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.
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