{"id":10082,"date":"2016-10-19T12:00:49","date_gmt":"2016-10-19T11:00:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/etims.net\/?p=10082"},"modified":"2016-10-19T09:24:56","modified_gmt":"2016-10-19T08:24:56","slug":"where-are-the-john-blackleys-of-today","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/etims.net\/?p=10082","title":{"rendered":"Where Are The John Blackleys Of Today ?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rebus<\/strong> has worked out why the national team, and the domestic game, is no longer the force it used to be….<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Where are the John Blackleys, Jackie McGrorys of Today?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I know I said that I wished to take a sabbatical from the Blog for a while. That is still true, but I am a creature of contradictions!<\/p>\n

The latest diaries on the effects of one club on the future of Scottish football set me to thinking\u2026.something that rarely happens nowadays.
\nMy memories of Scottish football are conditioned by itinerant attempts to find a job. I watched the game avidly in the sixties, a little in the seventies when I moved to take the English coin and then avidly again in the late seventies when I returned to Scotia as a homesick lad with a family.<\/p>\n

The eighties are a black hole when I sought a new currency, the Canadian dollar. During the eighties, TV did not dominate soccer and the opportunity to see Scottish matches were very few indeed. I remember stumbling upon, could I believe it, Aberdeen in a mud bath game that they won against Real Madrid to pick up the Cup Winners cup in 1983. Streaming was not even a dream back then!
\nRalph\u2019s recent articles have examined the issue of whether there is intimidation going on in the football fan base, the media, and perhaps in Society in general. I do not have anything to add to what has already been said and commented upon but I wish to highlight a sad history. More accurately, I wish to highlight a history that has led to a sad conclusion.
\nScotland recently played both Lithuania and Slovakia, generating very poor results. This is, unfortunately, nothing new. When we examine the latest team selections one feature stands out. How many home based players are selected to represent their country? Even more telling, is the question of how many players were selected from home based teams other than Celtic or \u201crangers\u201d? The last two WC qualifying games show that only two home based players were in the starting lineups\u2026..Paterson from Hearts, and Tierney from Celtic. Neither of these players has many caps for their country, although at least one of them will surely end up a much capped player.
\nLet\u2019s do a rewind to the Season 1966\/67 and look at teams in the Scottish First Division outside Celtic and Rangers. How many of their squads represented their country? It would be a massive task to accurately count all those capped and how many caps they achieved, but we do not need to do that to make a point. Look at the following, perhaps it will bring back some memories for mature readers:
\nAberdeen: Clark, Buchan, Munro, Craig, Pedersen(Denmark) and Jimmy Smith were all international class players.
\nDundee: Alex Hamilton, Murray, Penman and Jim McLean all represented their country. In fact, Hammy was one of the best FB\u2019s of his era, IMHO.
\nDundee United: McAlpine, Berg(Denmark), Persson(Sweden), Dossing(Den) all were capped.
\nHearts: Cruickshank, Holt, Ford, Gordon, Jensen(Nor) were all international players.
\nHibs: Blackley, Madsen(Den), Cormack, Pat Quinn(great player), Stanton, Cousin, Alan McGraw, Colin Stein \u2026.all international class players. What a team they had.
\nKilmarnock: Ferguson(Bobby), McGrory, Bertelsen(Den), Jackie McInally, Tommy MacLean, Dave Sneddon \u2026all capped for their countries. McInally and Sneddon are two of my favourite inside forwards from the Scottish game!
\nFinally, look at lowly Partick Thistle, the Maryhill Magyars: Packy McParland, Divers(remember him?), Niven, Roxburgh. Again a mid to lower league team had capped players within their ranks.
\nI am sure I missed a few but the point is obvious. Outside of the big two, many teams had international class players in their teams during this era. It is no surprise that the game was much more competitive then.
\nContrast the above with the team compositions in the SPL today. In truth, there is no comparison! What we see is the reality of the decline of Scottish football from the sixties until present day. So, our game has gone backwards in terms of quality, whilst other leagues have progressed, hence our results against teams like Macedonia and Slovakia. There are many reasons why this has happened, not least is having an extremely rich nearby neighbour who filters off the best players. Other factors would include the nature of governance of the game in Scotland. Why have no measures been put in place to help develop the next Denis Law, Jim Baxter, Billy Bremner or Jimmy Johnstone? Does Scotland currently have one player that is in their class? Has it had any players of this class in the last twenty years? We can see the answer to this in the EPL which used to be dominated by a core of Scottish players in each of the successful teams. Where are they now?
\nLet\u2019s go back into history again to try to find at least a partial answer.
\nIt is generally recognised that the so called Souness Era changed the nature of the Scottish transfer market. Remember Souness was recruited by Rangers as player manager for the period 1986-90. A measure designed to stop the success of such teams as Celtic(of course) but also Aberdeen and Dundee United. Aberdeen had won the league in 1984-5, with Celtic second and DU finishing third, and Rangers were\u2026.not amongst them!
\nDuring the Souness Era Rangers signed an incredible 40 players\u2026\u2026.9 of whom came from other Scottish clubs. 1987 was the peak year of this madness, with the Gers bringing in 13 players in a single year, five of whom were from Scottish clubs. By comparison, Celtic signed 20 players during this era, with a greater emphasis on Scottish players\u202611 being from other Scottish clubs.<\/p>\n

This period represents the beginning of Rangers racking up costs in excess of their revenue. But apart from that, each of the big two were denuding other Scottish clubs of their best players at an average rate of two players per season. Do the arithmetic, that is a total of four players per season being filtered out of the rest of the Scottish clubs. Further, you can be assured that these were the best players available at the time. Here we see the beginning of a process that was to continue with the best players in Scotland drifting towards the big two clubs, reducing competition and ultimately the quality of the league. Competition within the league was also being eroded through Rangers recruiting more expensive players from England because they could offer these players European competition, since English clubs were banned from Europe for a period. During the five years prior to the Souness Era, 1981-85, Rangers signed 17 players of which 9 were from Scottish clubs, i.e 47% of their signings were from OTHER leagues. By the end of the Souness Era, that percent had dropped to 23%. By comparison, Celtic continued to recruit about 55% of their transfers from our leagues over the two five year periods.
\nSo, what does it all mean? The rest of the Scottish clubs, outside of the big two, were hit by a double whammy over the eighties. Firstly, Rangers upped the quality of their recruits by spending big on \u201cforeign\u201dplayers\u2026a strategy that we now know they could not afford and ultimately led to their demise. Secondly, the best players in our game were being recruited away from the rest of Scottish football by the big two clubs, thus further weakening their ability to compete. Celtic and some of the other clubs initially tried to keep pace with Rangers resulting in increased debt levels, particularly, in the face of falling revenues due to declining attendance. Celtic pulled back from the madness but only by suffering a period of lack of success. The rest of the clubs continued to see declining attendances because of the lack of success which led to higher levels of debt. In some cases, administration was the consequence but for all, relief came in the forgiveness of their debt as documented in a BBC study from 2014 on the banks writing off football clubs debt.
\nGiven the above, is it any wonder that few home based players make it into the national team? What makes the situation even sadder is that the quality of the national team is very poor. In business terms, the Scottish game would be regarded as a sunset industry. It would take an extraordinary visionary to revamp it. Your author does not see any of these around the Scottish game at the moment! The usual strategy for organisations involved in a sunset industry is to get out of it into new markets. I think Celtic already know this, but\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026..!<\/p>\n

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