THE KIDS DON’T WANT TO WORK
Rankin says laziness is at root of Scots’ talent drain
AFTER 15 years in professional football, John Rankin has noticed a new trend. Young Scottish players now sit their driving test on a Tuesday. ‘And I’ll tell you why,’ he tells
Sportsmail bluntly. ‘It’s because they have a double training session on a Tuesday.
‘In years gone by, you would never have said to the manager: “Gaffer, I can’t come in tomorrow because I have a driving test”. Now they do.’
Rankin is chairman of PFA Scotland, captain of Queen of the South and a coach to the Hearts Under-17s. At 33 years of age, he needs no reminding that chancers in Scottish football are hardly a new phenomenon.
However, after taking to Twitter to accuse young players of putting Nando’s and the cinema before afternoon sessions, his phone lit up. One of the first text messages came from St Mirren’s Jamie Langfield, reminding him of days when today’s veterans enjoyed free McDonald’s meals and a game of snooker.
‘But I never skipped a session to do that,’ recalls Rankin. ‘I did it at night.’
SFA performance director Malky Mackay triggered the debate by insisting young kids now care more for the trappings and rewards of professional football than the sweat it takes to earn them.
The concern is the warnings fall on deaf ears. Bosses and coaches will tell anyone prepared to listen that today’s aspiring footballers are a sensitive, mollycoddled lot no longer willing to take a telling.
‘There is a culture now where the boys who do extra graft are made out to be the bad guys,’ says former Dundee United skipper Rankin.
‘Kids don’t want to stand out by doing extra on a training field or extra in a gym. But are perfectly happy to stand out with a flash earring, fancy hairdo or pricy car.
‘I’ve seen kids book cinema tickets for 2.30pm and skip away from the training ground knowing full well they were supposed to be in the gym that afternoon.
‘I’ve even seen kids skipping showers to be somewhere else in time. Gone are the days of rolling up your sleeves and going to graft mornings and afternoons.’
Mackay intends to work with the best 15 and 16-year-olds the Scots game has to offer to hammer home a message. Football can lead them to water, but it can’t make them drink. Driving the best cars and living in large homes is a result of hard work and self-sacrifice. There is no short cut.
‘I think it’s about personal responsibility,’ adds Rankin (right). ‘About young players accepting the onus is on them.
‘Not all kids are the same. Look at Kieran Tierney, Andy Robertson, Stuart Armstrong, Johnny Russell and boys who have come through the youth system and really kicked on. They were prepared to go that extra mile. ‘They thought: “They can call me whatever they want to call me, I’m going to go to the gym and work on my speed regardless”. ‘I saw John Souttar and Ryan Gauld doing that on many an afternoon. They pushed themselves on and became first-team players. ‘But then you see the ones watching them do that and they are not interested in saying: “Can I join in?”. Kids like the MARK WALKER thought of being a footballer and everything that comes with it. But the daily reality is a lot different.
‘The hard work of actually being a first-team player and sweating in training and playing three games a week in a pressure situation is completely different to what kids see on TV.
‘I see kids being coached at seven, eight or nine years old and the coaching is second to none.
‘They have every support. Sports scientists, coaching, gyms, strength and conditioning, psychologists and dieticians; all of them working with the kids.
‘So you have to ask: Where are they going wrong? There is clearly a breakdown somewhere.’
Much of it, he reckons, is down to peer pressure. Dressing rooms can be harsh, unforgiving places. It’s easier for a kid to fit in if he doesn’t appear too keen. The teacher’s pet rarely wins popularity contests.
‘There is a culture where players don’t want to stand out from the rest. They don’t want to be different,’ says Rankin. ‘There will always be a senior pro who will go to do a bit extra and he’ll get abuse in a dressing room.
‘You’ll get the “he’s a bit busy” or “what you doing extra for?”. It’s a carry on. But the senior pros are strong enough to take it. They say to themselves: “I couldn’t care less what the others think”.
‘You’ll get talents who rise to the top and don’t want others doing extra in case they catch them.
‘If they can get away with doing as little as they can, they will.
‘Things like that get on the nerves of older players like me. Because we see younger ones acting up or not going to the gym.
‘We can have a go. But they’re not interested.
‘Try having a word and you are
PFA ScotlAnd chairman John Rankin last night warned Scottish football’s ‘nando’s generation’ to listen to Malky Mackay before it’s too late.
SFA performance director Mackay has urged 15 and 16-year-old Academy kids to learn from the failure of past generations obsessed by social media and caught up in a ‘culture of neediness’.
letting rip on twitter, frustrated Queen of the South skipper Rankin joined the fray by accusing young players of skipping afternoon training sessions to eat nando’s and watch movies. Striking a chord with fellow pros and parents, Rankin, 33, told Sportsmail: ‘I read Malky’s comments about the need for young players to make sacrifices for their career this morning and I think he is 100-per-cent right.
‘It touched a nerve with me. My phone has been red-hot since I posted on twitter about it and I think it’s just because I have been honest.
‘I have had hundreds of messages or tags from people who have played the game. Senior