PLAYBYTHE RULESBOYS Mackay talks tough to get the next gen of stars to man up and fulfill potential
MALKY MACKAY has revealed a dramatic new get tough approach for Scotland’s teenage starlets with the focus on dedication and sacrifice after admitting he’s practically written off the older age groups of Scots kids.
Scotland has suffered from a baffling drop of quality in the older teen years of the youth squads. While the Under 16s and Under 17s have achieved positive recent results, progress seems to end there.
Scotland’s Under 19s have now exited the Elite Group stage four years in a row – after three defeats this week in the Czech Republic and haven’t qualified for the Finals in 11 years since they reached the Final against Spain in Poland.
And the Under 21s had a miserable last qualifying campaign where they finished second bottom of their group.
That’s in stark contrast to the Under 17s, who won six out of six qualifying games, including beating Portugal and the Under 16s, who recently won a Uefa Development Tournament.
SFA Performance Director Mackay has now unveiled his new approach into cajoling the cream of Scotland’s kids to dedicate their life to football and improving. And at the heart of it is the necessity to make sacrifices.
Mackay believes this group of youngsters will be the first set of Scottish talent who won’t start to stagnate at older levels, as he blasted the ‘neediness and social media-obsessed’ older age group kids in Scotland. He said: “Our Under 16’s won that tournament at Oriam a few weeks ago.
After the game we asked the boys: ‘How are you going to become a professional footballer’? I said: ‘Tell me your thoughts’. Because I want every one of them in a Scotland jersey.
“Their diet has to be right. Their body fat must be right. Their athleticism – they have to be able to run and have shoulders like those Icelandic boys. They have to work on their bad foot.
“They have to work in the afternoons on their own. They have to cut their own clips and watch them back. They can’t leave their clubs at 2pm and go home. What we’re looking for is sacrifice from these boys. That’s what it takes to become a footballer because it’s so hard for that one per cent who make it.
“If you think it’s going to come easy, it really isn’t. I’m not sure we’ve got that. These 16-year-olds are a different group to the 21-year-olds we have. That culture of neediness and a sensitive nature isn’t there.
“I’ve told these boys to ask their dads what they could have done better, not what they did well. Because working on what you could have done better is going to make you better.
“We need to get back to the fundamentals with these 15/16year olds. That’s when we’ll have a chance again.”
Mackay has impressed upon those youngsters the need to follow the example of the most professional senior pro at their club instead of drifting into the social media generation beloved of so many Scottish young players.
HE EXPLAINED: “I spoke to them about role models. I’ve told them to pick one at their club, the best pro they see every day.
“And then be like him, act like him, eat like him. See what he has for his lunch and you do the same. Run next to him in the gym. Sit and talk to him at some point in the day.
“Is the hunger there? Are boys now more interested in social media and the trappings that come with being a footballer? That’s something I’ve seen with the 20/21-year-olds in the past few years. So that’s why I’m speaking to the 15 and 16-yearolds. They’re the new group.
“They’re ready to walk into a man’s environment and I’m asking them: ‘Can you be different’? If they are, they’ll have a chance of becoming a player.
“It’s hard enough to do it nowadays with foreign players coming and English ones arriving on loan. But if you’ve got a great attitude – coming in first, leaving last, being the fittest you can possibly be – you’ve got a chance.
“I think the 15/16-year-olds have to be preached to about that. We have to be in their faces all the time about hard work and discipline.”