Barry Ferguson on scottish football then and now

[BOB MARLEYS DUG]

A very interesting article from Barry Ferguson with some home truths about young players coming through the system now. Sounds like Scotland and Ireland have very similar problems!!!

Barry made his debut for Rangers against Hearts on May 10 1997 and was tipped as one of the best young players ever to emerge from the youth team at Ibrox.
SO Gordon Strachan’s plan for the future of Scottish football is to turn the clock back 30 years? Well, let me be the first to say he’s got it absolutely spot on.

Thirty years ago I was seven. And every day was the same.

Run home from primary school, dump my bag, get my joggies and T-shirt on, grab my goalie gloves, boots and ball and straight back out.

An hour and a half later I’d hear my dad whistle and I knew it was time for dinner. Run back home, square sausage and chips. Bang.

Scran it down, run straight back out the door, start playing again, get a stitch, feel sick, lie on the grass for five minutes then get back on the park. A couple of hours later I’d hear another whistle and knew it was bath time. That was it. That was my whole life. And I couldn’t have been happier.

Funnily enough, I bumped into an old neighbour a few weeks ago and the first thing he said was: “I remember you kicking that ball of yours around at all sorts of times under the streetlights.”

I wasn’t allowed to play with it inside because my dad used to threaten to toe me up the a*** if I smashed anything, so I’d take a pair of his old socks, roll them up into a ball and cover them in masking tape. Then I’d try to do overhead kicks with it on the couch.

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Barry Ferguson on Ian Durrant shoulders in September 1986
That was how I grew up and how I fell in love with playing football. And Strachan is right – the sooner we get back to something similar, the quicker we might start developing some proper football players again.

These days I watch a lot of the Under-20 games and, like Strachan, I’m not a fan. I can’t help but look at these kids and think they’ve been over-coached.

I’m not having a go at the coaches because they are trying their best. But the problem goes deeper. It’s more to do with modern life and the way our youngsters are growing up.

From a very early age all they want to do is mess about on iPads, laptops, Xboxes or Playstations. They have forgotten what it’s like to make their own entertainment.

It breaks my heart every time I drive past a piece of grass and don’t see a kid with a ball on it. It makes me think back to my own childhood and how different things were back then. I grew up in a scheme in Bellshill. There was another scheme half-a-mile away and we would organise games against each other. But that was just a part of it.

I’d be out there with my mates building goalposts out of scrap wood. We would borrow a lawnmower from someone’s dad and cut the grass ourselves. Then we’d nick a bag of sawdust from somewhere and put down lines. It was just a field we were playing in but, for us, it felt like we were running out at Hampden.

Now I look at these 10-11-12-year-olds who are already signed up with clubs playing pro youth football and I wonder what they would have made of us.

It’s like they’re living in a completely different world. They’ve got all the latest kit, washed and ironed for them, the new boots, the slicked-back hair and everything is laid on for them at the best facilities. But when I look at their wee faces I don’t see the same enjoyment I felt at that age. Half of them look as if they are bored to death and going through the motions. As if they’d rather be at home playing FIFA 2016.

I can’t blame them either because I watch the way these training sessions are being put on and I shake my head in disbelief. When I was a boy I used to enjoy coaching sessions and I really loved the drills we got.

But they were much more simple back then. These days it’s as if the coach is trying to be the star, setting up drills that are so OTT and so complicated that half the time the kids don’t know what’s going on.

Dutchman Dick Advocaat was the manager who gave him a real chance in the team, building his midfield around him.
For me, these passing drills should be set up in order for every boy to get a touch of the ball every three or four seconds. But I’m now watching passing drills where the youngsters are standing freezing cold in long lines getting one touch every minute. That drives me crazy.

By the time the kid gets his turn he’s either standing there, shivering with his sleeves over his hand, talking to one of his mates about how bored he is or daydreaming about what’s for dinner that night. You can see them losing interest in front of your face.

With my boys, I make it so simple they are always getting a touch of the ball, always on the move. That way they are always concentrating. Their minds are always on the drill. That’s the way to make them enjoy it.

What you want to do is make them feel the way we used to as boys – make them desperate to come back again tomorrow. I don’t see that in many of today’s youngsters.

Gordon is right. Somewhere along the line we have taken the fun out of football and if he can find a way to bring that back then he’ll be doing our entire game a massive favour.

Give these kids a ball. Give them simple instructions and let them play. Let them try to copy Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi and don’t criticise them when they do a
stepover or try an overhead kick.

Yes, from time to time you might tell them not to try these things inside their own penalty box – there’s a time and place – but the whole point is we need to let these kids express themselves and enjoy playing the game.

I’m sick of watching 10-year-olds playing in a rigid 4-4-2 or a 4-2-3-1, terrified to get caught out of position in case they are told off by the coach.

No wonder they get fed up with football. By the time they reach Under-20s they have been completely conditioned into playing the game a certain way. They are not individual football players, they are clones.

And that’s why, if I could speak to Gordon about his plans, I would encourage him to scrap this system and bring back reserve football. Because that’s where I learned some of the greatest lessons of my life.

I was eight stone. A wet lettuce. And here I was, at 15, playing against real men,
experienced pros with hundreds of senior games under their belts. In my own dressing room were guys like Ian Ferguson, Ian Durrant and Ally McCoist.

I must have learned more in five or six reserve games than today’s youngsters learn in 10 years of pro youth. They are being developed in a bubble, not exposed to the real world of professional football. Just listening to the experienced guys talk in the dressing room and watching the way they handled themselves was an education.

I’d go home after being kicked up and down the park and realise how much work I had to do to get to where I wanted to be.

I’d understand why Archie Knox kept banging on at me to eat porridge for breakfast. I’d go in the next day and scoff three bowls of the stuff even though it almost made me sick. I knew I had to produce if I wanted to take the next step up.

Yes, we still produce talented boys but I’m not sure they are made to want it the way we did. I see them giving the ball away and not working hard to get it back and it kills me. I want to see young boys who would run through brick walls to make the grade.

Today’s youths have gone soft but I don’t blame them. I blame the system they are being brought up in. If Strachan can change all that then, yes, he really might manage to fix Scottish football.


Great read.

[PatHead]

To be honest I don't think it is only football. Our culture has changed completely in the last 30 odd years. A lot of youngsters want to be famous with no work involved in getting there. They look at the Kardashians, TOWIE, I'm a celebrity or whatever and how folk are famous for being famous without having to work for it. Lots are famous for being the boyfriend or girlfriend of someone.

Kids don't want to be the next Paul Hanlon or Lewis Stevenson and play for Hibs they want to be Ronaldo or Messi playing for Barca or Real Madrid but the only want to practice on a Playstation to get there.

You are right, the fun has gone out the game.

[Pretty Boy]

I really want to know what kids do nowadays.

I can relate to a lot of what Ferguson says in that article. When I was young I played and trained for my team and then spent every other minute I could playing football in the park, the street, the garden, pretty much anywhere. You never went without a game as there was always one going on. If you were in a big group you fought for your part of the park, if in a smaller one you got involved in games of about 22 aside that were on the go. No matter the weather there were always folk out playing.

I walked past the same park a couple of weekends ago on a nice day and there wasn't a soul to be seen, same most nights during the summer. Do kids just not play football anymore? Is it too much effort when it's far easier to pretend to be Messi on the Playstation? Why aren't there parents booting them out the door? When I was young if I tried to stay inside on a nice day I would get told I wasn't sitting about in the dark when it was nice out. We're only talking about 15- 20 year ago ffs.

[Smartie]

He made a few decent points, particularly about getting all of the young lads plenty of touches of the ball. More than anything we need as many kids as possible to love football, to enjoy it and to play as much of it as possible. It doesn't need to be in state of the art facilities, we don't need wonder coaches with super fancy coaching drills, we need kids playing. I am a big believer in the "10,000 hour rule" in that to become World Class at anything you have to put the hours in and practice, practice, practice!

You could easily play "ex-pro bemoaning the state of the current game" cliche bingo with it though. It's all in there, right down to the x-box and i-pad references and we've heard a lot of it before.

At 38 years old I am a bit older than Barry. Yet when I was growing up we had ZX Spectrums, Commodore 64's, Amstrads and Ataris, bmx's and VHS videos all becoming popular. Yet Scotland still seemed to be qualifying for tournament after tournament. For me it is the crappiest, laziest excuse going when the adults who buy these machines and give them to the kids somehow end up blaming them for all of our problems whether it is a lack of social skills or our crapness at football.

"SWITCH THAT BLOODY THING OFF AND GO AND GET SOME FRESH AIR!!!"

Do mums not use that sentence any more?

[worcesterhibby]

I don't pretend to know what would make Scotland a great football Nation again, but for once I empathise with Barry the Crab. I went fishing down a stretch of river near me in the summer..runs right through the middle of a little town, it was a glorious evening in August and their are playing fields all along the river bank...there were even proper pitches with goals, small pitches with small goals and cricket squares with drop in astro turf wickets...there are two big housing schemes on either side..in all that vast area (about the size of 20 football pitches) there were 4 lads on bikes..no one playing football and no one playing cricket..in fact there were no other under 20's at all..just people walking dogs and a few joggers. Very very sad.

[poolman]

I can relate to all that

Seven weeks Summer holidays and every day was footy in Bruntsfield links in the morning, home for an hour for a sanny, back up to the links till tea time, home for an hour for tea then back up to the links till dark o clock

Hated when I got dragged off to Ayr for two weeks during the hols

[pacorosssco]

We have tried to copy others but we need to find what suits our kids. I do think ball work is the key from young age though. Teach kids to be comfortable with ball then teach formations. I live in Holland and kids don’t play in street parks but most areas have a club with facilities where they are coached. No guaranteed formulas but seems in Scotland we don’t produce athletic footballers.Our kids/national side don’t have physique of most other nations.

[Famous Fiver]

Bob

You lost me at Barry Ferguson.

The man is a Sevco trumpet.

[NAE NOOKIE]

Its not a new problem though is it. When I was a kid we used to play in a park with trees at one end and because the trees were just the right distance apart we used them as goals, for as long as I could remember those trees had worn patches in front of them from kids playing morning noon & night. When I returned to the park years later ( about 20 years ago now ) the grass was green and lush and unspoiled, even though the town had grown by about 2 or 3 hundred families since I was a kid.

Even at high school there would be about 20 kids playing a game with a tennis ball every morning and at lunch time.

Before you teach kids how to play 442 or whatever, would it not be better to teach them how to trap a ball and to pass properly. If you overhear a kid these days telling his pal about the great goal he scored 10/1 it was on the playstation and not down the local park.

[Benny Brazil]

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Bob

You lost me at Barry Ferguson.

The man is a Sevco trumpet.

He is - but if you read the article he talks a lot of sense.

Similar story here - football was all I was interested in, playing before school, during break and lunch, home after school changed and out to play football, in for tea then out to play football again. Even if no-one else was about I would be kicking the ball about myself or off a wall using my "wrong foot".
My 7 year old is the same - he loves playing the game (not so good at watching it) but he goes out after school to play football and none of his mates want to come out - their playing Fifa on their consoles. So to try and keep him playing I sometimes go out and kick a ball about with him for an hour or so.

I also agree with Barry about the coaching. My son just started with a local club. Training is an experience - they are trying to teach kids step overs and tricks then how to beat a mannequin with a side step and then shoot at an empty goal - my thoughts are they should be teaching them the basics of how to control a ball, how to run with the ball or how to pass a ball - some of the kids looked lost as they can barely control the ball - and also bored as they stand waiting their turn for a few minutes.

Something needs to change.

[pacorosssco]

Scotlands real decline in producing players was around mid 80's , same time as Rangers became dominant force. Football also had huge influx money with Sky a few years laters. Kids all over play on game stations even in places with much less. Easy to blame on kids not playing in park but the game changed. Look at England still producing good players but not as much as they did. Some of the best players in world now are happy to sit on bench for huge sums of money.

[WoreTheGreen]

Had to a SFA badge as helped running a kids team the so called sfa coach had a hangover you got a 'certificate' as a coachmost lwft after a hour of the four hour course impossible to fail because fee paid gaurented pass totally joke

[hibsbollah]

There's no one reason for it but a central problem must be that parents just don't feel safe letting their kids out unsupervised anymore. From quite a young age I was cutting about central edinburgh with my mates all day during the summer holidays. I wouldn't let my kids do that anymore, and neither do their friends. You shuttle them about by car or they do stuff in the house.

[hibee_girl]

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There's no one reason for it but a central problem must be that parents just don't feel safe letting their kids out unsupervised anymore. From quite a young age I was cutting about central edinburgh with my mates all day during the summer holidays. I wouldn't let my kids do that anymore, and neither do their friends. You shuttle them about by car or they do stuff in the house.

Exactly, there's not a chance in hell my 10 year old would be out all day, I struggle enough when he walks home from school himself!

[Onceinawhile]

Two problems with what he says.

1. When there is a grassy patch nearby it will be used by kids all day and all night. I've seen it in my street all summer.

2. Perhaps we should look at how few grass patches there is now, because they've been sold off by the council.

Many of those that do remain have a 'no ball games' sign because the people living nearby complain about young kids making noise.

Of course these people are the same twits who were out playing all day everyday and now moan about how little kids play outside.

[Deansy]

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To be honest I don't think it is only football. Our culture has changed completely in the last 30 odd years. A lot of youngsters want to be famous with no work involved in getting there. They look at the Kardashians, TOWIE, I'm a celebrity or whatever and how folk are famous for being famous without having to work for it. Lots are famous for being the boyfriend or girlfriend of someone.

Kids don't want to be the next Paul Hanlon or Lewis Stevenson and play for Hibs they want to be Ronaldo or Messi playing for Barca or Real Madrid but the only want to practice on a Playstation to get there.

You are right, the fun has gone out the game.

Totally and utterly agree with you 100% - specially the 'Famous for being famous' bit !!. I despise anything 'celebrity' and blame 'TFM' - Television For Morons !!

[Lago]

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To be honest I don't think it is only football. Our culture has changed completely in the last 30 odd years. A lot of youngsters want to be famous with no work involved in getting there. They look at the Kardashians, TOWIE, I'm a celebrity or whatever and how folk are famous for being famous without having to work for it. Lots are famous for being the boyfriend or girlfriend of someone.

Kids don't want to be the next Paul Hanlon or Lewis Stevenson and play for Hibs they want to be Ronaldo or Messi playing for Barca or Real Madrid but the only want to practice on a Playstation to get there.

You are right, the fun has gone out the game.

Correct, I have a friend who played rugby up Scotland A level and when he finished he started coaching with Howe of Fife. When I last spoke to him he told me he had packed in coaching, why, because he was sick of the lack of discipline and commitment from the youngsters he was coaching. Didn't turn up, were late for training, didn't take on board advice abiut life style etc etc etc.

[Albanian Hibs]

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Two problems with what he says.

1. When there is a grassy patch nearby it will be used by kids all day and all night. I've seen it in my street all summer.

2. Perhaps we should look at how few grass patches there is now, because they've been sold off by the council.

Many of those that do remain have a 'no ball games' sign because the people living nearby complain about young kids making noise.

Of course these people are the same twits who were out playing all day everyday and now moan about how little kids play outside.

Or all the grassy areas are now covered in dog *****. Cannae remember that problem 25 years ago.

[superfurryhibby]

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Or all the grassy areas are now covered in dog *****. Cannae remember that problem 25 years ago.

Forty odd years ago in Leith, the local park ( Keddie Park) was covered in ****. We called it Dug's Paradise. The only grass was in the church in Madiera St. The local police were always chasing you for playing football in there.

[mca]

Wee Barry.. Was One of the Dirtiest Players I have Ever Seen In Scottish Fitba.. But I Will Agree with some of what he Says..

[Billy Whizz]

As a few of the posters have said, life has changed considerably. Kids have so many choices now, in the past maybe it was only football. Was reading an article the other day about the success of Iceland at football. Seemingly they have 14 indoor full size parks, for a population of 320,000. How many full size indoor parks do we have in Scotland?
Imagine kids having to train outside last night v playing in a warm indoor arena. What would you do, train outdoor or play FIFA?

[chinaman]

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Or all the grassy areas are now covered in dog *****. Cannae remember that problem 25 years ago.

That's amazing if dogs only now **** on parks and football pitches.must be that "devil dogs"..AGAIN.
And there doing it on purpose too

[Hibby Bairn]

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As a few of the posters have said, life has changed considerably. Kids have so many choices now, in the past maybe it was only football. Was reading an article the other day about the success of Iceland at football. Seemingly they have 14 indoor full size parks, for a population of 320,000. How many full size indoor parks do we have in Scotland?
Imagine kids having to train outside last night v playing in a warm indoor arena. What would you do, train outdoor or play FIFA?

Play hide and seek. Do a chicken run. Play sardines. Kerbie.

[silverhibee]

I would encourage him to scrap this system and bring back reserve football. Because that’s where I learned some of the greatest lessons of my life.


This for me has been the decline in Scottish football, when they scrapped the reserve league.

[Hibby Bairn]

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I would encourage him to scrap this system and bring back reserve football. Because that’s where I learned some of the greatest lessons of my life.


This for me has been the decline in Scottish football, when they scrapped the reserve league.

Why did they scrap it?

[PatHead]

As has been mentioned above it is not only football that is suffering. All sports are struggling.

[Billy Whizz]

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I would encourage him to scrap this system and bring back reserve football. Because that’s where I learned some of the greatest lessons of my life.


This for me has been the decline in Scottish football, when they scrapped the reserve league.

You played as well😄

[Andy74]

He's spot on. I don't see any kids on the parks around me playing. When I was growing up we played all day when we could in much poorer facilities.

There were kids behind me on Tuesday talking about getting boots that cost £260. Must have been about 12. They are more bothered about FIFA and expensive gear than the game itself.

[Bishop Hibee]

Stranger-danger, statistically no greater than when I was a bairn, a huge rise in traffic and computers and games consoles are the 3 main reasons we don't see big groups of kids playing football in the street or in parks.

Our facilities are dreadful and expensive which creates a perfect storm.

On the plus side there are still lots of boys and girls who are fitba daft so the situation is salvageable.

[jacomo]

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Bob

You lost me at Barry Ferguson.

The man is a Sevco trumpet.

He's not. He played for the club that died.