Does Scottish football’s decline begin with Andy Roxburgh?

What a miserable time it is for Scottish football.

The national team’s defeats at the hands of Wales and Serbia were incredibly depressing.

The worst aspect is the complete lack of any hope that things will get better any time soon.

I wonder if the decline in Scottish football goes all the way back to my first Scotland manager, Andy Roxburgh.

He became the first Director of Coaching and was immersed in the way the SFA went about developing managers and coaches.

I have to question if that all went too far.

I’d love to sit with Andy over a beer and hear if things went the way he intended.

I have to admit I wasn’t overly impressed with him as Scotland boss.

A Mars Bar and a chorus of Flower of Scotland seemed to be his main trick before matches.

And now we have a generation of people with a string of coaching badges as long as your arm.

I hear of people wanting to run boys’ teams and being forced to do umpteen qualifications before they can get involved.

It really is a load of nonsense.

Look at Sir Alex Ferguson. His main qualification for being a successful manager was his experience of a life in football.

We’re losing sight of the basics that make great footballers.

Give kids pitches to play on, get them playing as often as possible and cut out the red tape.

This isn’t just a Scottish problem.

England drew with Montenegro, and Wales lost to Croatia in midweek.

Even worse was Northern Ireland losing at home to Israel.

The Irish have Premier League players like Jonny Evans, Steve Davis and Chris Brunt in their ranks.

But I couldn’t name you one of the Israeli players.

We’re getting to a time where we’re witnessing the worst set of home-nation teams in living memory.

And remember there’s not an English club in the last eight of the Champions League for the first time in 17 years.

The Premier League may still be the most entertaining in the world, but it clearly isn’t producing quality players.

Gareth Bale is probably the only home-grown world-class player we have at the moment.

There’s something badly wrong going on and no sign of anyone coming up with a solution.