Smaller countries show our system is a disaster
F SCOTLAND had made it to the European Championships, then nobody from Hamilton Academical or Kilmarnock would even be considered by Gordon Strachan. So, too, Aberdeen, despite their two second places in a row. The national team coach has been reluctant to look outside of Celtic in the Ladbrokes Premiership. Even the better players at Pittodrie have been ignored.
And yet, on Thursday evening, Northern Ireland’s second goal against Ukraine was set up by Josh Magennis, of a poor Kilmarnock side, and scored by Niall McGinn, a Celtic reject who has made a good career for himself at Aberdeen.
Before that moment, goalkeeper Michael McGovern, who is still an Accies player until next month, made some fine saves and caught every cross.
If any of these three were Scottish, Strachan wouldn’t pick them, and yet strangely enough they were good enough to lead Northern Ireland, a country whose population is roughly four million less than Scotland’s, to the European Championships and, not only that, then go on to win a game against Ukraine, the 32nd-most populous country in the world.
And when that second goal hit the net, every Scotland football fan must thought the same thing: If they can do it then why not us?
As I write this, Wales are second in Group B. Iceland, who drew with Cristiano Ronaldo’s Portugal, sit behind Hungary. Albania are out having lost both of their games but they deserved their plaudits after doing so well against Switzerland, hardly giants themselves, and France, the host nation, who needed goals in the final minutes of the game to win.
If Strachan is to be believed, the reason Scotland finished fourth and therefore failed to make these championships is because we don’t have a superstar, and there is a lack of top-quality defenders and depth of talent.
Before the recent friendly in Italy, Strachan said: “I’d love to see more of our players playing at the top level abroad, in the top leagues. If you look at the squad I picked for this game, only four play in the Premier League now because Norwich got relegated.
“You also had Steven Fletcher at Marseille and that’s it. The rest play somewhere else. Most of the Italy and France players play in the Champions League or have done at some stage.”
Yes, but Scotland have never competed against the French or Italians, bar a famous result here and there. Is there anyone in this country who judges the national team against the two countries who contested the 2006 World Cup final?
However, when Northern Ireland, Wales, Iceland and Slovakia are not only qualifying, but also competing and winning games and friends over there, blaming Scotland’s many deficiencies on the fact Kenny Dalglish and Willie Miller have retired isn’t good enough.
The Republic of Ireland, who face Belgium today, sealed third place in Scotland’s group and yet their one superstar, Robbie Keane, is 35. We have been left behind by smaller nations.
As Jim Bett says in an interview with this newspaper, Iceland have put into place facilities and a framework that has helped their national team progress to where they are now. Good for them.
There are too many far more successful countries of similar size with players operating at a comparable level to Scotland’s for anyone at the SFA to claim the reason we are not there is because there aren’t enough indoor pitches and too many kids play in academies.
Those two points may well be true and need to be rectified, but when Slovakia, whom Scotland face in World Cup qualifying, played with so much adventure and imagination and beat Russia without any household names, is it because their youth system is so much better?
No, it’s because their national team, and those others mentioned, are better than the sum of their parts. Scotland are worse. It is so depressing.