Research and Development

THE United Kingdom once had a vibrant motor industry. The Rootes Group - Hillman, Singer, Humber, Sunbeam Talbot: BMC - Austin, Morris, MG, Wolsley, Riley: the independents and specialists - Rover, Aston Martin, Jaguar, Rolls Royce - Bentley, Morgan, Lotus, Bristol, Reliant plus several small and very specialist firms; then there were the British offshoots of the American giants, Ford and Vauxhll - the British arm of General Motors.

In the truck industry too, Leyland was a world leader: the Foden family had a fall-out, Foden Motors continued at one end of Sandbach in Cheshire, at the other end of town two other Fodens started ERF: AEC in Southall was THE bus builder to the world, as well as producing iconic trucks such as the Mammoth Major. In Wolverhampton, Guy Motors ruled, Scammell was at Watford, Seddon and Atkinson were built in Manchester, Albions came from Scotstoun in Glasgow and the British-American companies produced trucks, Bedfords and Fordsons.

Specialist engine builders such as Gardner in Manchester and Perkins in Peterborough were world-famous, while Albion's axles and differentials found their way into other power trains, as did specialist British gear boxes.

The Clyde's massive Titan cranes were there for a reason - to hoist the mighty railway engines built at the North British Loco Works at Springburn onto Clyde-built ships to be ferried across the world.

Today, what have we? Not a lot. The great British marques survive; you can still buy an Aston Martin, Jaguar, Range Rover, Mini, Rolls Royce or Bentley, but, with a very few exceptions - the ultra-specialist bespoke builders of exotica, the companies building "British" cars are foreign-owned. Sure some Japanese makes: Honda, Toyota and Nissan build in Britain, but it can be argued we no longer have a domestic motor industry worthy of the name.

It's even worse in trucks: Fodens and ERFs latterly were built in Germany, ERFs still are, the last Foden rolled off the production line about five years ago. Most trucks on Britain's roads today are either Swedish - Scania and Volvo; German - MAN or Mercedes; French-built Renaults or Italian-built Ivecos. Why?

Well, when the foreign imports first arrived, they were better. When the first sleeper cab Volvo F88 was demonstrated at the Kelvin Hall Motor Show it was a sensation - it was light years ahead of the Atki Borderers and Gardner-powered Fodens British truckers were used to.

The British truck industry reacted too-slowly and too-late, their reluctance to invest in research and development caught them out, as did to a certain extent backing the wrong horses. Leyland spent a fortune on expensive gas turbine engines, Volvo simply developed their own diesels to do the same job better and cheaper.

The Clyde shipyards were complacent, the railway engine builders ditto - we were still producing steam engines when the rest of the world had gone electric. Our innovative aircraft designers were in the vanguard of the brain drain of the sixties and seventies.

What's this got to do with football?

Well, where our car, bus, truck, aircraft, shipping and railway-building industries were in the fifties and sixties - and while I accept our industries were badly let-down by successive governments - they didn't help themsleves, our football industry is today.

The British excuse of: "We've always done it this way", means it's all but impossible to change the mind-sets of those in power; we're comfortable with what we know, suspicious of change.

British football has neglected research and development for years, with the result, just as their local councils are buying foreign-built cars, vans and trucks, doing business on computers designed in the USA and using foreign-designed and manufactured equipment and clothing for their staff, so British football teams are increasingly side tracking British players to recruit from overseas.

Think back less than a month, to the aftershocks of England's hammering from the Germans at the World Cup. Cue outcry for a concentration on young, English players - on proper youth development, on trusting the next generation of Engliosh players.

What has happened since: well the English Premiership clubs are still hell-bent on spending obscene sums of money on foreign players. Given a choice between an over-the-hill Italian or Frenchman or a promising young English player, England's top clubs will still, by and large, go for the foreign model.

It's the same up here. Celtic manager Neil Lennon cannot shop in Harrods alongside the top English clubs, but he's been tootling round Aldi and Lidl buying-up players whom a lot of Celtic fans I've spoken to don't see as: "Celtic class".

At least he can still buy. Walter Smith is still selling players, but even he has been looking down-market for potential replacements, so far without success.

The Big Two may have multi-million pound flashy training grounds at Murray Park and Lennoxtown, but their investment in research and development kind of mirrors that of British industry in the sixties and seventies - too-little, too-late and half-hearted at best.

John Brown's, Albion Motors' Scotstoun Works, NB Locos' St Rollox Works, they're all today either industrial parks, housing sites or much-reduced - because of wrong decisions by management and government indifference.

How long before houses stand on Ibrox and Celtic Park? Unless we're very careful.