Something must have gone wrong recently, probably coaching, poor quality or not enough (same as in England I suppose where the "fault" is camouflaged by cash), Scotland has always been an excellent footballing nation producing a surprising amount of top level players. I don't believe their babies popped out from 1990 unable to kick a football straight, their kids will have the same potential that they always did.
It all comes down to cash, players who were not offered a new deal at L2 Bradford City went straight into the Scottish PL as "starters"....
I've been thinking about this, and I believe part of the problem may be a weird psychological issue caused by the media. Kids interested in the game are pelted with the idea that there are only two teams worth bothering about in Scotland, and that playing for anyone else is a pointless waste of time. Coupled with the insistence of Sky and the BBC that the EPL is the mutts nuts and you've got generations growing up who think our players at both club and national level are useless.
It's almost tedious sticking up for Scottish football, but I'll happily point out Steven Naismith, Craig Bryson, Alan MacGregor, Darren Fletcher, Steven Fletcher, Alan Hutton, Steven Whittaker, Russel Martin, Ikechi Anya, Shaun Maloney (who I always think is Irish), Stevie May and Ryan Gauld as some cracking players we've exported in recent years. I'm expecting big things from young Jack Harper in the future as well.
Fortunately, we now seem to be nurturing some genuine talent at youth level, thanks mainly to clubs like Dundee Utd, Hearts, Aberdeen and Kilmarnock, who invested in youth a decade ago, with results starting to appear now.
I find it almost painful to type this, but Rangers could have genuinely revolutionised football in Scotland, had they done the sensible thing and looked to return to the top flight with a crop of youngsters, rather than poaching talent from other SPL sides. It may have taken longer to get to the top, but they'd have done it the right way and perhaps left a positive legacy for the national side. As it is, they're up the swanny financially, again, and I suspect their second demise will be met with even less sympathy than the first.
