The future is at our feet!

 As the season begins to change from "winter" to what I describe as a Scottish tropical weather (sunshine and up to 28 at the high point of the day!) thoughts turn to what to do for the summer? 

 

As you will read in this dish of Paella and Bovril school holidays here are LLLOOONNNGGGGGG. Holidays in general here are long. No-one local works in August and of course it is too hot to work all day in July. "What does one do with all this holiday  time?"  I hope to work some of it and enjoy the rest! 

 Enjoy this serving of P n B

This first appeared in the match day programme of Raith's home game against Cowdenbeath. Rovers went down one nil after a lack luster performance from both sides really.  Enjoy! 

Paella and Bovril

What do you do when you team has the weekend off? I am accustomed to coping with the summer break but it is still a shock when there is no game on a Saturday.  The recent breaks have mainly been down to the national side playing so that football-sized gap in my weekend should be filled by the world class football on display from Scotland’s first team. Well when I say first team, they became the first European team to exit the Brazilian 2014 World cup, but were they a team of Scotland’s top players?

With this early exit, as always, comes the cry from the stands and sofas that something needs to change.  What used to be a fight until the end is now early exit from another competition.  Scottish football is not looking her best.  Unfortunately, I think, no amount of tinkering with the edges will make the Scottish game beautiful again. Time to go back to the start, re-dress Scotland and it’s relationship with football from top to bottom. Starting with the youngest in the game!

A few days ago I came home to the usual pile of junk mail but there was one thing that caught my eye. A simple black n white A4 sheet of paper folded in half advertising the summer football camps at one of the local all-purpose pitches. The school summer holidays in Barcelona are long, June 23 – mid September! Parents need somewhere to send the kids for July and September (no worries about August, everything comes to a standstill cause all the locals are on a month long holiday!) Camps are very popular, some are stay away “colonies” in the countryside and mountains, and others are daily activities at your local sport or cultural centre.  This Club Esportiu was offering weekly camps, available for up to 6 weeks at 10 hours a day.  Of course this comes at a price, from £180 for 1 week with discounts being offered the more weeks you book.  The centre was offering a camp based around football technique. A lot had been said about Scottish football’s youth policy since our world cup demise. Maybe the country that currently holds the trophy had some ideas?

Millions have been spent in cash and in time on presentations, investigations and reports on the way Scotland’s young players should be nurtured.  For years we have been wondering why we could produce the class of Dalglish and co but be struggling now to produce a squad that plays the same midfield twice.  Looking at recent team sheets not many players play together at club level so how can they play as a team at national level. In my opinion, part of Spain’s success is done to many of its squad being team-mates for the majority of the football season.  So do we want one or two world-class players in a group or do we want leagues with teams of classy players?

The football camp was offering kids for 5 – 15 chance to enjoy sport, not just football, but above all do it as a team.  They go swimming, eat lunch, tidy up the kit as ‘one’.  The camp doesn’t seem just about being the best on the team but youth development, getting the kids to care about taking part in and supporting the team . This team spirit idea is encouraged at all levels from the camps at the beach to Camp Nou. Barcelona’s best are regularly reported to get a bit of lunch together.

 The camp is run from a few porta-cabins that have been kitted out with hot showers and a wee café/bar. Facilities can be a problem in Scotland due to the weather and of course Barcelona does not have the wet weather worries, but they facilities do not always have to be state of the art.  I regularly pass this facility and I have seen it used for a wide range of sports, full 11-a-side games between local “pub” teams, American football with cheerleaders, an area to rack your bike for the triathlon, divided for a schools’ tournament of rugby, this is a basic sports centre with versatility at it’s heart.

What ever happens to be promised as the saviour of Scottish football it is not going to happen over night? This is couple of generations down the road.  Can we bear a few more downs for the possibility of some great ups?