Keep Hampden as the home of our national game – but take friendly matches on the road in the future

THE Scottish FA are set to make a decision over the future of Hampden and I would keep the stadium as the home of Scottish football.

I am a fan of it, but I am not a fan of having friendlies there when there are only a few thousand supporters in the stands. We have to be taking games like that to Tynecastle and Easter Road.

We had 18,000 people at the Hibernian v Aberdeen game at the weekend and that is a proper atmosphere.

See if you have that number at Hampden, it is rubbish and there is no atmosphere.

Scotland’s form in home friendlies is abysmal and it was something we spoke about when I played under Walter Smith in terms of whether we could change the venues.

The record in the last few years is terrible and a big part of that is down to the atmosphere, or lack of it, that is generated at Hampden.

They are getting played like testimonial matches at times because there is no buzz around the stadium.

If there is a bit of singing, that transmits onto the park and players automatically get lifted.

That sounds terrible when you are playing for your country but the atmosphere and the occasion does have a lot to do with how the game unfolds.

I haven’t spoken to Alex and Faddy about it but I would guess they want Scotland friendlies in full grounds with a bit of atmosphere than at Hampden with people scattered around the stands.

I remember when I scored for Scotland against Ukraine in the Euro 2008 qualifying campaign.

It was the second goal in a great 3-1 win on an absolutely glorious autumn day in October.

The atmosphere at Hampden that day was buzzing.

That’s the kind of Scotland games you want to have at Hampden.

I am all for Hampden to stay and for it to be improved, but let’s not have any international friendlies there. campaign as a manager as well.

There is the financial benefit to look at – you could be bringing in around £7million – and that would give the manager scope to bring more players in this week, during the January window or fund the transfers next summer.

I think Friday, the last day of business, could be busy for both Rangers and Celtic, no matter what happens to them in Europe the previous night.

It would be good to see both clubs go through to the group stages because it enhances the reputation of Scottish football and we want to see our teams go as far as possible.

From Rangers’ perspective, it might see the manager look to bring in another couple of players on deadline day just to give the squad that extra bit of strength in depth.

Everyone talks about the negative side of the Europa League and the Thursday, Sunday schedule but I don’t think that will be in the minds of Steven or the players.

You can’t discount the importance of momentum and that is what a European run could help bring to Rangers this season.

In the Manchester campaign, we must have played 60-odd games that season but we weren’t complaining, we weren’t moaning about anything.

We barely trained. It was turn up, play the game, recover, play another game and the team spirit in that side got us through that.

You can see it in the team just now that there is a spirit there and you can see what it means to the manager and the players as one.

That bond will only get stronger the more they play together and the more they achieve together.

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