I'm Irish, but first of all I think it must be clarified that there is no rugby culture at all in Scotland- the appetite for it is minimal. It is a footballing country, always has been.

Scotland's aims should be to qualify for these tournaments and put in a respectable performance; much like my own nation should.

Scotland cannot turn the situation around until their game financially recovers, and although the English may not like to admit this- the Scots are suffering the exact same problem in terms of getting their players in the English Premier League as the English are themselves, albeit there's is more difficult because they are a tenth of the nation.

My point about Rugby is that it may also hinder or reduce potential participants. It must have some impact.
Agree about financial restructure, i also think an amalgamation of Norway, Sweden and Scottish leagues to give the Scottish more exposure to money cash cows.

Only having R Lambert upfront highlights our position. Albeit due to injuries and suspensions. That's not a slur on Mr Lambert, but more national player depth.

Its getting to the stage now where I would be satisfied if we got to a play-off in the qualifiers. We havent done that since Berti Vogts. We dont have much quality coming through, the under 21s have been hammered past 2 games. Everyone has a different opinion of what our first 11 should be which says it all. I honestly cant see us qualifying for anything in the next 10-15 years.

Crying shame for the fans who are loyal to the cause.
Scotland seem to make good football managers why not more senior positions within their game.
Same can be said for England as well.
No prospects of building a St Georges park in Scotland or something similar?

Rangers have had murray park open since 2001 and I cant think of one player who has come through the ranks to the national team or EPL.Danny wilson was the brightest prospect they had and he hasnt fullfulled his potential at all. that seems to be the case a lot of the time. Players just dont make the grade.

mmm is this highlighting wider issues i.e players not wanting to dedicate serious effort in making the step up.
Lets face it----Wales produced Gareth Bale, but i guess that was more thanks to Southampton FC.

If that was a business and lets say significant investment had been made without reaping any benefit wouldn't a SWAT team investigate more deeply to ask the How, Why's and what's. England and St George park may also be a white elephant.

Its crazy that countries like belgium, spain ect can produce dozens of players in the world class bracket and we cant even produce one. Bale must give the whole of wales a massive lift. I dont think we've produced a truely world class player in my lifetime.

The most frustrating thing is its no surprise, this was being discussed over thirteen years ago, and money isn't the answer

i think the issue is Coaching standards in the Uk are a stark contrast to the ones in Europe.
But still you would think that 1 player in 15 years would have come out of the woodwork. You would almost get odds of around 100 to 1 on that happening.
Probably Darren Fletcher stands out and he was coached at United, but still way off Bale.

We've had good goalkeepers through the years. Leighton and gorman then gordon and mcgregor. Barry Ferguson wouldnt of looked out of place in any team in europe in his peak. But yeah not in the class of Bale.

You chaps happy with Gordon Strachen? For me he's comedy genius and football needs characters.

Yeah I'm happy with him. At least he talks about shape, keeping possession and getting further up the park. Levien was clueless and totally out of his depth. He was overly defensive against average teams. We've done better with strachan against good opposition than levien did against average opposition.

You surprised me at Wembly i though Scotland played well and showed signs of hope. Just need to unearth a couple of players. Who knows this season may be their break through season.

Going back to the Irish lads comment about Rugby is Scotland a minority Rugby playing country.
My point behind this is for countries such as Spain, Germany etc football is primarily their big sport, butt England although football is massive and by far number one we do compete to a reasonable level at athletics, rugby, cricket and many other sports. Not sure these other countries are the same as Uk based countries.
This reduced funding and other potential participants....
Or am i just clutching at straws..

Haha they they surprised us all at wembly. Havent seen us pass the ball like that in years. The players must of been pumped up cos it was england. We were never gonna beat belgium last night but hopefully we can see improvement on tuesday against macedonia.

Actually pre-scottish game i wasn't too bothered about rekindling the fixture, but now im well up for it. Great entertaining game which the players looked like they enjoyed immensely. Proper blood and thunder.

be funny if we could wind the clock forward 20/30 years and everyone is now playing long ball Except England and Scotland who by then play slick, intricate passing games.

When was the last time England, Ireland and Scotland all qualified for a tournament at the same time? Im not sure its happened, but may be wrong.
Eng & Scot - 1986
Eng & Ire - 1990
Eng, Ire, Scot, Wales - 2800