Unless Things Change There Will Be No More Lost Finals - Or Even Final Losses For Scotland

IN WHAT, in my 76^th year I can now see as a previous life, I for a time worked the Scottish end of a national Sunday newspaper's weekly “Where are they now?” column. I would be sent a photograph of a successful team from the past, and it was my job to find out what had happened to the players, and, as it says on the tin – reveal where they were at the time of writing.

One of the more-enjoyable to write of such pieces was on “The Lost Boys,” the legendary squad which lost to: “Saudi Arabia Under-23s” in the FIFA World Under-16 Championships. That particular squad has, up till now, been widely-regarded as Scotland's most-successful age group squad. There seems little doubt that the Saudis drove a camel train through the age rules for that competition, even less doubt that, since money talks, FIFA will never mount a meaningful investigation of the events and perhaps retrospectively disqualify the cheating Saudis and give the title to the Scots.

Tough, but, that's where Scotland now lies in the world of football – the nation which gave the game form is now a small, mid-table, European nation.

Just this week, however, there emerged a genuine challenge to The Lost Boys' right to be considered our best-ever squad. That came courtesy of wee Pat Nevin's labour of love: “The Lost Final,” which aired on BBC Scotland over the weekend.

This story, 40 years on, of the triumph of the European Under-18 Champions was just the sort of programme BBC Shortbread ought to be doing more of. But, since they have to ask London's permission to go to the toilet, I don't see the high heid yins at Pacific Quay rushing to commission further, similar programmes.

Craig Brown, who managed The Lost Boys, told me when I did the story: “This was the best-prepared Scottish squad ever.” Ernie Walker and the SFA, The Scottish Schools FA, the clubs to whom the boys were aligned, the various schools, all were on the same page – the Scotland squad had to be given the best-possible chance of going far in the competition.

“Bleeper Brown's” unspoken point was – what might Scotland be able to do if every Scotland squad got that sort of backing. That point came across too in “The Lost Final,” Scotland had to travel to Finland for the final tournament minus three key men, Aberdeen's Bryan Gunn, Neale Cooper and Eric Black, all of whom were in the Dons' Scottish Cup Final squad and not released to travel.

Another point of similarity between the two squads is – both groups are considered relative failures, in that success at age group level didn't transfer to success at full international level.

The Scotland "Lost Boys" squad was: -

Goalkeepers: Jim Will (Arsenal), Martin Dickson (Kilmarnock).

Defenders: Billy Dolan, James Beattie (both Celtic), Eddie Conville, Tom McMillan (both Dundee United), Kevin Bain (Dundee), Scott Marshall (Arsenal).

Midfielders: Gary Bolan, John Lindsay, Andy McLaren (all Dundee United), Neil Murray, David Hagen (both Rangers), Brian O'Neil (Celtic), Ian Downie (Aberdeen).

Forwards: Craig Flannigan (Rangers), Kevin McGoldrick (Greenock Morton), Paul Dickov (Arsenal).

Eighteen players, of whom only McLaren (1 cap), O'Neil (7 caps) and Dickov (10 caps) made it all the way to winning full caps. That's a conversion rate of 17%.

The Scotland "Lost Final" squad  was: -:

Goalkeepers: Robin Rae (Hibernian), Ian Westwater (Heart of Midlothian).

Defenders: Dave Beaumont, Gary McGinnis (both Dundee United), Jim McInally (Celtic), John Philliben (Stirling Albion), Dave Rennie (Leicester City).

Midfielders: Dave Bowman (Hearts), Brian Rice (Hibernian), Paul McStay, Jim Dobbin (both Celtic), Gary Mackay (Heart of Midlothian), Ally Dick (Tottenham Hotspur).

Forwards: Pat Nevin (Clyde), Billy Livingstone (Wolverhampton Wanderers), Sammy McGivern (Kilmarnock).

Sixteen players, of whom only McInally (10 caps), Bowman (6 caps), McStay (76 caps), Mackay (4 caps), Nevin (28 caps) made it all the way to winning full caps. That's a conversion rate of 31%.

If success is measured only in the conversion from age group to full caps, then it doesn't look great, however, quite a few members of both squads went on to have reasonable to good club careers. One or two are still involved in the game, but for a few of them, that youthful success was the end of the story.

However, what the low conversion rate does show is, a good kid doesn't necessarily become a good adult player – the road to football success is a rocky one. For instance, one father of one of The Lost Boys puts his son's failure to make it in football down to: “He shared a flat with Duncan Ferguson.” The same kid has, however, since gone on to run his own successful company outside football, and, he's not the only Lost Boy to prosper away from the game.

Another good anecdote I got from doing my where are they now piece came up when one of The Lost Boys recalled watching Portugal playing in the European Championships, with a squad built around the Portuguese Under-16 team which had lost to Scotland. He was watching the game during his meal break at his job in a supermarket company's warehouse. One of the other workers asked: “Did Scotland not beat Portugal in the Youth World Cup” and was amazed to discover, he was sitting at the same table as one of that winning Scotland team.

Football is a bit like life. You start off as one of the new boys – you rise through the ranks at your age group – then you go out into the real world, and you're a newbie again. You climb through the ranks, and, at some point you find your level – not everyone makes it to the top.

A book which I have and am fond of quoting is The Scottish Schools FA's Schoolboy International Who's Who. The cover contains head shots of 12 Scottish footballing legends who were Schoolboy Internationalists.

But, as an experiment, I let it fall open, at a couple of random pages. Sixty players are listed there, on whom only Peter Lorimer, Lou Macari, Dave Mackay and Gary Mackay went on to win full caps; that's a 7% conversion rate from schoolboy to full cap. Mind you, those two pages also included the names of Jim Leishman “the Laird o' Fife” as he is now known, John Lindsay from The Lost Boys, man of many clubs Billy Little and former Motherwell and Scotland Under-23 goalkeeper Keith Macrae. So, not every player on that page failed to make a ripple in the football pond.

The trick, which thus far has evaded the best brains in Scottish football is – how do we turn these tiny ripples into a bloody great tsunami, to carry Scotland back to the top of the world rankings for the first time in a century or more? Once we get into the top ten of European nations, we can perhaps start to think of winning European Championships and World Cups.

There are a couple of main obstacles to player development by Scottish clubs – other than the main one, which is the reluctance of the clubs to trust their young players. Alan Hansen's Doctrine: “You win nothing with kids,” has many disciples within Scottish football.

This leads to the first problem – FEAR. Club officials are scared to go down the youth path, in case their club gets relegated, while club managers are similarly scared, in case they get sacked. So, rather than go with the promising kids, they hang onto tried and tested and often bang average older players.

The second problem is – ENGLISH FOOTBALL. For all their greater numbers, English football is probably even worse than Scotland at bringing through talent, but, for well over 100 years, when an English team is in bother and needs an injection of talent – they have tended to look north.

OK, I accept, at least in the English Premiership and the top half of their Championship, today they tend to recruit from overseas, but, such is the financial imbalance between football on either side of the Solway, even lower league English clubs can now cherry-pick promising young Scots away from their original clubs.

Now too, when a Scottish club needs to recruit, more and more they are looking to anywhere but Scotland for the new blood. I put the blame for this squarely on the shoulders of Graeme Souness, until he arrived at Ibrox, Scottish clubs recruiting non-Scots happened as often as comets visited the earth. Gradually, since then, home Scots have been elbowed aside in the clubs' rush to recruit non-Scots.

This has had an effect on young player development. For instance, by checking through my latest edition of the Football Yearbook (Rothman's to us old-timers), I discover:

• Since Souness arrived at Rangers, 60 Rangers youngsters have won Scotland Under-21 caps.

• Of these, only 20 went on to win full Scotland caps

• 4 of these players had to leave Rangers to win full caps.

• Since Souness arrived at Rangers, 58 Celtic youngsters have won Scotland Under-21 caps.

• Of these, 21 went on to win full caps

• 3 of these players had to leave Celtic to win full caps.

When you see our two leading sides faring so badly in converting their best young talent into international players, it makes you wonder.

Notice something about that European Championship squad; of the 16 players, only three were Celtic players, none were with Rangers. However, quite a few of them were already first-team regulars with their clubs. Today, it is rare indeed to see 18-year-olds featuring in Scottish first teams.

I feel, if we are ever to get back to the days of being competitive on the European stage, we need to find a way to unleash our young talent.

Let's have a wee bit of left-field thinking. Here's my offering:

• Since the League Cup competition does not offer European qualification for the winners, maybe the SPFL could make it a “Scottish players only” competition. Every player in every team in that competition had to be 'Scotland-Qualified.'

• In the cause of young player development, they could go further and make it, like the Olympic Games football tournament, primarily for Under-23 players.

I would also invoke Chick Young's 'Eight Diddies Rule,' whereby only three non-Scots could be fielded in any domestic Scottish game. I don't see how this would infringe employment laws, clubs which wished to emply non-Scots could still do so, but, they could only ever have three of them on the park at any one time in domestic Scottish games. That way, we would be pro-actively encouraging the development of young Scottish talent and perhaps finding our way into more finals.

However, I am not holding my breath in anticipation of this, constructive, forward thinking has never been a given when it comes to the high heid yins of the game in Scotland.

Expectation Management - There's The Rub

THE TARTAN ARMY just might have the most-unrealistic expectations of any group of supporters in world football. I say might, only because if anything that lot south of the Solway, with their constant chants about football coming home, have even-greater delusions about the quality of their national team than we have.

Stevie Clarke's branded manager's coat was, on Monday, on a shoogly peg, following “The Dublin Debacle,” however, following victory in Armenia, the lynch mob have retreated to their favoured watering holes, to mutter in the corner and await the next loss. That win in Armenia was the final act in a long season for the national side, whose record for season 2021-22 now reads:

Played 13 – won 8 – drawn 2 – lost 3 – goals for 20 – against 14 – 61.3% wins.

That, by Scotland standards was a good season, it isn't often we win better than 50% of the internationals we play in any season. Or. Let me put it this way: season 2021-22 was a good one for Hearts fans; their side finished third in the league and reached the Scottish Cup Final. Overall, the Gorgie club won 52% of their fixtures – but that made it a good season.

My own senior team – Kilmarnock, also had a good season. They won The Championship, but, they only won 55% of the games – still, they won promotion, so it was a good season.

Celtic had an ok season. They won the league and the League Cup, in the league, they won 76% of the matches. They finished ahead of Rangers, but didn't win a treble and were terrible in Europe, so, good, but, not a season to crow over.

Rangers had a good, but not great season. They won the Scottish Cup, reached the Europa League final, but, finished behind Celtic in the league, so, not a campaign to get too carried away over. In the league, they won 71% of the matches. Some Bears will be happy with the return, others will not – it's all about expectation management.

For the record, the English media this morning is awash with a tsunami of moans about poor Gareth Southgate, the man currently custodian of the most toxic and poisoned chalice in world sport – the position of England National Team Manager.

If you listen to the radio phone-ins, or look at the btl comments on the newspaper websites – Southgate is a useless numpty who should be immediately sacked. “England expects,” and Southgate isn't meeting expectations, in spite of a 52% winning record in the season which has just ended.

The only English club managers with a superior wins record this season are the bosses of Manchester City, Liverpool, Chelsea, Tottenham Hotspur and Arsenal – and these five clubs barely have an English player in their first-team squads.

The truth is:

• The football season in the UK is too-long; our players are being asked to play too-many matches to be able to function properly in international games at the end of the season.

• British players, in general, are not as technically-gifted or as well-coached as continental players; this tells against them when it matters.

• Our top clubs now prefer to recruit ready-made foreign-coached players, to the detriment of home-grown talent.

• The governing bodies in the UK are not prepared to redress this imbalance and pro-actively encourage home-grown talent.

Until we sort out these problems, none of the four Home Nations is ever going to win a major competition.

England, I am told, won the World Cup in 1966. However, since they rarely mention this triumph, it may be a myth, perpetuated by the English media. Back then, that winning team met the blueprint for a winning team – by having a brilliant “spine.”

Goalkeeper Gordon Banks, central defender Bobby Moore, central midfielder Bobby Charlton and striker Jimmy Greaves were all “World Class” - if a World XI of the time was being picked, all four would have been in the frame, as would at the very least left-back Ray Wilson.

At the same time, Scotland had, in Jim Baxter and Denis Law, another two candidates for any World XI, while Northern Ireland's George Best would have been another candidate for inclusion. That's eight potential players from the British Isles in a World XI of the time.

Fast forward to today and in the PFA Premier League Team of the Season 2021-22 contains just one Home Nations' player – Liverpool's Trent Alexander-Arnold. Now, that isn't even a “World XI” - merely a best of the domestic league. When you can only get one English player into a “Best of the English League XI” then sorry, but, you're not going to be competitive in World Cups or European Championships.

Your media can mistakenly over-hype your domestic league as: “The greatest league in the world,” but, when your home-grown players are to be found in the chorus line rather than as principals, you're not going to be competitive in World Cups or European Championships.

And, when your major clubs are owned by non-domiciled individuals or corporations, with no link to the country where their teams play, you're not going to be competitive in World Cups or European Championships.

Disaster In Dublin - No, Just Another June Reverse

THEY DIDN'T half dust off the old “Disaster For Scotland” headlines in the wake of Saturday's Dublin Debacle. Once more the great brains of the Scottish Football Writers Association are calling for the head of the manager, the removal of several players and bemoaning our repeated failings on the park.

Scotland has been losing to Ireland, either the whole of that island, the Republic part or Northern Ireland since Queen Victoria was on the throne. I can tell you, from various buts of research within Glasgow's Mitchell Library – losing to the men in green never sits well with the Scots. For instance, it was after a loss to the Irish, at Firhill, in February, 1928 that the Scottish selectors opted for nine changes to the team to face England – and the Wembley Wizards were born.

We've been playing international football since 1872, we are now approaching 900 full internationals and, our overall record shows, we've only won some 48% of these games. Of all these internationals, only 89 have been played in the month of June, and we've won just 29 of these – just under 33%.

The lesson from this is, maybe we shouldn't play internationals in June; it's the wrong month for Scots to be running around a football park.

For at least the last century and a bit, we have tended to pick the bulk of our team from Anglo-Scots, Scottish players playing for English clubs. The greater riches abounding in the English game has meant the high road south has always been an attractive proposition to our top talent. Once upon a time, the Old Firm could compete, but today, even they are nursery clubs to have their best talent picked-off at will by even lesser English clubs.

The English game, even today when the majority of the best players are foreign, rather than UK-reared, has always been a brand of football which places endeavour and running power above technical prowess. Our players either in Scotland or England, are not as technically proficient as their continental, South American or African team mates – so they have to compensate by harder and longer running.

This means, by the end of the English season, which, with European games can mean 60-plus matches, the Scots players are running on empty. Then, we ask them to play another month for their country. It's a recipe for disaster.

He's certainly safe in the short term, because Steve Clarke has been and continues to be a good Scotland manager. I cannot think of a Scottish candidate to replace him, even then, there are no guarantees. Given the quality of player he has to work with, he's doing well.

In any case, being Scotland boss has long been a poisoned chalice. The fans still, to a degree, have unrealistic expectations of the national side.

Not that long ago the English Team of the Season – selected from players in their top flight, would have been awash with Scots. The likes of Denis Law, Kenny Dalglish, Graeme Souness, Alan Hansen and John Wark were at the heart of English clubs winning things in Europe. This season's English Premiership Team of the Season didn't include one Scot. Perhaps only national captain Andy Robertson was anywhere near selection, but, he didn't get in.

The Scottish Premiership Team of the Season was almost as bad, with only three Scots – Goalkeeper Craig Gordon, his Hearts team mate Stephen Kingsley and Celtic captain Calum McGregor making it into the final XI. If we can only get three Scots into the Scottish domestic Team of the Season – we've got problems.

It has long been claimed, Scotland's greatest export is its people – our brightest and best have been leaving Scotland – often involuntarily - for the past three hundred plus years. Our top footballers have been leaving since Fergus Suter left Partick FC for Darwen in 1878, so the Scottish football gene pool has been shrinking for over 140 years – no wonder we are mince.

I reckon we should stop blaming Steve Clarke, or the players, they're doing our best. I've said this before, and I dare say before I cash-in my chips I will say it again – but:

The fault for the shortcomings in our national team and Scottish football in general lies squarely at the feet of the rank amateurs and numpties, wearing SFA or club blazers, who make the big decisions about our game. We are going nowhere but backwards until we have a right clear-out, starting along the sixth floor corridor at Hampden.

And finally – their media assures us England are genuine contenders for the next World Cup Finals, but, three games into the Nations League, they have yet to win a game.

To quote a famous Tartan Army chant from the past: We're shite, but, we know we are.” Some neighbouring nations don't have our acute sense of self-worth.

FINALLY – Of course I am gutted by our loss in Dublin, but, I remain a Scotland supporter, and have utter contempt for those House Jocks celebrating our loss and posting their joy at our loss on Facebook – accompanies by wee Union Flags.

You might want to be England fans, but, they don't want you – and neither do the rest of us Scots.

Give The Scots A Chance

 

SOME 20 YEARS AGO, or it might even be further back in time – Bill Leckie tore off his headphones, swore as only a Paisley Buddie can swear and figuratively had steam coming out of his ears. What had caused the normally phlegmatic Mr Leckie to lose his cool? Some banal observation from Keith Jackson on Radio Clyde.

As I was forced to remind the good William, he was, after all, the man who had foisted young Master Jackson on Scottish fitba, so, he had to take a modicum of blame for the outburst of pish which had so upset him.

I am from a different time. I shared press boxes with some class acts: Dan Archer, Doug Baillie, 'Chiefy' Cameron, Brian Scott, the young James Traynor and his even-more-talented elder brother John. I was a journeymen alongside these stars, but, given that the likes of Mr Leckie and Hugh Macdonald are no longer front-line football writers, there are few today I have much time for. After The Times' two distinguished 'veterans' – Phil Gordon and Graham Spiers, The Scotsman's Alan Pattullo, The Sun's Roger Hannah and freelancer Graham Macpherson, I am struggling.

So I am not at all surprised that the 'fans with lap-tops' of the scottish Football Writers Association have began a sniping campaign against Scotland boss Stevie Clarke. It goes with the territory, only being England Manager or maybe in-charge of Brazil is a more-thankless task than being Scotland boss. In the three cases I mention, you are holding a poisoned chalice, in terms of managing fans' expectations.

It's way past time we faced facts:

• we have not, for about 100 years, been anywhere near as good as we like to think we are

• the way we run and manage our game is fatally-flawed

• the guys who make the big decisions don't really care about the national team – they're own wee team comes first

• if two Glasgow-based clubs don't like anything, it doesn't happen – because they think they are bigger than the game

The governing body of the game in Scotland is the Scottish Football Association. That body was formed because, back in the early days of the game, at the height of the Victorian British Empire – a bunch of public school old boys down in London had formed The Football Association, and sought to run the game the length and breadth of the United Kingdom.

In 1870, they picked a 'Scotland XI' to play England, and one or two only got into the Scotland team, because they owned large tracts of our country. The good gentlemen of Queen's Park FC took umbrage at this, picked an all-Scottish XI and drew with the men in white – international football was born, so, we had to form the SFA to run our end of it.

I wonder how Bob Gardner, Charles Campbell and the other giants of the 1870s and 1880s, when Scotland was the best team in the world, would feel about players today being picked on the basis of a Scottish grannie. And I wonder how they would feel about “Scottish” teams playing in European club games with hardly a Scotsman in their line-up.

I have nothing against Scottish teams employing non-Scots, but, I just feel, we should be pro-actively encouraging Scottish players and am a firm believer in what Chick Young called: “The eight diddies rule,” whereby only three non-Scots could be on the park for a team at any one time.

Every non-Scot who is playing for a Scottish team, in the Scottish League, is one fewer Scot available for Stevie Clarke's national team. Maybe the SFA should be looking at how rugby in the UK tackles this nationality issue.

In English Rugby's Gallagher Premiership, 70% - that's 16 players out of a match-day squad of 23 have to be “England-qualified.” In Wales, the National Coach is limited as to how many players with fewer than 60 caps – but playing outside Wales – he can pick for the national side.

OK to be fair, the SRU does go in for non-Scots “project” players – generally South Africans – to qualify to play for Scotland through residence, but, in their defence, we have the smallest number of players and clubs of any of the Tier One nations.

French clubs used to be free to employ players from all over the world, but, in recent years, their focus has changed to bringing through young, French talent, while, since there are only five full-time, fully-professional clubs in Ireland: the four Rugby Union provinces – Connacht, Leinster, Munster and Ulster, plus the ice hockey Belfast Giants, Irish rugby has a definite financial advantage and can keep their best talent at home.

So why do Scottish clubs keep denying opportunities to young Scots, by employing journeymen English and foreign players. I have no beef with the Laudrup, Larsson or Sauzee-level players coming to Scotland, but, some of the average players we have imported were no better than the Scots they were displacing.

Of course, the Big Two, who like to kid us on they're important European clubs, will skweam and skweam and skweam, and threaten to take their ball away, were the diddy teams to attempt to impose a more Scottish look to their squads, but, bring it on I say. They appear to have forgotten, their only European trophy-winning squads were all-Scottish. Importing Europeans, even good ones, hasn't seen them match the Lisbon Lions or the Barcelona Bears on the big stage.

Here's an idea – why don't we bring in the 're-Scottishing' of Scottish Football by making the League Cup, a competition which winning it doesn't bring European qualification, a Scottish players only competition. No non-Scots could be fielded, that would give the diddy teams a chance, and let the big sides see how much native talent they had.

If it worked, the same rules could be applied to the Scottish Cup, then, maybe, we could introduce the three foreigners rule into our domestic league. Come on SFA, be brave and give our home-grown players a real chance.

Disappointing Scotland Results - Nothing New

I CAN vaguely remember watching Scotland being gubbed 7-0 by Uruguay, the full calamity brought to us via Eurovision to “enjoy” on our 12-inch screen, black-and-white televisions, back on 19 June, 1954. So when it comes to “Disaster for Scotland' as dear old David Francey used to say, well I've suffered more than most.

So, there will be no wailing and gnashing of teeth chez Socrates; been there, done that, got too-many DVDs to count in my 'Epic Scotland Failures' file. I will say, however, I got it wrong – I fancied us to court universal unpopularity by beating the Ukrainians, before blowing the whole World Cup deal with another Cardiff calamity.

Ach! Anyway, what would a nation of freckle-faced gingers want with November in Qatar? NHS Scotland is stretched enough, without dealing with the fall-out of that little trip.

We need someone to blame, so, step forward Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin, if he could have kept his Stalin complex under control for a few months, then the game might have been played when first scheduled, and we might have won. As it transpired, the delay did us no favours, and enabled our opponents to properly prepare to take us apart.

If, as might happen, and we are en route to World War III, my only hope is that the Royal Regiment of Scotland takes the Kremlin, the war time equivalent of winning a penalty shoot-out, to end the thing.

I bailed-out at half time last night. I already had that hopeless feeling after a dire first half. Let's hope we can quickly re-group, get through the Nations Cup qualifiers and make a real fist of qualifying for the 2024 Euros.

My faith in Stevie Clarke is in no way diminished, I stilll believe he's our best managerial hope. What I would like to see from him is, in the upcoming matches, a start to the changing of the guard as regards the Scotland team.

We now have a fairly-settled squad, who are familiar with each other, the system and what they need to do. However, in the next few games, we need to get some of the fringe players more involved.

Look at the goalkeeping situation. First-choice Craig Gordon is 40, second-choice David Marshall is 37. Gordon has 67 caps, Marshall has 47. Assuming he inherits the Rangers' goalkeeper's shirt from Allan McGregor, Jon McLaughlin will probably be heir presumptive to the Scotland role, except, he's now 34 and only has two caps.

The next taxis off the rank are St Johnstone's Zander Clark and Motherwell's Liam Kelly. They have been squad regulars for a wee while now, but neither Clark (30 later this month) nor Kelly, (who is 26) has as yet been capped. Getting a young goalkeeper in there and blooded has to be a priority for Clarke.

Received wisdom is, when putting together a winning team, you start with the 'spine' of the side: goalkeeper – centre-half, central midfielder, striker. OK, I've dealt with the goalkeeping situation, in central defence, the main man is Grant Hanely. He's a wee bit like a 21^st century Ronnie McKinnon. He's under-rated, he's not showy, but, he's seldom let Scotland down and is nearing a 50^th cap and a place in the SFA Roll of Honour. However, he's now 30, his club has just been relegated and while Clarke doesn't consider playing in England's Championship as grounds for not playing also for Scotland, well, Hanley's time may be drawing to a close.

I suspect, should be establish himself at the heart of the Rangers' defence in the new season, John Souttar will add to his Scotland caps, while promotion to the English Premiership for Nottingham Forest will not harm Scott McKenna's chances of adding to his current 23 Scotland caps.

In midfield, Billy Gilmour really needs to be playing regularly for Chelsea, or somewhere else in the top half of the Premiership, if he is to become the player we all feel he can be for Scotland, while, up front, we need to find a consistent striker – but, that has long been a Scotland problem.

OK, losing to Ukraine wasn't the result we wanted; it means another World Cup without Scotland and the Tartan Army. But, let's heed the wise words of our National Team Manager.

We feel sorry for ourselves today, then, we re-group and go again. We've got two games against Armenia and one against the Republic of Ireland. We have a squad capable of winning all three, so, by the time football shuts down mid-month, we ought to be feeling a lot better about ourselves and our place in the world.