The Right Time To Go

I CAME into sports journalism in the 1960s - the mighty Real Madrid team of De Stefano, Puskas, Gento, Santamaria etc had crested the hill at Hampden and slid down the other side. The great Scottish squads of Crerand, McNeill and Baxter at half-back with John White beside them, supplying the ammunition for Denis Law, Ian St John and Davie Wilson were flirting with our affections and mental state. Jock Stein was reviving Celtic and the Lisbon Lions were evolving.

Since then, it's been mostly downhill - Ramsey's "wingless wonders" winning what was arguably the worst World Cup ever in 1966. Certainly Brazil 1970, Pele, Jairzinho, Gerson, Carlos Alberta briefly lit the torch of hope, only for it to be extinguished by the cynicism of Revie's Leeds United, the heart-break of Argentina 1978 and the headlong rush towards the "professional" foul, simulation, the worship of money rather than football and the other scars on the visage of the beautiful game.

Season 2010-11 has been a dire one, particularly here in Scotland, but, right at the death, I saw hope for the future - wrapped-up in a five foot seven inch South American named Messi, who, backed up by some celebrated Catalans, threatens to return us to those long-vanished days of 60s sunshine.

But, before we join the masses, heading off to worship at the new temple of football, Camp Nuo, reflect on this. The game Barca play is nothing more than the Queen's Park game of the 1870s, keep the ball, pass and run, support, pass, probe, look for the opening - keep the ball on the ground and let it do the work.

OK, they play it at a pace the gentleman amateurs at the first Hampden Park could never sustain, but on better pitches, with lighter balls and equipment; the Barca boys are better-nourished and trained, probably bigger and surely better athletes - but, they are playing a Queen's Park style for the third millennium.

They have by and large been raised and trained together, just as the Kelly Kids of the late 1950s, with a few shrewd buys for extra flavouring, became the Lisbon Lions and in their own way revolutionised European football.

Matt Busby's way, Jock Stein's way, Rinus Michel's way, Alex Ferguson's way - these are all, basically the same way - recruit good young players, teach them good habits, encourage them, bring in talented outsiders only if you have to and give them their head.

That's the way to do it. Do not go down the road of buying success - sure, like any farmer, you'll have bumper harvests - McNeill, Clark, Johnstone, Lennox; Dalglish, Hay, McGrain, Macari; the Busby Babes; Beckham, Giggs, Scholes, the Nevilles; the 1970s Ajax squad; the current Barca one - but there will be other times when you have crop failure and must buy. But, if you are true to football's core beliefs, and if you put the work in on the training field - when you get a squad such as Pepe Guardilo now oversees - home-grown talent gives the best results.

Will the guys running Scottish football please note this and act accordingly.

When football reconvenes for the start of season 2100-12, I will be going into what I intend being my final season at the coal face. I will never give up on football, but I will cherry-pick my games after this next season - I hope my final one in the press box will be a happy and fulfilling one.

UNTIL then, what fun we will have over the summer, as politics and pay-offs threaten to dominate the close season agenda. FIFA is in a mess, but so too is football as a whole.

I'd love to see IFAB, the rule-making body which has such a large, but inept and foundering British presence, pluck-up the courage to undertake a wholesale, root and branch overhaul of the game's laws - bring-in a zero tolerance approach to the cheating, simulation and lack of respect for the game.

I'd love to think Stewart Regan's (from what little has been allowed into the public domain) long-overdue overhaul of the SFA gets through next month's annual meeting - but ah hae ma doots - turkeys tend not to vote for Christmas.

I'd like to think Ally McCoist will tell Craig Whyte - thanks for the loan of your cheque book, but I think I'll give my good young players a chance first, then see where I need to strengthen.

I'd love to see Neil Lennon using disdain and scorn rather than naked aggresion as his public personna against those who wish him ill - don't snarl, smile Neil - it annoys them far more.

I want to see a genuine third force emerge to engage the Old Firm and if that third force is from Kilmarnock, all the better.

Finally, as I cut back my activities during the close season, I'd like to see Craig Levein's Scotland getting the points they need to qualify for Euro' 2012 - we've been too-long absent from football's top table.