SOME say, nostalgia isn't what it used to be; I couldn't possibly comment accurately. After all, I am only in my seventh decade and in that time, football, even in Scotland, has changed out of all recognition - and not for the better.
The game to which I was introduced, on the drying green of Craigston Square, Lugar and at Rosebank Park, home of the legendary Lugar Boswell Thistle, was a different animal from the pish I watched via TV pictures beamed from Novi Sad on Tuesday night.
Watching Gary Caldwell and Alan Hutton struggle to control a light ball, made of complex layers of artificial fabric, wearing similarly lightweight, machined boots made of plastic and other synthetic materials and lightweight, skin tight strips, of breathable fabric, I briefly pondered how they might have coped with the leather, laced Tomlinson "T" ball, whilst wearing huge brown ankle-high Manfield Hotspur boots, with their six leather nailed-in studs, and their hard toe-caps, whilst wearing a heavy cotton strip, thick woolen stockings and shin-guards the thickness of a telephone directory, on a cold, wet, night when the mud stuck to the players' kit, the ball grew increasingly heavy as it soaked-up the rain and injury brought on a masochistic trainer, who would splash the injured part of the player's anatomy with an ice-cold sponge and encourage him to: "Get up and run it aff son".
From scenes like these, auld Scotia's grandeur sprung - or so we were told.
I COULD re-hash all the old points I've made in the past: too-many teams, too-little attention to basic skills, a continued over-inflating of our place in the football world, aye, too-much nostalgia for past golden ages, which were at best gold-plated, or more-properly epns.
But, the fact is, there isn't an appetite within the corridors of power at Hampden for the implementation of the necessary changes which might get us back to the top table which we seem to think is our rightful place.
The SFA, SPL and SFL are wee, old-fashioned, long-established clubs (not that long in the case of the SPL) where being a member is everything. Faded grandeur, misty-eyed recollection of the good old days - which forensic examination of might show weren't all that good - not rocking the boat, enjoying the benefits, these are the reasons d'etre of our footballing bodies - so, why change things?
We haven't, I fear, bottomed-out yet, and not until we do, until we are down there in pot five with Andorra, San Marino and the likes, are things even going to start to change.
So, I fear I will be sitting here for a few years yet, a sports-writing amalgam of Private Fraser and Victor Meldrew, with a wee camp nod to Frankie Howard - We're awe doomed ah tell ye; I do not believe it; woe, woe and thrice woe.
BUT, at least we can still laugh - Syria has been flung out of the Arab League, Charlie Green has nominated Rangers to fill the vacancy.
I COULD re-hash all the old points I've made in the past: too-many teams, too-little attention to basic skills, a continued over-inflating of our place in the football world, aye, too-much nostalgia for past golden ages, which were at best gold-plated, or more-properly epns.
But, the fact is, there isn't an appetite within the corridors of power at Hampden for the implementation of the necessary changes which might get us back to the top table which we seem to think is our rightful place.
The SFA, SPL and SFL are wee, old-fashioned, long-established clubs (not that long in the case of the SPL) where being a member is everything. Faded grandeur, misty-eyed recollection of the good old days - which forensic examination of might show weren't all that good - not rocking the boat, enjoying the benefits, these are the reasons d'etre of our footballing bodies - so, why change things?
We haven't, I fear, bottomed-out yet, and not until we do, until we are down there in pot five with Andorra, San Marino and the likes, are things even going to start to change.
So, I fear I will be sitting here for a few years yet, a sports-writing amalgam of Private Fraser and Victor Meldrew, with a wee camp nod to Frankie Howard - We're awe doomed ah tell ye; I do not believe it; woe, woe and thrice woe.
BUT, at least we can still laugh - Syria has been flung out of the Arab League, Charlie Green has nominated Rangers to fill the vacancy.
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