Irn Bru Everton
Something strange happened to Scottish player development. In my early childhood pretty much every good team had a Scottish player or two on them.
What may surprise younger readers is that the Scottish players were generally regarded, yes as tough, but also as technically excellent.
In the mid-80s alone you had Kenny Dalglish, Gordon Strachan, Alan Hansen, Richard Gough, Graeme Souness, Stevie Nicol, Charlie Nicholas, Frank McAvennie, Graeme Sharp, Andy Gray, Steve Archibald and many more playing for top English and European clubs and winning trophies
Competition for places was so tough that Graeme Sharp only won 12 caps and Andy Gray 20. That is post-war Everton top scorer, double league champion, European trophy winning, 30 goals a season Graeme Sharp and youngest winner of the PFA player of the year trophy Andy Gray.
This wasn't a flash in the pan one generation thing. Celtic won a European trophy with a team entirely of local boys. The likes of Denis Law, Alex Young (aka the Golden Vision), Bobby Collins and Billy Bremner were huge names in the 60s and 70s.
I'm not sure why the decline in the quality of players coming through in Scotland (and Ireland too) has been so stark when other similarly sized nations have maintained their production levels.
One factor may simply be that football has become more global. Clubs can buy in talent from all over the world. So it could just be that quality everywhere has risen and that Scottish players no longer stand out. Maybe if James McFadden had been born in 1960 he would have been seen as a great with his technical skills and long range strikes?
There is always surivorship bias too. We only remember the greats from the past and filter out all the rest. But I think there was a sufficient quantity of great Scottish players around over a long enough period for that not to be the case this time.
Now so far this isn't really anything we didn't already know. In fact, there are signs of a mini-resurgence in the quality of Scottish players with improved performances at youth level in the last few years so it isn't like the good people of Scotland are unaware of the issue.
But where I see a potential "gap" is in club football. With Ranger's demise Scotland has effectively become a one-club nation with Celtic winning almost everything every year. I'm not sure that is healthy. They can hoover up talent from other clubs and receive all the European football prize money. Their wage bill is about as big as every club not called Rangers combined.
A similar situation exists in Austria with a completely dominant Red Bull Salzburg team. The major difference seems to be that Salzburg are producing high-quality players and playing very modern European football. Not that Celtic aren't good to watch on occasion and producing the odd decent player but compared to the Salzburg talent factory at youth level they are way off.
So is there a gap in the market for a club like Everton to partner with a Scottish club? A sort of (sorry) Irn Bru Everton for Scotland?
I wouldn't want any type of rebrand, there are clubs with proud histories going back hundreds of years. But I would like a shared vision of youth development and exciting, technically excellent attacking football.
I'd see it working that Everton and say Queen's Park would sign a deal similar to that that doesn't officially exist between RB Leipzig and RB Salzburg. Everton would transfer players to the club, use it as a base to develop young players and coaches and build the club up to a competitive force in Scottish football. The likes of Gibson, Bowler and Hornby would be building up experience in the top flight, hopefully playing in Europe, rather than dominating U23 games against younger players.
Everton could work with Queen's Park to appoint the most promising young coaches and give them real experience coaching in a competitive league. Queen's Park fans would see their team become competitive and hopefully a new generation of locally trained players emerging.
Everton could then re-sign prospects with PL potential with lots of opportunities to monitor their potential in competitive men's football.
What is not to like?
What may surprise younger readers is that the Scottish players were generally regarded, yes as tough, but also as technically excellent.
In the mid-80s alone you had Kenny Dalglish, Gordon Strachan, Alan Hansen, Richard Gough, Graeme Souness, Stevie Nicol, Charlie Nicholas, Frank McAvennie, Graeme Sharp, Andy Gray, Steve Archibald and many more playing for top English and European clubs and winning trophies
Competition for places was so tough that Graeme Sharp only won 12 caps and Andy Gray 20. That is post-war Everton top scorer, double league champion, European trophy winning, 30 goals a season Graeme Sharp and youngest winner of the PFA player of the year trophy Andy Gray.
This wasn't a flash in the pan one generation thing. Celtic won a European trophy with a team entirely of local boys. The likes of Denis Law, Alex Young (aka the Golden Vision), Bobby Collins and Billy Bremner were huge names in the 60s and 70s.
I'm not sure why the decline in the quality of players coming through in Scotland (and Ireland too) has been so stark when other similarly sized nations have maintained their production levels.
One factor may simply be that football has become more global. Clubs can buy in talent from all over the world. So it could just be that quality everywhere has risen and that Scottish players no longer stand out. Maybe if James McFadden had been born in 1960 he would have been seen as a great with his technical skills and long range strikes?
There is always surivorship bias too. We only remember the greats from the past and filter out all the rest. But I think there was a sufficient quantity of great Scottish players around over a long enough period for that not to be the case this time.
Now so far this isn't really anything we didn't already know. In fact, there are signs of a mini-resurgence in the quality of Scottish players with improved performances at youth level in the last few years so it isn't like the good people of Scotland are unaware of the issue.
But where I see a potential "gap" is in club football. With Ranger's demise Scotland has effectively become a one-club nation with Celtic winning almost everything every year. I'm not sure that is healthy. They can hoover up talent from other clubs and receive all the European football prize money. Their wage bill is about as big as every club not called Rangers combined.
A similar situation exists in Austria with a completely dominant Red Bull Salzburg team. The major difference seems to be that Salzburg are producing high-quality players and playing very modern European football. Not that Celtic aren't good to watch on occasion and producing the odd decent player but compared to the Salzburg talent factory at youth level they are way off.
So is there a gap in the market for a club like Everton to partner with a Scottish club? A sort of (sorry) Irn Bru Everton for Scotland?
I wouldn't want any type of rebrand, there are clubs with proud histories going back hundreds of years. But I would like a shared vision of youth development and exciting, technically excellent attacking football.
I'd see it working that Everton and say Queen's Park would sign a deal similar to that that doesn't officially exist between RB Leipzig and RB Salzburg. Everton would transfer players to the club, use it as a base to develop young players and coaches and build the club up to a competitive force in Scottish football. The likes of Gibson, Bowler and Hornby would be building up experience in the top flight, hopefully playing in Europe, rather than dominating U23 games against younger players.
Everton could work with Queen's Park to appoint the most promising young coaches and give them real experience coaching in a competitive league. Queen's Park fans would see their team become competitive and hopefully a new generation of locally trained players emerging.
Everton could then re-sign prospects with PL potential with lots of opportunities to monitor their potential in competitive men's football.
What is not to like?
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