The Media Stooshie Over Callum McGregor Cannot Cover-Up The Fact - No Matter Who Was Boss, Under the SFA System, We Would Still Be Rubbish

GORDON Strachan's latest Scotland squad has caused the usual media stooshie – mainly because he has overlooked Celtic midfielder Callum McGregor. How times have changed, when I was a boy, Scottish football opinion was formed by the “Typewriter Loyal”, who, with new technology, became the legendary “Lap Top Loyal”.

A Man on an impossible mission

Today, it seems to me, opinion is driven by the Lap Top Division of the Green Brigade, although, the Celtic Family still thinks it's the “churnalists and stenographers” of the LTL who drive the agenda.

The truth is, being Scotland manager, or being England manager for that matter, means you are the prime Aunt Sally for the media – damned if you do something, equally damned if you don't, with Wee Gordon the current target.

WGS is paid a lot of money to be Scotland boss. That position and salary means, what team he picks and how it plays is down to him and him alone. Sure, he will seek opinions from his assistants, but, at the end of the day – the buck stops with him and he stands or falls by those opinions.

Comment is free, but, what WGS says still goes.

Back in Victorian times, and for most of the first century of football in Scotland, the selection of the national side was a committee job. And, we all know a camel is a horse designed by a committee. But, by and large it worked. Indeed, results under the selection committee stand-up well in comparison with those under an all-powerful manager.

 Bobby Brown - Scotland's first proper team manager when appointed in 1967

Scotland has played 750 full internationals since the first, in 1872. Up until the appointment of Bobby Brown in 1967, the team was picked by the selection committee, although the managers from Andy Beattie on could make suggestions – but, Brown was the first all-powerful boss, who selected the squad and then the starting XI without interference from the “blazers”. The relative figures are:

Selection committee: p.321 – w. 177 – d. 64 – l. 80 – for 774 – agnst. 445

Team manager: p. 429 – w. 166 – d.103 - l. 150 – for 529 – agnst. 472

Total: p. 750 – w. 343 – d. 167 – l. 230 – for1308 – agnst. 917.

International football is all about winning. Under the selection committee, Scotland won 55.1% of the internationals played.

Under team managers, we have won 38.6% of the internationals played

And, overall, we have, since 1872 won 46.4% of the internationals we have played.

I accept, the selection committee figures are somewhat skewed by all those wins we piled-up in the early days of football. Scotland was well-nigh unbeatable during the 1870s and 1880s, while, right up until the dawn of the 20^th century, we could almost field any XI we wanted and be certain of beating Wales and Ireland.

As the song says, however: “These days are past”; it was a feeling – we ought perhaps leave the national team to the professionals, which saw the selectors, very reluctantly, cede their powers to a single manager.

OK, opposition has become better-organised, trained and coached – to quote Andy Roxburgh and Craig Brown, two of the professionals who are considered to have made not a bad fist of the Scotland job: “There are no easy internationals these days” - but, Scotland is still failing internationally. What is to be done?

Do we allow WGS to continue to supervise what looks increasingly like another failure to qualify for another tournament – not getting to Russia next year will be our tenth straight qualifying round disaster? Then, do we sack him, or allow him to resign, then stand outside Hampden and shout: “Next”; leaving some other poor sap to try to make sense of Scottish football?

If, after 20-years of failures the reality has not hit home to the men along the sixth floor corridor at Hampden, who are supposed to manage Scottish football – will it ever?

We are shite – our system is failing – the SFA is failing – Scottish football is dying.

Can someone, anyone, do something about it?

Let's start by looking at the latest Strachan squad:

Goalkeepers: Jordan Archer (Millwall), Craig Gordon (Celtic), Allan McGregor (Hull City).

Defenders: Ikechi Anya (Derby County), Christophe Berra (Heart of Midlothian), Grant Hanley (Newcastle United), Russell Martin (Norwich City), Charlie Mulgrew (Blackburn Rovers), Andrew Robertson (Liverpool), Kieran Tierney (Celtic), Steven Whittaker (Hibernian).

Midfielders: Stuart Armstrong (Celtic), Barry Bannan (Sheffield Wednesday), Scott Brown (Celtic), Tom Cairney (Fulham), Darren Fletcher (Stoke City), Ryan Fraser (Bournemouth), James Forrest (Celtic), James McArthur (Crystal Palace), John McGinn (Hibernian), Matt Phillips (West Bromwich Albion), Matt Ritchie (Newcastle United), Robert Snodgrass (West Ham United).

Forwards: Steven Fletcher (Sheffield Wednesday), Leigh Griffiths (Celtic), Chris Martin (Derby County), Steven Naismith (Norwich City).

The breakdown of the 27 players is – nine are with Scottish Premiership sides, nine play their club football for English Premier League clubs, eight strut their stuff in the English Championship and one – Charlie Mulgrew, plays in the English League One – their third tier, following his club's relegation at the end of the season.

Of the nine Home Scots – six are Celtic players, two are from Hibs and the ninth, Christophe Berra, is with Hearts.

Andrew Robertson - the solitary Anglo playing with a "big" club

Of the nine EPL players, only one – Andrew Robertson – plays for one of the “Big” clubs in that league – Liverpool.

So, the days are gone when we could select from a whole heap of players playing for the very top English clubs. Mind you, back then when we had half a dozen each from Liverpool and Manchester United to pick from, we maybe qualified for tournament finals, but, we were still shite when we got there.

Only seven of the squad have a chance of playing in Europe this season, so, we lack players comfortable playing at the highest level.

So, if we cannot depend on blending together top-quality talent, what can we do?

Well, we could start by settling on a system and playing to it. We could also build our team round our top club – in this case Celtic. So, we use the six Celts as the backbone of the team, play to the Celtic tactical blueprint and pick the best of the rest to fit into the Celtic way of playing.

Other countries do this, why not Scotland? We need to agree on a tactical plan, play to it, and stick to it.

Also, as I have long said – we ought to have a pyramid system with our international set-up, so that young players come through the system, and progress from the age group sides to the full team, more easily than they do now.

Kieran Tierney - an exception to the usual rules for Scotland selection

Currently, a kid will progress -Under-16, Under-17 etc to Under-21, after which, he, unless he something special like Kieran Tierney, he drops off the radar for a few years then gets back in. Usually, said kid is either with one of the provincial Scottish clubs, he gets noticed and is snapped-up cheaply by a Championship of League One English team. He drops off the radar for a time, then, magically, he re-appears.

Or, he is with a top English side's academy, is released to a lower league time and works his way to first team football, whereupon, we suddenly discover he has a Scottish father or grand-parent.

We need to find a way to bridge that gap between Under-20 and Under-21 football and the big team, or, we will get nowhere.

Oh, and our journalists, instead of penning patently “click-bait” articles designed to ferment Old Firm “whitabootery” and dissent, should maybe start pointing-out the terrible state our game is in and holding the “blazers” to account, forcing change, before Scotland is spoken about in the same patronising manner as Gibraltar, Malta, Luxembourg and Cyprus. I mean, it's not as if clubs from these minnows will ever beat Scottish clubs in Europe.