WHEN
I was growing-up and beginning to discover my football heroes –
Bert Trautman and Jimmy Brown if you must know – there seemed, with
hindsight, to be a selection system in Scottish football.
Ian Black of Fulham - perhaps the ultimate Scottish One Cap Wonder
Sure,
the selectors, who picked the Scotland side back in the 1950s and for
most of the 1960s, would occasionally justify their all-expenses-paid
scouting trips to England by throwing a “One Cap Wonder” into the
international team: Fulham goalkeeper Ian Black and West Ham inside
forward John Dick, against England in 1948 and 1959 respectively
being perhaps the best examples of guys being capped before they were
household names in their own households. But, generally the path to a
full cap back in those black and white TV days was well laid-out.
Players
who were getting consistently good write-ups in the run-of-the-mill
league games, and who didn't freeze at Ibrox or Celtic Park, would be
introduced into the Scottish League XI, and, if they fitted-in there,
in time, they would be tried-out in the full team, perhaps in one of
the regular end-of-season friendlies.
Guys
who caught the selectorial eye in England might get their chance in
the Scotland B team, which was formed after the debacle of
non-appearance at the 1950 World Cup and lasted through until 1957,
by which time the Under-23 team was up and running and seen as a
more-logical replacement.
Campbell Forsyth - had to wait seven years for a full cap
Unless
you were a goalkeeper, a successful B team or Under-23 “audition”
generally brought swift promotion to the big team. Campbell Forsyth,
however, had to wait seven years between his
Under-23 debut and his full debut, while Ronnie Simpson's wait was
even longer. An Olympian with Queen's Park in 1948, the future Celtic
Lisbon Lion received his B team call-up in 1953, when with Newcastle
United; then had to wait until his Indian Summer debut in that
unforgettable 1967 Wembley match, before winning a long-overdue full
cap.
Ronnie Simpson - played at Wembley with Team GB in the 1948 Olympic Games, but, had to wait until 1967, 19-years later, to appear there for Scotland
These
days, to quote a belter of an aside from Brian McClair: “You can
get a Scotland Under-21 cap for knowing the ball is round.” And,
while necessity, being the mother of invention, has forced SPFL
sides to blood more young Scots, with a consequential knock-on effect
on the team, there was a time, not so long ago, when the Under-21
team was drawn from guys who mainly played in their club's reserve
teams.
In
that respect, the Under-23 team was, I submit, a more-accurate
barometer of a young player's readiness for the international arena
than the Under-21 team is. Which is why, I would like to see the SFA
bring it back.
One
of the huge current problems with Scottish football is, while it
remains exciting and hard-fought, our domestic players, and sadly
more and more of the Scottish-qualified players plying their trade in
the lower reaches of the English Premiership and in their
Championship and League One, is, while they have continental and
South American team mates around them on a daily basis, they have
little experience of facing foreign teams in matches.
I
would reinstate the Under-23 team, as a purely development side,
playing wherever possible against foreign opponents, perhaps by
bringing back the old end-of-season continental tour, or, maybe by
bringing back the Home Internationals, as an Under-23 tournament.
On
this last suggestion. Why not run it as a mini-tournament taking it
round the four nations (or, if as they perhaps would say, England
declined to face lesser countries, in which case, I am sure the
Republic of Ireland would be delighted to come in)? Take the games
around Scotland, keeping them, initially anyway, away from Glasgow. I
am sure Sky or BT Sport would be pleased to cover this event.
There
might even be grounds, should England deign to favour such an event
with their presence, to use it as a pre-Olympics qualifier, winning
team to go as “Team GB” to the games. Now, I accept politics is
in-play here, but, I don't see this as an impediment to Scottish
participation – the old “threat to our international football
position argument - I reckon we will again be, if not already a
fully-fledged independent nation by the time my hypothetical
tournament is up and running, well down the road to FREEDOM!!!
Berti Vogts - couldn't get the Hampden High Heid Yins to fully endorse the Futures Team
By
bringing back Under-23 games, Big Eck would have more young players
with international experience at a lower level to choose from. Berti
Vogts sought to do something similar with his Futures team, but, the
stumblebums inside and outside Hampden's sixth-floor Corridor of
Power, never bought into the wee German's vision – a scheme which,
it goes without saying, has been part of the German plan for world
football domination since Berti was a player.
It
has worked for the Germans, why not also for us?
IN
MY last post, I mentioned the historic decision of the SJFA member
clubs, which has of course, still to be ratified at their AGM later
this year, to participate in the Scottish Football Pyramid.
I
mentioned, at the time, how Auchinleck Talbot were against the move,
and I speculated that they might be joined in this stance by several
other of the bigger names. Well, one of my friends posted, on
Facebook, a list of how the clubs voted and, an awful lot more of the
major clubs were against it, than were for it. This I suspected,
might be the case.
This
one will run and run.
Speaking
of the SJFA, I think Tom Johnston and Iain McQueen must have found
the square and oval balls for the Scottish Junior Cup semi-final
draw, which was made on Thursday.
The
ties, which are two-legged affairs, to be played on 14 and 21 April,
are:
Auchinleck
Talbot v Lochee United
Wishaw
Juniors v Hurlford United
Cynic
that I am, I think the Juniors' High Heid Yins are hoping for a
Talbot v Hurlford clash at Rugby Park in the final. So am I, but,
that's another story.
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