EXIT WOUNDS RUN DEEP

IT’S not even August 1 and Scottish teams are leaving Europe at a speed Boris Johnson can only dream of. Hearts crashed out of the Europa League after an embarrassing home defeat to a Maltese team. Hibernian held their heads high in Brondby, but still lost on penalties. Celtic and Aberdeen survive. But only after flirtations with disaster against the giants of Gibraltar and Luxembourg. If ever Scottish football needed a masterplan for improvement it’s now. The co-efficient is plummeting. The progress of the national team has stalled. And now comes the departure of yet another SFA performance director. Brian McClair was charged with turning things around. His job was to deliver a blueprint to revolutionise the grassroots game and create better footballers. Instead, like Mark Wotte before him, he’s jumped ship. He lasted 13 months. The SFA say the performance strategy carries on regardless. Big bucks are invested in much-vaunted performance schools and the plan is to produce topclass young players when Hampden hosts three European Championship ties in 2020. Let’s hope it works. Scottish clubs need help fast. But ask yourself this: given the dire leadership and decision-making which brought us to this point in the first place, would you bet on a brave new dawn coming to pass? Me neither.