THE evidence is unambiguous. Scottish football is spinning downward

towards an unparalleled level of mediocrity, yet there are still many

who insist the sport is in good health, and some of these people could

be found within the Scottish League and SFA strongholds.

Talk of the sport facing a crisis has no basis in fact, these people

say. The anxiety, the headlines, and the concerns are not real. They are

all part of an elaborate plot put together by an over-active and much

too pessimistic section of the press.

The defeats inflicted upon Rangers and Aberdeen in Europe were no more

than blips. Football remains bright and promising.

Losing is part of the game and the hysteria whipped up because two

clubs have been shown the door in Europe is providing a flawed view of

reality. If Scottish football is experiencing difficulties then they are

minor and hardly worth fretting over.

Let us all relax and sit back. The good times will return because

success in football comes in cycles and the Scottish game has had a

couple of unlucky bounces.

Crisis? Don't be so melodramatic.

The administrators will tend to their ledgers and shuffle into their

meetings to decide on who should sit beside whom at the cup finals and

concern themselves with other matters of crucial importance, such as the

numbers on Celtic's jerseys. If these issues can be addressed the game

will be all the better and stronger despite what the dirty mob from the

papers might be writing.

However, this time the fears are being voiced by the managers, who are

better placed to read the signs than anyone in the Scottish League or

SFA. The country's top managers have been unhappy with the state of

their game for a few seasons, and the recent European defeats have

caused them to question the system.

Some also fear the ability of the governing bodies to respond to the

problems, and Tommy Burns, Celtic's manager, has called for a summit

meeting of all those involved in the game.

The SFA might not be willing to listen to the hacks, but can they

afford to ignore their own key figures? If they do Scottish football,

which is already woefully short of credibility, will continue to fall

behind the European game. Should the fears of Scotland's managers be

dismissed then all those gentlemen in blazers who will board Scotland's

charter flight to Finland this morning will be guilty of negligence.

It is essential Craig Brown's team take at least a share of the points

in the first European Championship qualifying match, and if the players

succeed in giving our game a much-needed lift the credit will be all

theirs. Not that the accompanying officials will be able to prevent

themselves from preening.

If these people were concerned about the game they would have stayed

home and conducted their own consensus among their top managers, but

realising they would be busy packing, Herald Sport approached the

premier division's 10 managers and asked them to give their views on the

current state of play.

The message was clear: Scottish football is in decline, and there are

genuine fears that the signals might not be heeded by the people who can

effect the required changes.

Only one of the nine managers who participated -- Aberdeen's Willie

Miller was unavailable -- Alex Totten, feels there is no real cause for

concern, but the eight others were scathing in their condemnation of the

Scottish way. They spoke willingly of the problems, the causes, and also

of the possible cures, and all they really ask is that somebody,

somewhere listens.

So, for those members of the SFA who could not take the time to

consult the men in the front line, the following is how they see it.

Read on, gentlemen. You never know, you may learn something.