Are Scotland Really That Bad? (And How Do We Fix It?)

[@charlestopher3532]

The cost for booking pitches is WILD. This was an unexpectedly deep dive into all the socio-economic issues impacting football. Another great video 😎

[@CallumBlyth]

Riveting socio-economic analysis from me if I say so myself

[@charlestopher3532]

@@CallumBlyth It's what I come to your channel for

[@murray1869]

Great video again Callum. I was having this exact conversation with my brother, the lack of scouts from professional clubs when playing amateur football at youth level was atrocious. Our team got to semi finals of Scottish cups, won Ayrshire cups at Rugby park was there a single Kilmarnock scout at the game no. Our goal keeper and myself ended up at Gretna of all places but we all know how that turned out. Then by the time your 17/18 you give up. My mate that was the goal keeper was offered a professional contract at Kilmarnock, 360 quid a month and it was full time, he couldn’t afford to quit his job and go for it.

[@CallumBlyth]

So much talent in this country but clubs prefer a ready made package. Mental that your team had that success that wasn’t picked up.

[@murray1869]

@@CallumBlyth I agree I don’t buy this, we arnt good enough, there just is no investment in youth football. Even at school level, it used to be the case that taking a school football team as a teacher would count towards your working hours, now your supposed to do it out of your own free time with no benefit to yourself, so why would anyone bother.

[@albertmiller2electricbooga897]

Main takeaway: Scandies always do it better than us English speakers

[@AllyStrikesBack]

What Scotland needs is a Herb Brooks type of guy for the job, someone who flunked out of charm school but knew where the right players where.

[@scottw.3258]

I remember watching a show in 1986. It was either just before the World Cup, or just after it. It might very well have been the series 'Only a Game', though it could equally have been a one off program. What i remember, was Ernie Walker, and a couple of other SFA bigwigs being asked about the future of Scottish Football. It was admitted that we weren't(even at that point) bringing through players of the calibre of Law, Baxter, Dalglish, Souness, Bremner, Miller. They were then asked what we could do, to ensure this conveyor belt of world class players wouldn't dry up. They went on about how the Dutch had transformed their football in the 60's, having their kids play on 7-a-side pitches, smaller goals, smaller ball. They weren't concerned about positions, it was just fun, at an early age, it was about getting kids comfortable with the ball, running, passing, scoring goals, just have fun with it. As the kids then got 10/11/12 year old, it became more obvious where their skill set was, what position(s) they were more suited to, and that's when they were assigned roles within a team. They were then drilled in these roles, still playing on 7-a-side pitches, where the confined space meant they had to then rely on their abilities to create space, and improve their control of the ball when receiving a pass, for example. Only when they reach 14/15 did they move onto bigger pitches, bigger ball. It meant that the players were then used to close control, and could put it to better use on a larger pitch. That was in 1986. What's been done? Nothing. Kids aren't playing outside as much, and it is because they can't. I was just turning 13 in 1986, but all my life, i'd been able to play football on the streets, we played Tennis on the streets, we used the roads as a running track, when the Olympics were on. We maybe had to move for a car, once every 20-30 minutes. If we wanted to kick about in the park, it was there, and we could kick about all day. I remember us playing 3-a-side games, 90 minute games, on a wee pitch we marked out up the local park. We had rules such as, there had to be at least 6 passes before a goal could be scored, every 3rd goal for a 'team' had to be a header, or if a team went 4 goals up, the next goal from the opposition counted double. What doesn't help, is the complete imbalance in our top league. In the 80's it was competitive. Aberdeen, Dundee Utd, Celtic, Rangers, Hearts, were all capable of winning the title, we had teams like Dumbarton, Clydebank, Morton, Airdrie making it to the Premier League, and causing the top teams problems. The imbalance wasn't there, there was huge interest in our game, not only domestically, but across the world, people were interested in the Premier League. It was considered one of the best leagues in Europe. Now, it's not even the 2 horse race it was, Rangers demotion in 2012 has all but killed our game. We all laughed when it happened, but the long term effects are being seen. No matter what league it is, if one team has won 13 out of 14 titles, won a quadruple treble, and is winning the vast majority of trophies, it becomes stale, interest drops off, you then find it difficult to attract quality sponsorship, or TV deals, as no one wants to watch it. No other team is going to get close to Celtic, and it could even take Rangers the best part of a decade to get themselves regrouped and become a serious threat. We desperately need a competitive league, but in all honesty, we'll never have it, unless Oil Barons come swarming in and plough tens of millions into clubs. The only way we can improve the standard of the game, is to start at grass roots, and then not allow 2 or 3 clubs to hog the best of the talent. Our bigger teams should have to loan players out to smaller teams.

[@CallumBlyth]

@@scottw.3258 excellent read. Thanks.

[@somerledislay9987]

When the great Rinus Michels was hired to give his assessment on our game did the s.f.a. carry out his recommendations " Nope " and the two pro Scottish powers that rule our game the unionist and republican carries on

[@mikeydoherty96]

The license thing is massive. The amount of people teaching kids football who have zero knowledge about the game. Ma uncle who still pronounces Kyogo as Kai-o-gay and thinks Ralston is some player can go coach a youth team tomorrow

[@CallumBlyth]

Aye improving coaching at grassroots would go a long way when it comes to future development in my opinion

[@iainmacgregor47]

I play 5 a sides weekly, during the lighter months kids teams would use the pitches for training. One evening before going on our pitch, we witnessed their coach berating a group of 7-8 year old kids for not keeping their tactical shape or pressing style in their game the weekend before. On an other occasion he screamed at a kid for not following his instruction and said he’d be running laps of the pitch for the rest of the session if it happened again. Scarily the parents there said nothing about it

[@joezebedee9893]

Thank you for being a window into the insane world of Scottish football x

[@CallumBlyth]

Thank you

[@alanfox691]

Alan Shields Hamilton South Lanarkshire Scotland. My view has always been that we under perform at Euro's if we qualify that is. If Denmark could be European Champions in 1992 & Greece in 2004 then there is absolutely no reason why we cant be European champions as well. In terms of World Cup's if a country like The Netherlands can have three attempts at winning The World Cup & fail then the best we should be looking to do is just get out of our group at best. So my biggest issue is in terms of The Euro's wee need to be doing so much better in them. When I was growing up. I would say our National teams in noth football & rugby union did equality, but as an adult I have seen our. football team regress drastically & only in the last few years improve at this point in time I think it's a great achievement if we just qualify. but what I would say is if just qualifying is an achievement we have massive issues when it comes to our football in Scotland. In terms of The Rugby Union team Scotland went through a period of 10 years where results where harendusley bad but what Scottish rugby union did was go back & get the grass roots right ok we have not won a Six Nations but we have had some success against England. Can The Scottish football team says the same, basically no. So what I think is Scottish football needs to go back & get the grass roots right & stop looking for excuses that dont exist get the grass roots right & in time good times will follow but empire's are not built over night. Strong grass roots is the key we dont have that in Scotland we never have had let's be honest about it & until we do get the grass roots right we will achieve nothing at all.

[@iainmore3961]

One Win in 15 and that against Gibraltar. The players haven't been turning up since they beat Spain 2-0 in the Qualifiers.

[@albertmiller2electricbooga897]

Wow the research here is amazing, surely councils are losing out on revenue if they're charging that much for astroturf sessions, there's no way they'd ever be booked out

[@alanfox691]

One point I will make is AstroTurf went out with the 90's. What we have now is 3G , 4,G & hybrid pitches there is no such thing as astro turf in this day in age. you get lots of different standards of artificial pitches, now some are decent. Some are harendusly bad. the big issue when it comes to pitches is that we only have two hybrid pitches in Scotland Murrayfield & Easter Road there is absolutely none the public can use. What we need is hybrid pitches throughout Scotland that the public can use all year round. The upkeep of 3G & 4G pitches is astronomical & to make it a viable option council's need to charge astronomical fees because the upkeep is astronomical. clubs like Hamilton Academical , Kilmarnock struggle with the finances required to keep their artificial pitches up to standard The S.R.U how have more money than both they clubs struggle to find the money to do so. There is good & bad things about artificial pitches & hybrid pitches, but we are at a point where the up keep is outweighs the befit of having them. Hybrid is the way forward they can last for up to 10 years with just basic matinee, but the problem is the cost of putting down the hybrid pitch to start with it's a complex thing to do. Buy if we could get say 10 hybrid pitches throughout Scotland the public could use it would be a start.

[@paulguise698]

Hiya Callum, there's to many 0-0 draws with Scotland national Team, or 1-0 losses to countries like Costa Rica, in the early parts of the game Scotland do give it a go as soon as Scotland go 1-0 down, their heads drop and they think they can't get anything out of the game, on the other hand they dominate play cant break a team down and that's why it ends in a 0-0 draw, that's my opinion, this is Choppy in Whitehaven, Cumbria, England

[@Jackflip1996]

Can you do a video on the fall of Ardrie United

[@CallumBlyth]

@@Jackflip1996 Already covered it

[@johnnycarrotheid]

We have a manager that plays "SPL tactics as if theyr playing against the Old Firm." Defend defend defend and hope the one ahot you have is really really lucky 😂😂 Its dugmeat

[@somerledislay9987]

When we have a coach who`s terrified of losing the most wages he`s had in his life then there`s a coward in charge , and he has to go , Macinnes or Moyes would transform not the worst group of players in the world

[@scottw.3258]

McInnes and Moyes are the same as Clarke. Defence minded, looking to manage the game. Neither of them would improve anything. I would suggest looking abroad, the likes of Benitez, or Klinsmann. I'm not saying those guys would be interested, i'm saying guys of that ilk.

[@somerledislay9987]

@@scottw.3258 Whatever we need we don`t need a coward in charge , and clarke is a coward scared stiff of losing the biggest wages of his career

[@scottw.3258]

@@somerledislay9987 It's a bit dramatic to cal Clarke a coward, he's just a defensive manager. He found a way to make Scotland competitive again, but he's too stubborn, and won't change his tactics, even when they need changing. It's frustrating, when a team who finished 4th in our qualifying group, 9 points behind us, and has to go through two rounds of play-offs, can then perform with the lack of fear, and abundance of bravery, that Georgia did. I'm in no way bitter towards them, they were excellent, and deserved their success at the tournament, but why couldn't we have gone there with a similar approach? That's what was so frustrating. Clarke has to learn when to allow his players to play. He has to learn when to release the brake, and just go for it. He's overly cautious at times, but i think calling him a coward, is a bit strong.

[@somerledislay9987]

@@scottw.3258 Maybe I was a bit over the top , its just I was screaming for him to get the gig and was bringing the aggression that he showed at rugby park to the national team , a Scottish Jack Charlton if you like , I still want rid of him , his selections seem to be based on cronyism , his treatment of Shankland and Forest two recent examples

[@scottw.3258]

@@somerledislay9987 He didn't bring aggression to Killie, he played the same way he's set Scotland up. The fact is, the majority of teams in Scotland don't know how to deal with teams who set up to defend, and hit on the counter. Unfortunately in International football, you can get away with that style in qualifying, however, once you reach a tournament, you have to find other ways to play, and that's where Clarke falls flat. What treatment of Shankland, and Forest? Shankland doesn't suit Clarkes tactics. He needs 5 chances before he scores 1(that is his ratio). He's not going to get 5, or 6 chances per game, playing for Scotland. Shankland would've made zero difference at the Euros. Fans need to understand that. I read a load of nonsense that he did more in the last 10 minutes v Hungary than Adams did the entire game, but these people obviously didn't notice that the game stretched the last 10 - 15 minutes, it was end to end, chances being created, balls being played in behind the defences, players were able to get in behind. It was a totally different game to the previous 80+ minutes, where everything was done in front of the defences. So Shankland didn't make any difference to anything. As for Forest, he's too old, and again, would've made zero difference to games at that level.

[@albertmiller2electricbooga897]

Do you have an Instagram I can shout out this deserves more views

[@CallumBlyth]

Yes @callum_j_blyth