Haw Berti!!!

By Gordon Thomson
October 10 2004

Without an Airdrie game this weekend because of the Scotland game I’m sure, like many other fellow Airdrieonians, it was with a heavy heart that I reluctantly sought out a boozer to get half-cut and follow the action at Hampden…

I’m sure I’m not the only one out there who would love to be a keen follower of Scotland but doesn’t even contemplate it. I’m patriotic and desperately want my country to thrive but, at 34, I’ve been lost to following my country during my ‘disposable income years’. Why? Do I really need to get into that? Andy Roxburgh, Craig Brown, Dave McPherson, Gordon Durie, Derek Whyte, Darren Jackson, several fake Scotsmen and now Vogts/Burns to name but a few. OK, the annual ‘Auld Enemy’ fixture is a massive loss too in terms of the ‘yardstick’ and weekend away.

I remember Archie Gemmill’s goal on my eighth birthday with some pride, but the nation slipped rapidly into a self-loathing era where dreams were quashed by a rabidly unforgiving media who, despite a highly promising decade for the ‘new-firm’ in Europe, were only too quick to underplay our chances of winning anything and ultimately fostering the ‘good losers’ mentality that thrived during the nineties, even up till today.

I thought when Vogts first appeared that he was the man to rid us of this mental attitude that we had to accept mediocrity but soon after arriving he was lumbered with an induction from such luminaries of our game as Alex Smith and Tommy Burns. Thanks to a quick brainwashing from these morons from Largs we’ve been stuck in a very similar, no make that worse, rut to the one that granpaw Broon left us in. Isn’t 25 odd years not long enough to get us out of this post-Argentina hangover?

Saturday’s miserable defeat to Norway was most probably the end of our latest World Cup qualifying campaign. For the sceptic like me the consolation prize is that at least Scotland won’t ruin the spectacle of the main event by stinking it out. What a sad thought? I know it’s wrong but at the current rate we’re slumping it’d be no bad thing. With so many false dawns already behind him, it would almost be a shame if we were to beat Moldova on Wednesday night’s match as it’d probably keep the wolves from Berti’s door for another month.

What makes it frustrating is that I honestly think we could, and should, be doing so much better. I want to know why we can’t be more like the Irish. By that I don’t mean seeking out fakes, I mean utilising more workman-like players and ones that’ll fight for the jersey. Take Craig Brewster for example. He wasn’t getting the merest mention for over 10 years when guys like Jackson, Shearer, Jess, Booth, Crawford, Durie and Spencer were all tried and, bar the odd success against weaker teams, failed miserably. Brewster’s biggest mistake, if you could call it that, was that he failed to capitalise on his rise to prominence with Dundee United in the early nineties, by going out to Greece - yes, the same ‘backwater’ that won Euro2004 - and succeeding. You’ve got to ask if that was a mistake and if it’s still the same situation. If we were Ireland would the workhorses – 100% grafters, every day reliable players – like Barry Nicholson, Scott Severin, Paul Hartley, Ian Murray, Martyn Corrigan and Jim McIntyre not be involved more? Not to mention the very promising kids coming through like Riordan, O’Conner and Burke?

On Saturday I was as deflated as ever when I heard the team we were putting out. No problems with the young goalie or defence. In many ways I think Pressley and McNamara are currently over-rated anyway. They’re good enough professionals, but I still remember Jackie Mac’s two red-cards against us for hauling down Lawrence and big Andy on a couple of occasions, and of course, the ‘incident’ where he got John Davies sent off by faking injury. Pressley can’t jump. How many remember him beating Stevie Cooper in the air? Me neither. What would Carew have done to him? No, my problem was with the midfield and attack. Richard Hughes has hardly kicked a ball all season, Fletcher is like a burst ba’ just now and as a combination Dickov and McFadden were going to be far too wee and, certainly in McFadden’s case, too slow to get in about a big Norwegian side. We can’t hold up the ball at the best of times and didn’t have the option to go long either. I’m not a big fan of Stevie Thompson but can’t help but think that he’d have been a better option.

I think it’s time that we take advantage of our plight immediately. We need to collectively assemble a team now can take us to, and perform in, Euro2008. We need to get rid of the older players and concentrate on building a side that can take us forward. The best sides contain players who are mostly in the 24-30 mark and have amassed a good 30-50 caps minimum by that stage. In my opinion we need to have a team in place by the start of the next qualifying campaign and that means effectively, getting them in place now to allow them time to gel as a unit. Anyone even in their late twenties now are going to be too old. OK, you always need a bit of experience in your side but we need to build around the players that can and will be around for the next few tournaments. We need to have them playing at club level too. The SFA will have to be strong and resourceful at times too. We can’t have guys like both Paul Gallachers rotting in reserve teams.

I want the Scotland side to be great again. I’ve had nothing to shout about for years, but I want there to be a team to take my boy to watch. Get someone, anyone, who can make the best of what we’ve got, and who has the foresight to build a real team for us. We have got decent players under 26-28 year old now, who’d fit the profile. We’ve got good goalies in Marshall, Gordon and Gallacher. Defenders like Wilson, Naysmith, the Caldwells, Webster, Anderson, Diamond, Hammell, Kennedy and even Wilkie (who else do we have that could look Carew in the eye?). Midfielders? Fletcher, Ferguson, Murray, Canero, Nicholson, Burke, McLaren(?), McNaughton, Pearson, Brown, Severin, Hartley. Forwards? O’Conner, Miller, McFadden, Riordan, Thompson, Gallacher, Beattie, Maloney and Wallace don’t look bad players.

This campaign, and era, looks dead already. Can we collectively as a country (fans, journalists, SFA and the clubs) look to build a brighter future. We’ve let it ruin my generation, can we really let them do the same for our kids?