Youth is getting its chance

FOOTBA LL CA N always be relied upon to be out of step with the rest of society. If you’re drafting a job advert expect the wrath of HR to come crashing down on you if you put in it a phrase such as “young and dynamic individual required”.

A nd if you’re lucky enough to be in a job and to keep hold of it, chances are you’ll still be there at 70 the way things are going.

There are even statistics out there that paint a picture of the under-50s being more likely to be victims of ageism in the workplace than the overs.

In football, however, this is no country for old men, or more specifically no country for old managers. Just take the week past as a snapshot. It started off with Stirling A lbion beating Rangers while their manager was occupied elsewhere with a bride, a minister and a couple of rings.

It wasn’t Greig McDonald’s second wedding, nor is he one of those sensible types who waited until midlife before giving up his single status. So that should tell you all you need to know about his age.

He was 29 when he took over from 64-year-old Jocky Scott.

On Tuesday Brechin appointed Ray McKinnon as their new boss — a man vastly experienced in playing terms but untried in senior football management.

“The club felt we wanted to have a young management team,” said chairman Ken Ferguson.

Maybe they’d forgotten they already had one the week before but that’s another story.

A nd according to Blackburn they’re looking to go young and unproven as well, ideally with Spurs coach Tim Sherwood, while Bolton have apparently identified Ole Gunnar Solksjaer as their manager of choice.

Unless you’re Harry Redknapp or Craig Brown don’t lose your job and expect a call about another one if you’ve hit 60.

In the vast majority of cases you could even make that 50.

That is, unless a chairman is willing to write off any chance of his team playing easy on the eye football and hire Sam A llardyce.

If you’re a frustrated, out of work fifty-something manager with a better than average track record, you can blame Jose Mourinho.

Since he came on the scene every club is now seeking its very own Special One. The game is now awash with young, brash and articulate when once it was experienced, brash and inarticulate.

A nd if a manager actually comes with his endorsement or has coached for the Portuguese, that’s as good a guarantee of a top job as there is, just as playing under A lex Ferguson used to be a sure-fire career path into a dug-out.

The two most high prof ile next generation Mourinhos are proteges at Chelsea and Inter Milan respectively — Brendan Rodgers and A ndre Villas-Boas.

In the eighties, nineties or noughties if a young manager was put in charge it was straight from the playing field, a la Kenny Dalglish and Graeme Souness.

Badges from Largs and Lilleshall were an afterthought.

But Rodgers and A VB — and others such as Karl Robinson at MK Dons — have moved the young manager DNA on from that prototype to a model that skips the playing bit and specialises in coaching.

The fortunes of Liverpool and Spurs this season aren’t just of importance and relevance to supporters of those two clubs.

Chairmen and other managers will also be paying close attention.

If these two make a success of it, it could be the end of the good player equals good manager appointment.

“Show us your medals” has long been the subliminal message from players to new managers for respect to be gained.

But if the Liverpool and Spurs squads take to the Rodgers and A VB ways — which it looks like they are — then “show us your certificates” will be the new dressing room mantra. PA RT CHEA T, part genius. Gareth Bale has given Scotland their Maradona moment.

Just as the A rgentinian stole a goal from England in the 1986 World Cup with an act of blatant deception then followed it up with a breathtaking solo effort, 26 years on Bale has inflicted a similar double whammy on Scotland.

Together with the disallowing of a perfectly legitimate Steven Fletcher goal, the Bale factor gives Craig Levein the right to argue that this was a night of Caledonian misfortune.

It was. But it was no misfortune that Serbia and Macedonia took points off us at Hampden.

They’re gone because Levein got his selection and approach wrong in the home double header. Ironically, he probably got them right on Friday.

We now have to write off another championship, whoever is in charge after the Belgium game.

If there’s a postive result in Brussels I’d still be tempted to stick with Levein, on the basis that the squad are fully behind him, and neither of the likely replacements — Gordon Strachan or A lex McLeish — would have a radically different or more effective game plan.

He’s learning lessons the hard way, but I still feel there’s a good international coach in there fighting to get out.

The next generation — young managers, like Ray McKinnon at Brechin City, are in fashion.