AS expected, Scotland beat Northern Ireland in last night's Hampden friendly. Having better things to do with my time last evening, I had to rely on newspaper reports this morning.
Football folk wisdom has it that: "Scotland doesn't 'do' friendlies"; this stance may have some credence. A few years ago I did a piece for one of the broadsheets, in which I compare Scotland's record in competitive internationals against our record in friendlies, and, from the days of brown Manfield Hotspur boots, with leather studs and thick woolen strips, to modern times, we have consistently had better results when it mattered, than in friendlies.
So, even though we won lat night, we apparently didn't rouse the Tartan Army to their singing and dancing top level of performance. This might be due in part to what I consider a genetically-generated fault in the Scottish psyche - we are World Champions at getting down to the level of our opponents.
If I can go slightly off-topic here; I have long contended, when playing the likes of San Marino, Luxembourg, Andorra, Liechtenstein or Sunday's upcoming opponents, Gibraltar, rather than picking what he thinks is our top players, Wee Gordon Strachan should cherry-pick the best players in the Junior game - thereby causing our opponents, who have, through necessity, honed their defensive game, to come out of their comfort zone and have a go, allowing us to pick them off.
Last night's game, will, however, be one of the last such meaningless fixtures, now UEFA is bringing-in their new schedule of what we might call: "competitive friendlies", whereby we will be playing other nations of roughly our own standard regularly.
When I first heard of this change, I thought it a good thing, I still do, but, I don't think it is good enough to meet Scotland's needs.
There is a definite gap between our age group teams, up to Under-21 and the full team. Only around one-third of the players whom we cap at Under-21 level ever make it through to win full caps. OK, some of the blame for this rests with our managers and directors, who, in an effort to win things NOW, seem to prefer to import more-technically-grounded foreign players, rather than sort things at source by properly coaching our raw talent.
The fact that, somehow, our players are presumed to not work as hard on their game as young players from elsewhere doesn't help; you could blame the Scottish diet - you might say they lack the hunger to improve as well. There are all sorts of reasons why our best young players do not train-on to contend for a place in the full team, but, there is a seeming reluctance to tackle this long-standing problem.
The first Scotland Under-23 team to take the field - hammered 6-0 by an England team, inspired by a Duncan Edwards hat-trick, at Shawfield, on 8 February, 1955 was: Willie Duff (Hearts), Alex Parker (Falkirk), Eric Caldow (Rangers), Dave Mackay (Hearts), Doug Baillie (Airdrie), Bobby Holmes (St Mirren), Graham Leggat (Aberdeen), Jim Walsh (Celtic), Dave Hill (Clyde), Bobby Wishart (Aberdeen), Davie McParland (Partick Thistle). Of those 11 players, Parker, Caldow, Mackay and Leggat went on to win full Scotland caps; Caldow and Mackay led their country too, while Parker and Leggat had successful full international careers.
Our first Under-21 team, which faced Czechoslovakia in a European Championship match in the Tartan Army's favourite destination, Pilsen - the home of Czech beer - on 12 October, 1976, was: Bobby Clark (Aberdeen), George Burley (Ipswich Town), Arthur Albiston (Manchester United), Pat Stanton (Hibernian), Roy Aitken, Tommy Burns (Celtic), Davie Cooper (Clydebank), John Wark (Ipswich Town), David McNiven (Leeds United), David Narey and Paul Sturrock (Dundee United): substitutes used: Davie Provan (Kilmarnock) and Ian Muir (Hibs).
Clark and Stanton were in there as over-age players, but of those 13 players, only McNiven and Muir failed to go on and win full caps, the other 11 can be covered in one word - Legends.
Our Under-21 squad of ten years ago, season 2004-05, ran to 33 players, mainly because, with qualification for the 2006 European Under-21 Championships not being achieved, we fed-in some younger players with a view to the next campaign.
Of these 33 players, however, 14 went on to win full caps: Mark Wilson, Alan Hutton, Scott Brown, Kris Boyd, Paul Gallagher, Stephen Whittaker, Derek Riordan, Gary O'Connor, David Clarkson, Rod Wallace, Chris Burke, Shaun Maloney, David Marshall and Christophe Berra.
Our squad of five seasons ago, season 2009-10 was a mere 16-players strong, with only two Under-21 games played that season. Of those 16 players, only two, David Goodwillie and Barry Bannan have so-far, broken through to become full internationalists, and, to be honest, I had to look-up the record books to get anything on several of the others.
I accept, new talent doesn't come through at a uniform rate, there are Golden Generations, and there are others where the players are definitely base metal, but, if we can find a way of levelling-out the talent identification and development process, our big team ought to do better. This is a matter to which the SFA has never given much, or indeed any thought.
It is to be hoped that Brian McClair can maybe turn things around, but, he will not find it as simple with Scotland as at Manchester United.
I would like to see Scotland introducing an Under-23 team, or a B team, to bridge the gap between the Under-21s and the full team.
How about reviving the Home Internationals, as an Under-23 competition, maybe even as an end-of-season tournament, played on smaller grounds?
Why don't we develop the B team, to go on an end-of-season tour, perhaps to Europe, where there is still some interest in such games, or to some of the places in the old Empire, where there are overseas branches of the Tartan Army, who would come out of the woodwork to see a Scotland team in the flesh?
What we cannot do, is blunder along as we have.
I suggested 'B' teams a while ago & was told other nations don't want them!
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