Aye no bad

AYE, no bad passes for extravagant praise in some parts of Scotland, you know what a hard lot we are to please. This Caledonian trait can be taken to extremes, I well-remember the late John McKenzie, the original "Voice of Football" greeting a Denis Law hat trick against Norway with calls for the Lawman to be dropped. As if Denis only scoring three times was the reason we allowed the Norwegians to score four at the other end.

But, having had a closer look at the drip feeds regarding the proposed changes to the senior leagues: my view is now: aye, no bad.

I'm not entirely sure about SPL 1 and SPL 2 for instance, even though I feel reducing the number of clubs playing in national leagues from 42 to 26 or 28 does make sense.

We have too-many "senior" clubs as it is and any reduction will be welcome. A lot of the diddy teams in the lower leagues have, for years, been interested in just one thing - survival as senior clubs and if they are forced to drop into regional leagues, after they get over the initial shock, some might actually prosper.

No mention of a pyramid though, something which surely has to happen sooner rather than later - maybe Henry McLeish has that up his sleeve.

But, to get back to SPL1 and SPL 2, I'd rather see an American-style conference system for the first part of the season, with the top four in each conference forming the top eight for the second half of the season. If Rangers were in one conference, Celtic in the other, ditto Aberdeen and Dundee United, Hearts and Hibs, and so on, it would spread the money around more, the first half of the season would have an extra edge, we wouldn't be diluting the appeal of meaningful local derbies, since for these to happen, both clubs would have to qualify for the top eight.

But, this minor criticism apart, I think it might work.

I'm also all for the big teams' reserve sides playing in the regional leagues, as Under-23 sides. This is a positive step, we're not very good at player development in Scotland and I think this will help.