GARY KEOWN: Damning report on young players exposes home truths our game has ignored for far too long...
it simply MUST be acted upon By Gary Keown Published: 02:30 EDT, 25 August 2024 | Updated: 02:30 EDT, 25 August 2024 e-mail View comments Andy Gould and Chris Docherty at the Scottish FA deserve real credit for the report unveiled in midweek on improving the pathway to the very top for players aged 16 to 21. Not least for making a 114-page offering on such unsexy fare so interesting, illuminating and worthy of ongoing reflection even after moving through the process of challenging your own preconceptions and closing the laptop. This whole subject has been batted around for so long in these parts that the very mention of it gets folk running for the door — or at least glazing over and going somewhere else in their head, to sunny holidays or the beauty of spring, until the grey person in the trackie droning on in front of them has finally stopped.
In many ways, Gould and Docherty, chief football officer and head of elite men’s strategy at the SFA, showed characteristics in their approach to reframing the conversation that they will no doubt seek in their footballers of the future. They were brave in detailing the litany of ongoing failures in the club game with regard to developing talent and, particularly, in addressing why many of the flagship programmes introduced by the national association itself are, well, flagging. Billy Gilmour seems to be the only current Scot w.