
Who's going to step up and replace Scotland's golden generation?
The members of that nonet have an average age of just 21. Every one of them has a huge amount to offer their country at international level for many seasons to come. They have numerous qualifying campaigns left in them and hopefully a few finals too. The same is true of the injured duo Ben Doak, the Liverpool winger, and Aaron Hickey, the Brentford full-back.
It was also encouraging to see the SFA roll out their Cooperation System – which will see up to three Scotland-qualified prospects under the age of 21 move freely between Premiership and Championship parent clubs and lower league outfits on loan from the 2025/26 season onwards – this week.
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Similar agreements already exist in Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Hungary and Serbia. Hopefully the long overdue scheme will enable our best prospects, who have often been prevented from gaining much-needed competitive game time in the senior ranks simply because their presence is needed to satisfy homegrown player quotas in European competition, to make the difficult transition from the age-group ranks.
That initiative was one of the main recommendations contained within the Transition Phase paper which was co-authored by Andy Gould, the SFA's chief football officer, and Chris Docherty, the governing body's head of men's elite strategy and was published last year.
That report contained many worrying revelations, damning findings and stark conclusions about how poorly Scotland is doing in comparison with other countries of a similar size across Europe when it comes to producing talented young footballers who are capable of flourishing in the paid ranks.
But if anybody needed reminding just how few professionals are emerging, Brown Ferguson, the former Alloa, Hamilton and Partick Thistle midfielder and the current Stenhousemuir assistant manager who is also the assistant regional performance manager at sportscotland and the high performance manager to Scottish Golf, took to X (formerly Twitter) to tell us.
He posted a series of alarming statistics about the Premiership last season. Here are a few of the most startling. Just 31.46 per cent of players to start games in the top flight were Scottish. That is down from 45 per cent three years ago. On average, just 3.23 per cent of players kicking off on a Saturday are under 21, just four out of 132. No fewer than 20 team selections failed to contain a single Scot. Aberdeen and Celtic didn't start an under-21 player in the 2024/25 campaign.
The SFA have identified these major problems and are endeavouring to address them. The SPFL clubs, who in the past have shown they are more concerned with self-interest than the greater good, have endorsed and embraced their plans. But is it too little too late?
Our leading clubs face a raft of challenges running academies and bringing through youngsters who are capable of representing their first teams every year. The issues which Brexit and raids on their age-group squads by their wealthier English rivals have presented in recent years have been well documented in these pages. Far fewer footballers who are good enough are emerging.
These are pretty exciting times in Scottish football with Brighton owner Tony Bloom buying a major stake in Hearts and a consortium comprising American billionaire Andrew Cavenagh and the San Francisco 49ers taking over Rangers. With Hibernian a far more formidable force than they were and Aberdeen lifted by their epic Scottish Cup triumph, next season promises to be a belter.
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But the focus in recent weeks has very much been on how much money every club will spend and who will be brought in this summer. The new powerbrokers seem unconcerned about doing their bit to help our national game by rearing homegrown heroes. Sure, wanting to promote youth has been mentioned in passing. It appears, though, fairly far down their list of priorities. Such is the money mad modern game.
There is, with Barron, Bowie, Conway, Doig, Gilmour, Johnston, Miller, Patterson and Wilson as well as Lewis Ferguson, Jack Hendry, George Hirst, Andy Irving, Scott McKenna, Scott McTominay and John Souttar all in the current Scotland squad, no reason for Tartan Army footsoldiers to panic.
(Image: Craig Williamson - SNS Group) Yet, the World Cup qualifying campaign which will get underway with away games against Denmark and Belarus in September may well prove to be the last that Che Adams, Stuart Armstrong, Ryan Christie, Lyndon Dykes, Craig Gordon, Grant Hanley, John McGinn, Kenny McLean, Andy Robertson, Lawrence Shankland and Kieran Tierney are involved in. Some will retire after it, others will stay on. But we are witnessing the last hurrah of a golden generation.
Will those who come after that aforementioned group grace, as many of their predecessors did, the Premier League and the Champions League? The majority of them still have some way to go to scale the same heights as their compatriots. A few will manage it, but many won't.
Clarke lamented how few goalkeepers he had to choose from when he announced his squad last month. He, or his successor, may be left bemoaning the lack of centre-backs, full-backs, holding midfielders, playmakers, wingers and strikers going forward. There must be a concerted collective effort from club owners and managers or qualification for the finals of major tournaments will be a thing of the past.
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an hour ago
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The Scottish football teamsheet that might be worth a pretty penny after historic night
Dundee United's foreigner first in Europe is a far cry from the 1980s Sign up to our Football newsletter Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... At a boom time for football memorabilia, what price the slightly crumpled bit of paper lying on the desk in front of me? The Rangers jersey worn by Tommy McLean in the 1972 European Cup-Winners' Cup final recently set a new record for a Scottish football shirt when it sold for £19,000. I'm thinking I should keep hold of my teamsheet from the first leg of Dundee United's Conference League second qualifying round tie against FC UNA Strassen. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad It is most definitely a collector's item and now I am kicking myself for having spoiled it. Next to each United player's name, I have scribbled the country for whom they are eligible to play international football. Not once did I have to write 'Scotland', which is why the teamsheet, albeit slightly defaced (my bad), could merit a place in a Scottish football museum in time. Not one Scot featured in the starting XI for Dundee United against UNA Strassen. | SNS Group As you'll be aware by now, for the first time in Dundee United's proud history, a club that once provided five players for a Scotland World Cup squad and were regarded as the last word in developing young Scottish talent sent out a team without a single Scot in it on Thursday evening. I even heard it described as the saddest teamsheet in the club's history – Steve Clarke, the current Scotland manager, might well agree. It sparked plenty of comment across social media, understandably so, while calling to mind the wonderful photograph celebrating the achievement mentioned above when United players – namely Maurice Malpas, Eamonn Bannon, David Narey, Richard Gough and Paul Sturrock - made up roughly 22 per cent of the 1986 World Cup squad in Mexico. The picture in question has the quintet sitting team photo style and includes Walter Smith, who had just joined Rangers from the United coaching staff. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Scotland's new breed This crop of talent – Bannon joined from Chelsea, the rest were home-grown and helped United claim their only Scottish league title in 1983 – was rivalled by a later wave including Duncan Ferguson, Christian Dailly and Ray McKinnon. The New Breed, they called themselves while testing Jim McLean's mettle. The current new breed is likewise young and ambitious. They just require a plane ticket. 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The Scotland team line up before a match against Israel in 1986, including four Dundee Utd players: (L-R) Charlie Nicholas , Eamon Bannon , Graeme Sharp , David Narey , Richard Gough , Jim Bett , Paul McStay , Roy Aitken , Maurice Malpas , Jim Leighton and Willie Miller. | SNS Group 0141 221 3602 It felt particularly notable that they should do so in a European tie given United's successes of old, such as the night(s) they humbled Barcelona in 1987 with 11 Scots. It ought to be noted that when they beat the same side home and away 21 years earlier in the Fairs Cup, they did so with a team including a Norwegian and two Swedes. United were pioneers when it came to exploring the Scandinavian market. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad It's also incumbent to note that two Scots did take the field on Thursday night in the shape of substitutes Craig Sibbald and Owen Stirton, the latter a more than promising product of the United Academy from far off Forfar. Still, I wondered as I passed Club '83 on St Salvador Street after Thursday's game whether United's first non-Scottish XI might be the main topic of discussion at the bar or would it be shrugged off as just what happens now. It's modern football, innit? Rangers' team of 2000 Not even so modern. After all, it's now over 25 years – March 2000 – since Rangers fielded a team without a Scot in it for the first time. Looking back at contemporary reports, this seemingly historic event barely rated a mention as the Ibrox side were held 0-0 at home by St Johnstone. Maybe, given Rangers had been accused of buying success since the Souness Revolution, it just felt like the logical next step. Celtic, meanwhile, were behind the curve. It was not until 8 September 2001 in a 3-1 win over Dunfermline that they emulated Rangers on this score with a team including the likes of Dmitri Kharine (Russia) and Olivier Tebily (Ivory Coast). Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad One might imagine Tom Cairns, the Dundee United historian, having something to say on the seeming repudiation of the club's proud past and he does in a way. 'It's quite blunt,' he answers. 'The Dundee United Football Club of the last five years bears little resemblance to the club that I and many others grew up with.' He's long understood the past is another country. The now famous team sheet from Dundee United's Conference League against UNA Strassen | Alan Pattullo Remarkably, Cairns has only ever missed one home United European game – against Trabzonspor in 1997. He's seen them joust with giants on the European arena with a team full of Scots and he's now seen them beat a part-time side from Luxembourg 1-0 with a starting XI devoid of native talent. As a historian, did it feel momentous? 'No,' he replies, instantly dampening my excitement about the prospect of retiring with the proceeds from my teamsheet sale. 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Daily Record
an hour ago
- Daily Record
Ipswich spoil Aberdeen party as Jimmy Thelin's shake up after Scottish Cup glory becomes clear
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