What Scot free Dundee United starting line-up shows about our game

The National

25-07-2025

But how should Scottish football enthusiasts feel about one of this country's leading clubs taking to the field in a continental competition without a solitary home-grown player in the starting line-up?
Is an XI comprising footballers from Ukraine, Australia, Moldova, Hungary, the Netherlands, Croatia, Ghana, the Republic of Ireland and North Macedonia prevailing really reason for somebody from these shores to celebrate?
Yes, manager Jim Goodwin threw on young Owen Stirton and Craig Sibbald in the second half and the duo duly helped the hosts, who had taken the lead through Zachary Sapsford shortly after half-time, to see out the hard-fought victory.
But the complete absence of any homegrown players in the team which took to the field was depressing and alarming in equal measure for those who care about the health of the sport here and the fortunes of the national team.
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It should not, however, have come as any great surprise to anyone. The number of native players involved at the elite level in this country has been steadily dwindling for many years now. The situation has reached crisis point.
Brown Ferguson, the former East Stirlingshire, Alloa Athletic, Hamilton Academical, Partick Thistle and Stenhousemuir defensive midfielder who is now assistant to Gary Naysmith at the third tier Ochilview Park part-timers, outlined some worrying statistics in these pages last month.
Ferguson, a regional performance manager with the Scottish Institute of Sport as well as the high performance manager for Scottish Golf, has been personally collating data about the decline or our national game for several years now.
He showed that the overall percentage of Scots to start top flight games during the 2024/25 campaign was just 31.46 per cent. That was down from 45 per cent three years ago.
In addition, he highlighted that, on average, just four out of the 132 players who kicked games off in the elite division every weekend were under the age of 21 and originally hailed from this nation.
(Image: Andrew Milligan) 'When I started doing this, the number of Scots who were starting every week on average was at about 48 to 49 per cent,' he said following the end of the 2024/25 campaign.
'Now it is down in the low 30s. I think it is a major problem already. And it is only going to get worse and worse. There needs to be an intervention before it becomes an even bigger problem.'
Mercifully, the Cooperation System was rolled out by the SFA this summer. It will see up to three Scotland-qualified players at Premiership and Championship clubs move to lower league outfits freely on loan going forward. Hopefully, it will help more gifted kids make the difficult transition from the youth ranks into the senior game going forward.
Hibernian manager David Gray started Chris Cadden, Josh Mulligan and Kieron Bowie in the capital outfit's European League qualifying game against Midtjylland in Denmark and Josh Campbell came off the bench. But having just four Scots involved is not an awful lot better.
United's line-up against Strassen in their Conference League qualifier highlighted just how much of a problem our most promising prospects being lured south by major English clubs when they turn 16 because of Brexit has become.
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Managers like Goodwin and Gray don't have the same quality of youngster to choose from that they did in the past.
With a bit of luck, both Hibs and United can build on their promising first leg performances and reach the group stages of a European tournament this term. But it would be nice to see more Scots involved going forward if they do.
United have brought in no fewer than 11 new players this summer and Sapsford believes it will take time for them to gel. 'It's not easy, but I think we're doing really well,' he said. 'It's tough for any manager and players to get used to each other.
(Image: Andrew Milligan) 'But I think we're doing it really well and these games are definitely helping. We learned a bit (on Thursday). That's what we're going to work on during this week, preparing for the game next Thursday. So we'll do our work and we'll be ready.'
He continued, 'Playing at Tannadice was an incredible experience. Everyone told me it's amazing and the fans really showed up and it was great. I had goosebumps walking out, hearing the fans scream. I've honestly never heard a stadium like that. It's crazy.
'I'm loving it. It's a new experience for me. I'm from Australia, so it's completely different. I know it gets colder, but I'm ready for that. I'm loving it so it's good.'