IT might be a Scottish thing to denegrate the BBC; we often refer to "Auntie" as the English Broadcasting Corporation and their self-appointed role as cheer leaders for and obsession with, to the exclusion of all others, any English team in any competition does grate - but - when it comes to covering grand sporting occasions, nobody does it better.
Being a sports nut, I've been glued to their coverage of the European Athletics Championships in Barcelona and, as at every major athletics event since he switched seamlessly from competitor to critic, I've loved Michael Johnston's input to the broadcasts.
Just like John McEnroe in tennis, MJ has become a top commentator, just as he was a top athlete and I do hope those British athletes on whom he has passed judgement tak tent on his comments.
He has in the past been scathing on Britain's over-hyped sprinters and he was at it again in Barca. OK Mark Lewis Francis grabbed an unexpected silver medal, but, let's face it, the 100 metres event in Barcelona was more First Division than Champions League.
Well though the Britons have done, with a very few exceptions - Jessica Ennis, Philips Idowu and the 800 metres girls - the big guns they will have to beat in 2012 were absent.
MJ had a go at the fact the British team contains the same old, same old faces. The kids are there, Britain regularly does well in major age group competitions, but, rather like the Scottish football team under Craig Brown or Walter Smith's Rangers teams, it's harder for a youngster to get into Team GB than for a veteran to get dropped.
Take Scotland's Lee McConnell for instance, lovely lassie in every way, very much a poster girl for British athletics: tall, blonde, toned, except, she's mince. Lee hasn't been a contender for years, but she's still there. OK, Christine Ohuragu is injured, Nicola Sanuders was somewhat controversially not picked, so Lee is the current Number One. But, since she's not going to be a contender in a second-rate competition, might it not have been better to have picked one of the younger athletes, for the experience?
It's the same with football, let's get the kids in quicker. Michael Johnston came through the American collegiate sports system. In sport in the USA, if you've got the talent it will be encouraged, via the various colleges. Your talent will be honed, you will be encouraged and you get an education in return.
But, once you graduate, you're on your own and only the very best will continue to earn their livelihood from sport. The rest are discarded, but, at least, they leave with an education behind them and they are equipped to make their own way in the world in some other field.
In Scottish football. If you get taken on by a supposed professional club, you're assessed on an annual basis. A bad year between 16 and 17, 17 and 18 or 18 and 19 and it's ta ta. Even then, when you get out of the Under-19s, there is no guarantee of continuing employment beyond your short-term deal - and forget about getting an education.
You might learn how to fill-out a bookie's line, or shoot pool, or play snooker or golf - but formal or even vocational education you will get none.
Then, once you are no longer considered a young player, you will find, the clubs will still go for the more-experienced player first.
But don't expect our poachers turned gamekeepers, the incisive minds of the ex-pros in the commentary box to point this out; to educate and warn.
Unlike MJ or SuperMac, they will never rock the boat by stating the obvious but unpopular line, and the young players suffer as a result.
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I Have a soft spot for the followers of Partick Thistle, maybe because my best mate at school was a Jags fans. In an Ayrshire mining village you had one choice: adherence to the creed of the village junior side was a given, to not support them was heresy. However, you could support a senior team, so long as it was Rangers.
My best mate was a Jags fan, because his uncle played for them, so he was given a dispensation.
On Saturday I was at Annan for the Co-operative Insurance Cup tie between the locals and Thistle. The match was mince, but I did enjoy the first half chant from the travelling Thistle fans: "Scottish by a baw hair, you're only Scottish by a baw hair". Shakespeare it aint, but we needed a laugh and got it.
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