did you know the france failed to qualify for the Italia '90 world cup

[Red_Zeppelin]

....did you also know that france also failed to qualify for the '94 world cup in the yoooo, esssss. aaa

....you may not know this but a little known individual called Gerard Houllier stood down as manager o the french national team after failing to qualify for the '94 world cup.....this wee man however did stay on as the national teams Technical Director

.......perhaps you are aware o this, but maybe yer nae.....but wee Gerard came up wi a "plan" nae long after the '94 world cup carry oan. This plan was implemented across the french footballing scene. It was a simple plan really "introduce a rule which banned clubs from having more than 20 players over the age of 20 in their squads. So if they had 30 players 10 of them had to be under 20"

......there is a wee, wee team in the south o france call M-O-N-A-C-O.....aye, I've never heard o them either. They had a manger called Jean Tigana once up a time, because o wee Gerards "plan", M-O-N-A-C-O were unable to sign players due to injuries during one champions league campaign. Instead they promoted two no mark players fae the youth team, up tae the BIG time....these were two no marks called Thierry Henry & Davey Trezeuget (sp?)

........this may came as a shock, but 18months later the two no marks....Terry & Davey.....were two o the main faces in the French team that won the 1998 World Cup

..............once upon time, not so long ago.....it was proposed at a meeting of the scottish footballing suits/movers/shakers/radges that this great nation implement a plan identical tae wee Gerards wee plan.

.....................two clubs scuppered this idea

.............................you ken the rest, ken?.......that is all

[Sevvy too 2]

Just watching wee Cragie telling us his story on the beeb right now, does he really believe that was the answer to our current malaise? Does he realise the French have a population of 66 million to choose from? Or is he just trying to make out that he was the only one to try something new?

[Red_Zeppelin]

would we have been worse aff if we'd given it a try?

[JackSnakes]

That at the Linfield game?

[Sevvy too 2]

would we have been worse aff if we'd given it a try?

I dunno mate, mibbes no, all m saying is they had a vast pool of young talent to choose from compared to us.

[Taintedice]

Scotland pumped France in Italia 90 qualifiers, put them out. No-one in France cared about the 98 World Cup, they were only interested in rugby. Think they started paying attention around the semi-final stage.

[54FairAndSquare]

No point in promoting under 20 players to first teams if they're no good.

And they'll only be good if they're well coached.

Players don't develop by some sort of osmosis, they have to be nurtured and developed.

That is exactly what has been Scotland's downfall for decades. Good young players at youth level, fall off the wagon when they hit a certain age.

We need good coaches as much as good footballers.

[Cambusman]

No point in promoting under 20 players to first teams if they're no good.

And they'll only be good if they're well coached.

Players don't develop by some sort of osmosis, they have to be nurtured and developed.

That is exactly what has been Scotland's downfall for decades. Good young players at youth level, fall off the wagon when they hit a certain age.

We need good coaches as much as good footballers.

We need the OF to GTF

[JackSnakes]

We need the OF to GTF

"We"...

[Red_Zeppelin]

he's got a point though!