Who's going to step up and replace Scotland's golden generation?

The National

13 hours ago

The youthfulness of Steve Clarke's squad for the friendly internationals against Iceland and Liechtenstein this month has, what with Connor Barron, Kieron Bowie, Tommy Conway, Josh Doig, Billy Gilmour, Max Johnston, Lennon Miller, Nathan Patterson and James Wilson all receiving call ups, certainly been heartening.
The members of that nonet have an average age of just 21. Every one of them has a huge amount to offer their country at international level for many seasons to come. They have numerous qualifying campaigns left in them and hopefully a few finals too. The same is true of the injured duo Ben Doak, the Liverpool winger, and Aaron Hickey, the Brentford full-back.
It was also encouraging to see the SFA roll out their Cooperation System – which will see up to three Scotland-qualified prospects under the age of 21 move freely between Premiership and Championship parent clubs and lower league outfits on loan from the 2025/26 season onwards – this week.
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Similar agreements already exist in Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Hungary and Serbia. Hopefully the long overdue scheme will enable our best prospects, who have often been prevented from gaining much-needed competitive game time in the senior ranks simply because their presence is needed to satisfy homegrown player quotas in European competition, to make the difficult transition from the age-group ranks.
That initiative was one of the main recommendations contained within the Transition Phase paper which was co-authored by Andy Gould, the SFA's chief football officer, and Chris Docherty, the governing body's head of men's elite strategy and was published last year.
That report contained many worrying revelations, damning findings and stark conclusions about how poorly Scotland is doing in comparison with other countries of a similar size across Europe when it comes to producing talented young footballers who are capable of flourishing in the paid ranks.
But if anybody needed reminding just how few professionals are emerging, Brown Ferguson, the former Alloa, Hamilton and Partick Thistle midfielder and the current Stenhousemuir assistant manager who is also the assistant regional performance manager at sportscotland and the high performance manager to Scottish Golf, took to X (formerly Twitter) to tell us.
He posted a series of alarming statistics about the Premiership last season. Here are a few of the most startling. Just 31.46 per cent of players to start games in the top flight were Scottish. That is down from 45 per cent three years ago. On average, just 3.23 per cent of players kicking off on a Saturday are under 21, just four out of 132. No fewer than 20 team selections failed to contain a single Scot. Aberdeen and Celtic didn't start an under-21 player in the 2024/25 campaign.
The SFA have identified these major problems and are endeavouring to address them. The SPFL clubs, who in the past have shown they are more concerned with self-interest than the greater good, have endorsed and embraced their plans. But is it too little too late?
Our leading clubs face a raft of challenges running academies and bringing through youngsters who are capable of representing their first teams every year. The issues which Brexit and raids on their age-group squads by their wealthier English rivals have presented in recent years have been well documented in these pages. Far fewer footballers who are good enough are emerging.
These are pretty exciting times in Scottish football with Brighton owner Tony Bloom buying a major stake in Hearts and a consortium comprising American billionaire Andrew Cavenagh and the San Francisco 49ers taking over Rangers. With Hibernian a far more formidable force than they were and Aberdeen lifted by their epic Scottish Cup triumph, next season promises to be a belter.
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But the focus in recent weeks has very much been on how much money every club will spend and who will be brought in this summer. The new powerbrokers seem unconcerned about doing their bit to help our national game by rearing homegrown heroes. Sure, wanting to promote youth has been mentioned in passing. It appears, though, fairly far down their list of priorities. Such is the money mad modern game.
There is, with Barron, Bowie, Conway, Doig, Gilmour, Johnston, Miller, Patterson and Wilson as well as Lewis Ferguson, Jack Hendry, George Hirst, Andy Irving, Scott McKenna, Scott McTominay and John Souttar all in the current Scotland squad, no reason for Tartan Army footsoldiers to panic.
(Image: Craig Williamson - SNS Group) Yet, the World Cup qualifying campaign which will get underway with away games against Denmark and Belarus in September may well prove to be the last that Che Adams, Stuart Armstrong, Ryan Christie, Lyndon Dykes, Craig Gordon, Grant Hanley, John McGinn, Kenny McLean, Andy Robertson, Lawrence Shankland and Kieran Tierney are involved in. Some will retire after it, others will stay on. But we are witnessing the last hurrah of a golden generation.
Will those who come after that aforementioned group grace, as many of their predecessors did, the Premier League and the Champions League? The majority of them still have some way to go to scale the same heights as their compatriots. A few will manage it, but many won't.
Clarke lamented how few goalkeepers he had to choose from when he announced his squad last month. He, or his successor, may be left bemoaning the lack of centre-backs, full-backs, holding midfielders, playmakers, wingers and strikers going forward. There must be a concerted collective effort from club owners and managers or qualification for the finals of major tournaments will be a thing of the past.