THE Taliban and Al Quaeda apparently owe their continued existence, in the face of US/NATO military might to the support they draw from the Tribal Areas in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Here in Scotland, George Peat and the other members of the Hampden Taliban owe their continued existence to the Tribal Areas in Scottish football. Now Craig Levein, whose career kicked off in perhaps THE Tribal Area - Fife, has persuaded the blazerati that it would be a good idea to appoint a Performance Director for the SFA.
Great idea in theory, I'm not so sure in practice, because the long-established working practices of the SFA will not change overnight and by the appointment of one man, but we live in hope.
Levein has also announced his 23-man squad for the friendly with Sweden and while some will say it's the same old same old, that's hardly surprising at this time of the year.
Big Craig's problems are, well they're the same old same old - a lack of quality and depth in the players available to him and a lack of new kids forcing their way into his thoughts.
Being a time-served member of Scotland's goalkeeping guild, I always take an interest in who might wear the number one shirt. Craig Gordon is injured (again), so we obviously have a problem in replacing him. That problem is a minor one though - he might be a half-wit off the field, but when it matters Allan McGregor is top-notch and will start in Sweden.
It might have been a good move politically for Scotland to have left David Marshall of Cardiff, our acknowledged third-choice 'keeper off this particular trip.
If McGregor is starting, then maybe better to have taken along another 'keeper for the experience, since he will only get on should the Rangers' man be injured during the game.
And therein lies Levein's problem with lack of depth. Let's look at the pecking order: 1, a fit Gordon; 2, McGregor; 3, Marshall; 4, Neil Alexander (McGregor's club deputy); 5, Jamie Langfield (uncapped 30-year-old); 6, Paul Gallacher (31, last capped in 2004); 7, Ian Turner (Everton reserve). Thereafter I'm running out of ideas.
Look at our 12 SPL clubs: Celtic, Dundee United, Hibs, Motherwell, (our other European respresentatives), Hearts and Hamilton all have non-Scots as their first-choice goalkeeper, while I doubt if Irish international Jonny Tuffey has swapped playing in the First Division in Maryhill for warming a bench in Inverness.
Where is our next young 'keeper? I know Jamie MacDonald at Hearts is highly-rated and a former Under-21 internationalist, but, he's not Jim Jefferies' undisputed first-pick, at an age by which the likes of Gordon, Goram, Leighton and Rough had already been blooded internationally.
Cammy Bell at Kilmarnock did well last season, but, for what looks likely to be another season of struggle, Mixu might still prefer the tried and tested 36-year-old Alan Combe.
Messrs Brown and Smith at Hibs have both been down the Under-21, B team path, but Yogi prefers the non-Scot Graham Stack for the big games.
There are other positions in which we struggle and we don't seem to have a development plan in place to cover this lack of depth and experience.
Perhaps the SFA should have a look at how the SRU does things. I must first acknowledge that the men at Murrayfield have one advantage in that most of the potential internationalists are centrally-contracted. They may play for and be paid by Edinburgh and Glasgow, but these two clubs are wholly-owned subsidiaries of the SRU.
What the SRU does have is a clear development path; it might be typically Scottish that the Murrayfield way isn't universally admired within Scottish rugby, but it seems better than the SFA's non-existent development programme.
The Scotland squad is drawn from the professional players at the two pro clubs, plus those professionals playing outwith Scotland (of which there are more rugby players than footballers, from a much smaller player base).
The full international team plays a maximum of ten internationals per season - slightly more hopefully in a World Cup year: three Autumn Tests, which are a warm-up for the five Six Nations games in January - March. Then there will be two Tests during a short summer tour.
The full team is backed-up by the A team, which gets to play three tests per year in the IRB Nations Cup, has annual matches with Ireland and Italy A and which also generally gets at least one game against the "diddy" team in the Autumn Tests rota.
Not a great schedule I will admit - but at least there is a mechanism for finding out how a player has developed once he's too old for the age group internationals. Football doesn't have that established set-up. Once you're too old for the Under-21s, you might wait years before you are back on the Scotland scene.
Berti Vogts, knowing how it worked in Germany, tried to provide a stepping stone, with his Futures internationals; but, once he had gone, Walter Smith, the man with absolutely no trust in young players, dropped the Futures fixtures and they've never been revived. Hardly surprising, Scottish football has a great past - little or no future.
I live in hope that Craig Levein will use the proposed British Isles Cup matches, if they're still going to happen, it has all gone quiet over there, as a sort of development tournament for fringe players.
I live in hope, but I will not be holding my breath.
No comments:
Post a Comment