I engaged in an exchange of cordial e-mails this week with a former colleague, who now occupies a rather nice media sinecure darn sarf, in that there Lunnun. He was once a regular Jungle Jim; now he gets his 90 minutes of Saturday suffering at the Emirates. But, he likes to keep abreast of events up the road and like many a Celtic-minded man, he doesn't know whether to laugh or cry at current events around Ibrox.
Sure, like most Scots he enjoys schadenfreude and is thus revelling on the daily doom and gloom stories concerning the Establishment club; but, like most intelligent Celtic fans, he worries what might happen, should Rangers go under.
After generations as the outsiders, the nobody likes us, we don't care alternative, could Celtic and their fans cope with being Ra Peepl, the Establishment? We live in interesting times.
Tomorrow sees the start of Rugby's Six Nations, kicking off with Scotland v England, at Murrayfield, for the Calcutta Cup. However, the rugby authorities build things up nicely towards the big one, with the rival Under-20s and A teams meeting, while for those complete rugby anoraks, the Scotland and England Women's XVs will also clash.
There is a recognised pathway in Scottish international rugby - Under-15 to Under-16 to Under-18, then to Under-20, perhaps the Scottish Students XV, then the A team and finally the big team. It works too, development is monitored and players get used to playing to a set pattern long before they win that first full cap.
On the face of it, the SFA also has a development plan - Under-15, Under-16, Under-17, Under-18, Under-20, Under-21....er!!
If you're good - say a Darren Fletcher or a Barry Bannan, you can then step almost seamlessly into the big squad; if you're not so good, or seen as a slow developer, or if you happen to play for one of the really big teams who prefer to buy over-priced foreigners to rearing home-grown players, that is either the end of your international career, or, if you're lucky and spend two to seven years in the wilderness, you might, assuming they cannot find a player in one of the lower English leagues with a Scottish granny who plays in your position, get into the main squad.
The truth is, we don't have a system that works. We did have, between 1955 and 1957, when young players could go from the Under-23 team, to the B team, perhaps gain extra experience in the Scottish League team, then graduate to the full team.
Forty-five players played for the Scotland B team between 1952 ane 1957, nine of them had previously been capped, 16 didn't make it to the main team, but the other 20 did - even if in one case, that of Ronnie Simpson, he had to wait 14 years between his B team debut and his full international one.
Between 1955 and 1976 244 players were capped for the Scotland Under-23 team, 129 of these went on to win full caps a 53% - 47% split in favour of those who trained-on to become full caps.
Since the Under-23 team gave way to the Under-21 team these percentages have reversed, and more; indeed, given that the very first Scottish Under-23 team, which lost 0-6 to a Duncan Edwards-inspred England, at Shawfield, on 8 February, 1955: Willie Duff (Hearts) Alex Parker (Falkirk), Eric Caldow (Rangers), Dave Mackay (Hearts), Doug Baillie (Airdrie), Bobby Holmes (St Mirren), Graham Leggat (Aberdeen), Jimmy Walsh (Celtic), Andy Hill (Clyde), Bobby Wishart (Aberdeen) and Davie McParland (Partick Thistle) comprised 11 players who were all first team regulars with their club, while the latest Scotland Under-21 team contained just eight players who might be seen as first team regulars at club level - and that number is an increase on what was the case two or three or even five years ago.
We have lost our way a bit in our development of international players and this is a topic I intend returning to in the near future.
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