignity of the "real" fitba writers - Women's football and so forth. Alan covers this potentially near-barren field very well.
This morning, he wrote a piece which brought into the public sphere something which those of us who write about fitba had been aware of for years - the absolute bollocks which is "youth development" in Scotland.
I got to thinking on what AC had written, and, being an enthusiastic digger into the past, I had a look at what I consider to be the biggest failure in player development - the way Celtic and Rangers no longer seem to bring through home-grown talent.
In the first two decades after World War II, Celtic were firmly in Rangers' shadow. Under Bill Struth and later Scot Symon, Rangers ruled the roost in those days BS (before Stein).
A look at the Big Two's youth development at that time, however, shows an interesting difference. In those two decades between the end of hostilities in 1945 and the Big Man's return to Celtic as manager in 1965 - 20 Celtic players were capped by Scotland, as against 24 from Rangers. However, of those 20 capped Celts, only Neil Mochan was bought-in.
Jimmy Delaney, Willie Miller, Bobby Evans, John McPhail, Bobby Collins, Willie Fernie, Dunky MacKay, Eric Smith, Bertie Auld, Frank Haffey, Paddy Crerand, Billy McNeill, Jim Kennedy, Stevie Chalmers, Jimmy Johnstone, John Hughes, Bobby Murdoch, Tommy Gemmell and John Clark came through the ranks.
Most of these players - from MacKay on, benefitted from Stein's guidance and influence, as a coach. They were the original Kelly Kids, the forerunners of the Quality Street Gang. There are seven Lisbon Lions in that group. They were in-place, ready to burst into the full flowering of their talent, when Stein returned.
The Celtic fans back then didn't like spending so long in their greatest rivals' shadow. Yes, there was the occasional shaft of sunlight - the St Mungo and Coronation Cup wins, the league and cup double of 1954, "Hampden in the Sun" in 1958. Many moaned, but, the sharper realised, something was stirring and they got the pay-off with Lisbon and nine-in-a-row.
In the same period, the 24 capped Rangers are split thus: 14 - George Young, Willie Waddell, Willie Thornton, Jimmy Duncanson, Willie Woodburn, Eddie Ruthrford, Alex Scott, Eric Caldow, Davie Wilson, Ralh Brand, Billy Ritchie, Willie Henderson, Davie Provan and John Greig came through the ranks. The other ten - Bobby Brown, Jock Shaw, Sammy Cox, Ian McColl, John Little, Sammy Baird, Jim Baxter, Bobby Shearer, Ian McMillan and Jimmy Millar were bought-in.
During Stein's managerial tenure, from 1965 until 1978, 16 Celtic players were capped by Scotland, of these - nine players: Bobby Lennox, Jim Craig, Davie Hay, Jim Brogan, Kenny Dalglish, Lou Macari, Danny McGrain, George Connolly and Paul Wilson were home-grown; the other seven: Joe McBride, Willie Wallace, Ronnie Simpson, Ally Hunter, Dixie Deans, Joe Craig and Ronnie Glavin were bought-in.
During the same period, Rangers had 15 players capped. The Ibrox club's greater willingness to raid other Scottish clubs for talent is shown in the way these players are split: seven - Willie Johnston, Ron McKinnon, Jim Forrest, Sandy Jardine, Derek Johnstone, Derek Parlane and Colin Jackson came through the ranks, the other eight - Tommy McLean, Colin Stein, Davie Smith, Tam Forsyth, Peter McCloy, Stewart Kennedy, Alex Macdonald and Bobby McKean were bought-in.
Between Stein's departure from Celtic and Graeme Souness's arrival at Ibrox, Celtic had eight players capped by Scotland. Four of these players - Roy Aitken, Tommy Burns, Charlie Nicholas and Paul McStay came through the ranks; Davie Provan, Frank McGarvey, Mo Johnston and Murdo MacLeod were bought-in.
That same period was a poor one for Rangers, with Ally Dawson the solitary home-grown player to win a full cap, alongside three bought-in players: Davie Cooper, Jim Bett and Ally McCoist.
In the years since "The Souness Revolution", both teams have tended to follow the pattern Souness used at Rangers, of mainly buying-in ready-made talent. Celtic have had 38 players capped by Scotland in the years AS (After Souness): 13 - Derek Whyte, Peter Grant, Brian O'Neil, Simon Donnelly, Mark Burchill, Stephen Crainey, Jamie Smith, John Kennedy, David Marshall, Craig Beattie, Shaun Maloney, Stephen McManus and James Forrest came through the ranks; 25 - Frank McAvennie, Brian McClair, Maurice Johnston, Andy Walker, John Collins, Tommy Boyd, Mike Galloway, Gordon Marshall, Tosh McKinlay, Jackie McNamara, Paul Lambert, Craig Burley, Darren Jackson, Jonathan Gould, Rab Douglas, Stephen Pearson, Scott Brown, Gary Caldwell, Barry Robson, Paul Hartley, Kenny Miller, Mark Wilson, Leigh Griffiths, Charlie Mulgrew (although he left Celtic as an uncapped youngster, only to return after roving himself elsewhere) and Craig Gordon were bought-in.
In the same period, Rangers have had a mere eight home-grown players capped by Scotland: Ian Durrant, Derek Ferguson, Barry Ferguson, Maurice Ross, Chris Burke, Charlie Adam, Allan Hutton and Allan McGregor; while 27 players: Andy Goram, Ian Ferguson, Richard Gough, Maurice Johnston, Gordon Durie, Davie MacPherson, (although he had left Rangers as an uncapped youngster, only to return), David Robertson, Stuart McCall, Duncan Ferguson, Alan McLaren, Colin Hendry, Neil McCann, Billy Dodds, Allan Johnston, Kenny Miller, Steven Thompson, Ian Murray, Kris Boyd, Kirk Broadfoot, Steven Whittaker, Christian Dailly, Steven Naismith, Gavin Rae, Kevin Thomson, Lee Wallace, Ian Black and newly-returned assistant manager Davie Weir were all either capped with other clubs or had made their names elsewhere before arriving at Ibrox.
It might be argued that Celtic at least paid attention to the club's long-established practice of growing their own talent, until Martin O'Neill arrived. In the last ten years, James Forrest is the single home-grown Celtic player to come through the ranks to be capped by Scotland (while Aiden McGeady was capped by the Republic of Ireland).
Rangers, once Souness arrived, all but abandoned youth development - they didn't produce a single home-grown Scotland cap between Derek Ferguson's debut against Malta in March, 1988, and younger brother Barry's first start in Lithuania, ten and a half years later.
In the 21t century, Celtic have produced nine home-grown Scotland caps: Burchill, Crainey, Smith, Kennedy, Marshall, Beattie, Maloney, McManus and Forrest, Rangers a mere five - Ross, Burke, Adam, Hutton and McGregor, and, it might be argued that Adam and McGregor benefitted more from lengthy loan spells away from Rangers than from anything they learned at the costly and magnificent Murray Park.
Of course, times have changed over the course of the 70 post-war years. Up until Sky began to chuck money at the English Premiership, Rangers were able to match the wages being paid down south. Celtic were never that generous towards their players, and consequently lost a lot of stellar talent to the south, layers who, if the mythical "biscuit tin" had been opened a bit more often might have stayed.
These days are passed, Celtic, for instance, have seemingly adopted a strategy of buying unpolished foreign talent cheaply, polishing these players and selling them on to English clubs - should the Rangers Tribute Act ever morph into real Rangers again, who knows, they too might follow this policy.
However, given the poor financial state of Scottish football, our two biggest clubs might well do better to grow their own talent.
After all, the Lisbon Lions were all famously born within 35-miles of Celtic Park; the Barcelona Bears had a distinctly tartan hue, as did the Gothenburg Greats.
When we picked Scottish teams - we won European trophies. Might it not be worth trying that approach again? However, for that to happen, there will need to be a complete change of heart and a severe application of the Scottish work ethic. Who knows, it might work, so, why not try it?
There is one other damning statistic as regards what used to be called "the Old Firm". That is the number of Under-21 caps these two clubs have produced, who didn't "train-on" to become first-team regulars and full caps, but, drifted away.
A disclaimer should go in at this point. Some of these who were let go, such as John Spencer, Robert Fleck, Barry Nicholson, Stephen Hughes and Ross McCormack from Rangers and Ross Wallace from Celtic, were subsequently capped elsewhere.
In all, 60 Celtic players have been capped at Under-21 level, since 1976. In the same period, 59 Under-21 caps have gone to Rangers players. Only 23 Celtic players, 38% of those capped at that level, have gone on to win full caps - a slightly better than average performance.
Rangers have had 59 players capped at Under-21 level in the same period, of these a mere 16, 27% have trained-on to win full caps. This is a below-average performances, given that club's resources.
Sorting out youth development might be a good place to start. Where the big two lead, the others will follow.
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