Post by QPR Report on Aug 22, 2009 22:26:29 GMT
Telegraph
Rangers manager Walter Smith says as lack of direction is destroying Scottish football
In what amounts to a state of the nation address to Scottish football, Walter Smith has delivered a scathing appraisal of the missed opportunities and financial constrictions that threaten to impoverish the game north of the border.
By Roddy Forsyth
Published: 6:00PM BST 22 Aug 2009
His views are those of a coach with unique experience, who learned his trade at Dundee United when the Tannadice club was a European force, who is in his second spell as Rangers manager – between times having restored respectability to Scotland after the instability of Berti Vogts' reign – and who has first hand experience of life in England's Premier League.
Talk is cheap in football but when Smith weighs his words they are as solid as government bonds – more so perhaps, in the current financial climate. And that topic is one which particularly animated the Ibrox boss as he mused upon a summer in which Aberdeen, Falkirk and Motherwell have all been dismissed from their European tournaments, with Celtic and Hearts likely to follow them through the exit this week, although the Parkhead players have the consolation of the Europa League.
McFadden angry at Scotland snub "We have had a lack of direction in our football and it gets left to scorelines to be the indicator. It gets left to managers to get the sack," said Smith.
"Then we see people who run the Scottish game knock back an offer from Sky, in my opinion one of the best football broadcasters in the world. We take Setanta, we lose a fortune, and these people are all still in their positions.
"How can that be? But it is what happens in Scottish football. We cost ourselves a fortune by bad decisions.
"It is easy to criticise Aberdeen or Hearts or Motherwell or our result against Kaunas last year – it is dead easy – but there needs to be a longer-term fix or we will be dragged down. We are being dragged down at the present minute.
"There is a whole raft of problems, but they are not new. In the early 1980s when we had just won a European youth championship, Andy Roxburgh did a report for the SFA stating that there would be a decrease in the number of footballers available to the professional game here and that unless some kind of action was taken, there would be a continuing decline in the levels of play.
"I felt that was strange because I was at Dundee United where we had a solely Scottish team and we had a youth team that won the Scottish youth championship.
"Yet, there's absolutely no doubt that we don't have the level of Scottish player that we did 20-odd years ago, because there has been a decline in the numbers. All they ever to do is talk about it. They don't do anything about it.
"Street football disappeared and we never replaced it – simple and basic but quite complicated to sort. For us to bring in a decent level of player to Scotland costs money – and the majority of clubs in Scotland can't afford that at the present moment. Even the Old Firm are hit.
"Someone said to me there are 60 Scottish players playing in the Championship. We used to have 60 playing in the old English First Division."
What then is the solution?
"It has to be political. It has to be educational," Smith insisted. "A recent report said that for kids to become decent players – just decent – they have to play for 24 hours in a week. In my day we did play 24 hours football a week – of course, we had eff-all else to do – but a generation later, kids play five or six. Two nights training, all supervised."
Adding to Smith's frustration are the domestic circumstances that thwart what he believes is the natural position of the Old Firm pair as European super-clubs.
"We two are continually in the top 20 teams in Europe in everything but finance. If the money was there, Rangers and Celtic would be amongst the biggest clubs in Europe.
"In Britain, who would be bigger than Rangers and Celtic? Only Manchester United.
"Arsenal are exceptionally well run off the pitch and they have an exceptional manager, but if we were on an equal footing, it would happen. We would need to extend our stadium.
"If someone wants to include Rangers and Celtic in a European league, we are ready. It might save football in Scotland, because if we continue as we are going, we will have no higher rated teams at all.
"That to me is the biggest problem of the lot"
www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/leagues/scottishpremier/rangers/6072441/Rangers-manager-Walter-Smith-says-as-lack-of-direction-is-destroying-Scottish-football.html
Rangers manager Walter Smith says as lack of direction is destroying Scottish football
In what amounts to a state of the nation address to Scottish football, Walter Smith has delivered a scathing appraisal of the missed opportunities and financial constrictions that threaten to impoverish the game north of the border.
By Roddy Forsyth
Published: 6:00PM BST 22 Aug 2009
His views are those of a coach with unique experience, who learned his trade at Dundee United when the Tannadice club was a European force, who is in his second spell as Rangers manager – between times having restored respectability to Scotland after the instability of Berti Vogts' reign – and who has first hand experience of life in England's Premier League.
Talk is cheap in football but when Smith weighs his words they are as solid as government bonds – more so perhaps, in the current financial climate. And that topic is one which particularly animated the Ibrox boss as he mused upon a summer in which Aberdeen, Falkirk and Motherwell have all been dismissed from their European tournaments, with Celtic and Hearts likely to follow them through the exit this week, although the Parkhead players have the consolation of the Europa League.
McFadden angry at Scotland snub "We have had a lack of direction in our football and it gets left to scorelines to be the indicator. It gets left to managers to get the sack," said Smith.
"Then we see people who run the Scottish game knock back an offer from Sky, in my opinion one of the best football broadcasters in the world. We take Setanta, we lose a fortune, and these people are all still in their positions.
"How can that be? But it is what happens in Scottish football. We cost ourselves a fortune by bad decisions.
"It is easy to criticise Aberdeen or Hearts or Motherwell or our result against Kaunas last year – it is dead easy – but there needs to be a longer-term fix or we will be dragged down. We are being dragged down at the present minute.
"There is a whole raft of problems, but they are not new. In the early 1980s when we had just won a European youth championship, Andy Roxburgh did a report for the SFA stating that there would be a decrease in the number of footballers available to the professional game here and that unless some kind of action was taken, there would be a continuing decline in the levels of play.
"I felt that was strange because I was at Dundee United where we had a solely Scottish team and we had a youth team that won the Scottish youth championship.
"Yet, there's absolutely no doubt that we don't have the level of Scottish player that we did 20-odd years ago, because there has been a decline in the numbers. All they ever to do is talk about it. They don't do anything about it.
"Street football disappeared and we never replaced it – simple and basic but quite complicated to sort. For us to bring in a decent level of player to Scotland costs money – and the majority of clubs in Scotland can't afford that at the present moment. Even the Old Firm are hit.
"Someone said to me there are 60 Scottish players playing in the Championship. We used to have 60 playing in the old English First Division."
What then is the solution?
"It has to be political. It has to be educational," Smith insisted. "A recent report said that for kids to become decent players – just decent – they have to play for 24 hours in a week. In my day we did play 24 hours football a week – of course, we had eff-all else to do – but a generation later, kids play five or six. Two nights training, all supervised."
Adding to Smith's frustration are the domestic circumstances that thwart what he believes is the natural position of the Old Firm pair as European super-clubs.
"We two are continually in the top 20 teams in Europe in everything but finance. If the money was there, Rangers and Celtic would be amongst the biggest clubs in Europe.
"In Britain, who would be bigger than Rangers and Celtic? Only Manchester United.
"Arsenal are exceptionally well run off the pitch and they have an exceptional manager, but if we were on an equal footing, it would happen. We would need to extend our stadium.
"If someone wants to include Rangers and Celtic in a European league, we are ready. It might save football in Scotland, because if we continue as we are going, we will have no higher rated teams at all.
"That to me is the biggest problem of the lot"
www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/leagues/scottishpremier/rangers/6072441/Rangers-manager-Walter-Smith-says-as-lack-of-direction-is-destroying-Scottish-football.html