SOME of these days, the words of the Bard will be ingested by the numbskulls who inhabit the upper corridors at Hampden. Just because, back in the early 1870s, Queen's Park came up with the passing game, the other Scottish teams adopted this form of "cheating", as the English claimed - Scotland went on to rule the world, before exporting their idea - doesn't mean we are still relevant in world football.
Indeed, after last night's latest "Disaster for Scotland" in far-off Tbilisi, the chances are, we will not even be relevant in British Isles football. Imagine, and given last night's results even Ra Peepul have sufficient imagination to foresee this: it might happen that, when France 2016 kicks-off, with the European Championship up for grabs, England, Northern Ireland and Wales could all be there, with we Scots in our usual position, outside looking in.
It might be even worse. The Republic of Ireland just might pip us for third place. Being by birth and upbringing a typically dour Scot, the wind permanently in my face, I cannot see us, after last night, finishing first or second in our group, so, we might as well start now, to contemplate our route to France being via the play-offs. Given this, the odds against us reaching France just got higher.
I do not blame Gordon Strachan for last night's defeat. Gordon can only pee with what he is given, and the real baddies in the decline, fall and continued struggle of Scottish international football - the SFA coonsillors, not forgetting the other club officials who put them there will, once again, as has been the case since we first ventured outside the UK in 1929, will get off Scot-free and be allowed to continue to smother and ruin the national game.
That our players lack the technical ability of the average continental player has long been obvious. Have our coaches done much about this? No, because they do not get the support from the money men at their clubs to put in what Bobby Robson dubbed: "time on the grass" to sort-out the players' inadequacies.
The concept of 10,000 hours being required to properly master and hone talent is well known. In Scotland, we are yonks away from achieving this.
Allow me to explain. Most kids start playing at Under-8. Let us assume we have a kid with the natural talent and ability, plus the desire to make it as a footballer, who has joined a reasonably good Boys Club team.
Up to Under-12, he is probably playing seven-a-side, short-sided games, he trains with the club twice a week, for 90 minutes a session. This means, by the time he is through Under-12 fotball and about to step-up to 11-a-side games, he has had 675 hours to hone his natural talent.
He is then spotted by his local club and gets into their youth coaching system. Between Under-12 and the decision, taken when he leaves school at 16, that he has a chance of making it as a footballer, he will train more, perhaps logging an additional 1900 hours (three 90-minute sessions, 45 weeks per year), meaning, our new apprentice footballer has 2575 hours under his belt - he is a quarter of the way to the 10,000 hours target.
But, as a footballer, he probably does two hours per day, four days per week, so assuming he makes it all the way through to Under-21 level, he has accumulated a further 1800 hours of practice - he is still less than half-way to the 10,000 hours target.
Compare this with the regime Andy Murray was thrown into as a 14-year-old, when he left Scotland for Spain, to live, train and learn in a 24/7 tennis environment. No wonder Andy is now Number Two or Three in the World and the Scottish international football team is Number 31.
Right, I accept in this instance, I am comparing an apple with a bunch of turnips, but, Friday night in Tbilisi was yet another example of the fact - Scottish football is broken, but, there is no apparent desire to fix it.
We have guys playing international football who, I am sure, would not get a game with any other country. For the first 100-years of the English Football League, if they had picked a composite team of the season it would have been awash with Scots, in fact, in most seasons there would have been a majority of Scots in the chosen XI. Today, there is not a single Scot in the FA Premiership who could get onto the bench even.
Up here, the situation is even worse. WGS selected only two home-based SCots in his team in Tbilisi, the Celtic duo of Charlie Mulgrew and Scott Brown. Now, with the best will in the world, Mulgrew is not even one of the two best central defenders in the Scottish Premiership, while national skipper Brown really needs to be given a long rest.
I cannot think of a Scotland captain having less impact on a game since Jim Leighton, given the captaincy on his 50th cap, was more or less a spectator against a shot-shy Chile back in 1989.
We are possibly (being unusually optimistic) two to five games away from our first major tournament since 1998 - WGS still does not have a settled central defensive pairing. Russell Martin and Grant Hanley looked, 18-months ago, as if they might fit the bill. WGS has split-up the pair as starters.
We have in Alan Hutton, a right-back who cannot get into his club's first team, but, is now within touching distance of joining the exclusive 50-caps-plus club and entry into the SFA's Hall of Fame. He has done this, not because he is a special talent, but because - there is nobody else.
He is not the only one to get into the national side due to lack of alternatives. The only position in which we have any strength-in-depth is goalkeeper, and, to be frank, neither David Marshall, Craig Gordon or Allan McGregor would get into an all-time Scotland XI.
We are in a mess. We will be unlikely qualifiers for France 2016, and, if, by some miracle we do qualify - we will be there to make-up the numbers.
We are in a mess and, I for one am sick of this.
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