Overnight International Stars Should Not and Generally Don't Just Happen In Football

IT IS one of the staple story lines in musical theatre and Hollywood musicals hokum – think Singin' In The Rain. The unknown understudy who, because of a crisis, has to go on, replacing a not well-liked star, and steals the show. “Kid, you're going out there an unknown, you're coming back a star”. “Next day on your dressing room, you find a star – let's go on with the show.” Boak!!

 Leeds' Liam Cooper (Yellow shirt), could play in our two crucial World Cup qualifiers

Real life is apparently about to emulate showbiz fiction, with WGS warming the Tartan Army up to accept Liam Cooper, of “Liam Who?” was our little brains trust down the pub dubbed him yesterday, might have a role in our last two World Cup qualifiers. I know very little of Mr Cooper, other than, he probably isn't as good as Neale Cooper – who, in case you have forgotten, NEVER won a full Scotland cap. Apparently this Cooper is captain of Leeds United – well, that's a good precedent for a game for Scotland, and, he has the seemingly primary qualification for playing for Scotland these days – he was born and has spent all his life in England.

Nae harm to the boy, I suppose he is a good player, but – is he markedly better than what we already have? Doubt it. Has he shown true star quality? Again, I doubt it. So, WGS, why suddenly pluck him out of thin air for consideration for the two most-important games Scotland has played in long and weary? It isn't news that the centre backs we have used thus far have been, at best adequate, but, to suggest throwing-in a 26-year-old, who hasn't stepped onto the park for a representative Scotland team since he was in the Under-19 squad, eight years ago, well, it smacks a wee bit of desperation.

 But, is Cooper better than what we already have, like 38-caps Christophe Berra?

Let's look at the competition. Christophe Berra has 38 caps, Russell Martin and Charlie Mulgrew each has 29 caps, Grant Hanley has 28. They are all seasoned, experienced internationalists, who have been awarded the SFA's silver medal for gaining 25 or more caps. OK, it's not as if we are spoilt for choice there – it's hardly having Miller and McLeish and Hansen and Narey in the same squad, but, Berra, Martin, Mulgrew and Hanley have served Scotland well. Two “must-win” games is not the time to introduce new blood and experiment.

This is one of the areas where the SFA continually gets it wrong, where their short-termism and lack of a progressive, long-term strategy for our international team rears-up to bite us on our bum. Scottish football is all about the clubs, and two clubs in particular – with the national team as an after-thought. The SRU does running Scottish rugby so-much better.

Now, I've been here before on this, and, I accept, in football, we cannot go down the road of having all our international (or most of them) egg-chasers, in one centrally-managed couple of baskets – Edinburgh and Glasgow. But, we can manage our available talent better than we do. Yes, the SFA has an age group pathway – Under-16/17/18/19/20/21 teams, which inasmuch as they have to allow for different players kicking-on at different rates, ensure some sort of continuity of selection as the players develop. Then, after the Under-21 team, they drop off a cliff edge. One or two graduate immediately to the “big team”, but, most, vanish off the radar either totally, or for a year or five, before coming back into the fold.

We have to find a way to bridge that gap between the Under-21s and the big team – it makes sense.

When the SFA first got into age group teams, with the Under-23 side, in 1955, that age limit reflected the times. Back then, players signed professional forms at 17. Then, at 18, most went into the forces for two years' of National Service. This was no bad thing, since they got to play a reasonable level of football, and, as servicemen, the best were hot-housed into their representative teams.

HISTORY LESSON: On 18 December, 1956, Rangers played The British Army, in front of 20,000 fans, at Ibrox. The Army won 3-1. The teams were:

Rangers: Ritchie; Shearer and Little; McColl, Moles and Logie; McCulloch, Grierson, Walker, Baird and Wilson.

The Army: Hodgkinson; Foulkes and G Shaw; Anderson, Spiers and Colman; Crawford, R Charlton, Curry, Edwards and Jones.

Duncan Edwards, already an England internationalist when he played against Rangers

Take a look at that Army XI, nearly all then aged between 18 and 20. Alan Hodgkinson, later to be Scotland goalkeeping coach, would win his first England cap in the match against Scotland four months later; Bill Foulkes was already an England internationalist, Graham Shaw would win his first England cap in 1958. Stan Anderson had a longer wait, not being capped until 1962. Bobby Charlton won his first England cap, at Hampden in April, 1958, while the left-wing pairing of Duncan Edwards and Welshman Cliff Jones were already full caps when they played at Ibrox.

Of the rest, Ian Crawford of Hearts was a Scotland Under-21 internationalist, while, but for Munich, Eddie Colman of Manchester United would surely have been capped by England, being already an Under-23 cap. Seven full caps and two Under-23 caps – not a bad team.

In contrast, the Rangers team included just three capped players – Johnny Little, Ian McColl and Sammy Baird, although Billy Ritchie, Bobby Shearer and Davie Wilson would later be capped, while Derek Grierson was a Scotland and Team GB amateur internationalist and Olympian.

The verdict has to be, young players got a better grounding and a chance to show what they could do 60-years ago, than they get today.

That same 1956-57 season, our Under-23 team played one match, drawing 1-1 with England at Ibrox on 26 February, 1957. The Scotland team was: Campbell Forsyth (St Mirren); Alex Parker (Falkirk) and Eric Caldow (Rangers); Dave Mackay (Hearts), Jackie Plenderleith (Hibs) and Alex Glen (Queen's Park); Johnny Hamilton (Hearts), Felix Reilly (Dunfermline Athletic), Max Murray (Rangers), Alex Young and Ian Crawford (both Hearts).

Max Murray - a mystery how he failed to win a full cap, given the goals he scored

Parker was already a full cap, Caldow would win the first of his 40 caps at Wembley in April of that year and Mackay would win his first cap in Spain in May. Jackie Plenderleith had to wait until November, 1960 to win his only full cap, while Alex Young didn't get his until the England game, at Hampden in April, 1960. Cambell Forsyth had to wait until April, 1964, for his first cap – which is perhaps more in-line with modern times. An aside here, given the number of goals he scored for Rangers, quite how Max Murray was never capped is a mystery.

Sixty years ago, the Scotland B team was also running as a bridge between the Under-23 team and the full squad. The following squad lost 4-1 to England at Villa Park: Simpson; Kirk and Winton; Aitken, Malloy, Cumming; Scott, Kelly, Gardiner, Wardhaugh and McCann. Quite how it took Ronnie Simpson until 1967 to be capped is a mystery, indeed a scandal. Bobby Kirk of Hearts and Charlie Aitken of Motherwell were good enough, just unlucky in competitive fields; Danny Malloy was the eternal understudy who never got his chance in the big time, but was also good enough.

 Charlie Aitken of Motherwell - good enough to play for Scotland but, he never made the cut

John Cumming, Alex Scott and Jimmy Wardhaugh were the three capped players who got in by not having enough full appearances to disqualify them, while Benny Kelly of Raith Rovers was one of those maverick Scottish talents, able to win a match on his own when he felt like it, but, never quite trusted. As for Messrs Winton of Burnley and McCann of Barnsley – the SFA selectors had a liking for picking Scottish journeymen with English clubs who were good players, but weren't even household names in their own households.

The thing was, 60-years ago, there was an international apprenticeship to be gone through – you would not be thrown-into a “must win” World Cup qualifier, without having shown, in a Scotland jersey, that you could cut the mustard.