When he was Scotland manager, Gordon Strachan passionately bemoaned the lack of creative difference maker that could turn his side from international also-rans into tournament last 16 contenders.
He pointed to Wales having Gareth Bale, Poland Robert Lewandowski and how the sprinkling of their star-dust made a decisive difference.
He said in 2016: “We have to produce players and it’s producing two top players from the system every year. Not just 20 ordinary ones. We don’t have to make 20 better in the Under-16s at Motherwell. We need to make one of them brilliant.”
Strachan had a point.
Of the footballers to come through our academies, when did the last elite technical maverick emerge? A creative difference-maker who can conjure moments that make you gasp?
It's not a long list.
Given so few emerge with a special creative talent, you might wonder if our game’s power brokers might begin to assess where our national problem lies.
One issue of concern might be the level of unchecked physicality (some would go as far to say brutality) that is allowed to pass by referees in the Scottish game.
Ianis Hagi, a player with technical gifts far in advance of most Scotsmen not named Billy Gilmour, brought this issue to mind at the weekend after a first-half performance crackling with energy and creative menace.
Liverpool loanee Adam Lewis’ brutal challenge but paid to that.
After 31 minutes, the Romanian’s afternoon was over.
Before we start, there is no intention to denigrate a young player who was clearly desperate to make an impact against his former youth team manager Steven Gerrard.
The kid made a bad challenge; these things happen in games and everyone who’s kicked a ball in anger will have made the same mistake.
It is up to referees like John Beaton, not players, to enforce the laws of the game and ensure unchecked physicality is not allowed to overpower skill.
The 21-year-old was booked for his tackle and although Neil McCann labelled it “nasty” on Sportscene there has been little discussion of the moment, largely due to the comprehensive nature of the Ibrox side's victory.
The lack of impact on the final score, however, doesn't mean it's something that should escape scrutiny.
Watching the moment back, it’s hard to escape the feeling Lewis could and should have been sent from the field.
The IFAB laws of the game state that “serious foul play” is a sending-off offence.
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They state: “A tackle or challenge that endangers the safety of an opponent or uses excessive force or brutality must be sanctioned as serious foul play.
“Any player who lunges at an opponent in challenging for the ball from the front, from the side or from behind using one or both legs, with excessive force or endangers the safety of an opponent is guilty of serious foul play.”
Lewis’ tackle was a reckless lunge. He is not in full control. He is a distance away from the ball. He clearly endangers his opponent given Hagi ended up substituted after half an hour. Is there any more to be said?
It's easy to get bogged down in the heat of the moment and how it affects your team but the protection of creative players is an issue that goes beyond club rivalries.
In their defeat against Hearts on Saturday, Celtic’s Callum McGregor was the victim of a dangerous tackle by Andy Halliday that could have also been a red card.
It was a lunging tackle from behind that caught a full-flight McGregor on the ankle, sending him spinning through the air.
Inexplicably, Bobby Madden didn’t even get his cards out to book the midfielder.
Elsewhere at the weekend, Aberdeen boss Stephen Glass bemoaned a tackle by Charlie Mulgrew that left Funso Ojo struggling ahead of their European match in midweek. The defender also wasn't booked.
Now, I accept referees have an almost impossible job in Scottish football. Their motives are the subject of constant suspicion and they get slaughtered for mistakes, while good games and decisions pass without comment. Only the handsome compensation in the top-flight keeps the role from being utterly thankless.
And yet, as the guardians of health and safety on the pitch, with a duty of care to protect the players, they have an important function in the way the game is played.
And our football is refereed too leniently. Too many challenges are written off as “early reducers”. There are too many moments where brawn is allowed to triumph over brains.
You only have to watch a European game to see how differently the rules are interpreted in other countries. Watch La Liga or Serie A and ask if the officiating feels altogether fussier and more rigorous. Ask yourself if this protection afforded to top talent might be part of the reason other nations keep producing players with flair and imagination.
It’s time for the SFA’s refereeing department to realise just how important they truly are in forging our football future and hold players to account with the same level of tolerance towards aggression as the rest of this continent’s leagues.
If that happens, perhaps Scotland might finally start producing Hagi’s of our own more regularly.
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