As our game slides down the pan isn't it time for a whole new radical idea?

[ian1964 10,720]

IN a bid to preserve what good bits are left of Scottish football, Sir Alex Ferguson's knowledge and expertise could be the saviour of our national sport.

 

 

 

THEREâ??S still plenty to play for ... right?

 

Two cup finals, 11 points separating 10 teams from second place in the SPL all the way down to 11th. European places to be won and lost. And a titanic two-way battle for the First Division title.

 

So how come it felt as if the season ended last Tuesday night when Efe Ambrose turned out against Juventus even though his head was somewhere in the clouds above the Indian Ocean?

 

Is it just me? Or is anyone else out there wondering if thereâ??s any real point in carrying on?

 

Itâ??s probably only a temporary state of mind but, even so, a sense of deep depression set in the moment it became clear there would be no way back for Scotlandâ??s champions in Turin.

 

And it hasnâ??t lifted yet.

 

Without the Champions League to intoxicate our senses, the view from here until May is a bleak and desolate landscape. In fact, itâ??s quite sobering to ponder on the state of our game. And, worse still, where it goes from here.

 

What about next season, for example? What if Celtic canâ??t repeat their heroics in Europe?

 

What if there is no Champions League at all? What if this barren, futile domestic run-in is actually as good as it gets?

 

Neil Lennon nodded towards that very scenario the other day, when he confessed the pressure of playing Helsingborgs and HJK Helsinki in the qualifiers far outweighed the stress levels involved with taking on the champions of Italy in the last 16.

 

Lennon found the thought of crashing out of the competition at that stage utterly terrifying and we should all share his fear.

 

Because the painful truth is that without the excitement of watching one of our own mixing it in the big league Scottish football would just be one big, long headache.

 

And anyone who claims otherwise is missing the point. Probably quite deliberately.

 

For example, I heard a St Johnstone fan the other day desperately trying to talk up the SPL and getting all dewy eyed about watching his team being eliminated from Europe by a bunch of third-rate Turks.

 

With a bit of luck the Perth club can qualify for Europe again this season, as could a whole host of others whose mediocrity clogs up the vital organs of the SPL like a giant black-pudding supper.

 

Yes, they will go at each other like tramps eating chips from now until May in a bid to get over the line first so that they too can offer their fans the chance to travel to some far-flung outpost in July.

 

And so, for the time being, this will create a modicum of interest with two Europa League places still up for grabs in the league and another for whoever wins the Scottish Cup. Or loses it to Celtic.

 

But then, almost certainly, theyâ??ll take it in turns to come back with their tails between their legs, eliminated from Europe before the rest of the continent has dragged itself off the beaches.

 

No, these annual one-stop tartan tours are nothing to go weak at the knees about. In fact, they are toe curling and causing further disrepair to the reputation of the Scottish game never mind its coefficient.

 

Our clubs, with the obvious exception of Celtic, have become continental cannon fodder. And youâ??re telling me this is something to celebrate or savour?

 

Well, leave me out. We are now the horse burgers of the European game.

 

Fast food without quality control which goes in one end and splatters out the other, leaving you without time to decide which of the two was marginally less pleasurable.

 

Our game is disappearing down the pan. The question is, what is to be done as things have got so bad that even the hoary old debate over comparing one manâ??s 12-12-18 to anotherâ??s 12-12-10-10 seems hardly worth the effort.

 

In other words, same s***, different toilet. Instead, what is required here if our game is to be spared from a slow, lingering death is something far more radical and fundamental.

 

We must do to Scottish football what Barry Hearn has done to darts and snooker.

 

We need to rip it up and start again if we are to preserve what good bits are left and build on them. The SFA, for example, are pressing ahead with fine work under the far-seeing eye of performance director Mark Wotte.

 

In time, the Dutchmanâ??s plans may bear fruit and a better breed of Scottish footballer will emerge.

 

But what kind of landscape will be left for them to emerge into?

 

Because Scottish football is already a world strewn with winding up orders, empty seats, toxic debt and liquidation.

 

As a business, our game is already broken. Like our shipyards and our coalmines.

 

And yet the people in charge somehow fail to see it.

 

No, itâ??s not the SFA we need to lead us out of this crisis.

 

But hereâ??s an idea. How about SAF? Or Sir Alex of Furious to the likes of you and I.

 

The great man may still be going strong at Man United but his managerial career must surely soon wind down and when it does we ought to beg him to ride to our rescue. I can think of no other whose clout and credibility comes remotely close to that of Ferguson.

 

I cannot think of a safer pair of hands nor a sharper footballing mind. His knowledge and expertise are unsurpassed.

 

We are fortunate his two great passions remain football and being Scottish. We must do all we can to exploit that by tempting him into a position at the top of our national sport. Well thatâ??s what the Dutch would do, isnâ??t it?

 

He should be trusted implicitly and given carte blanche to impose whatever changes he sees fit. If Ferguson says jump then Stewart Regan, Neil Doncaster and the rest should only ask how high.

 

It would be up to them to administrate and facilitate. The visionary work could be left to someone who knows what this game is about and how best to change it.

 

It would be criminal for us not to tap into the mind of this living legend and if Ferguson can fix us then it will be his finest triumph and provide a lasting legacy befitting of the man.

 

If Ferguson canâ??t fix us then the chances are no one can.

 

And all weâ??ve got to look forward to is the continuation of a gradual decline which really ought to be breaking the hearts of all of us.

 

But hey, thereâ??s still plenty to play for ... right?

 

Keith Jackson