I was intrigued to read earlier this week in Herald Sport the open letter penned by Celtic saviour Fergus McCann and his thoughts on the hot topic that is Hampden Park.

To be fair to Fergus, he’s a man who generally knows what he’s talking about. Not only did he mastermind the building of Celtic Park, he was part of the Scottish football landscape at a time when so much money was being ploughed into rejuvenating the national stadium only a few miles away.

It’s clear that from a business perspective, it probably didn’t make sense at the time to plough so much cash into Hampden when you had Ibrox and Celtic Park on your doorstep. That has been backed up by the fact the argument over the famous ground is still rumbling on 20 years.

Hampden Park: An open letter by former Celtic owner Fergus McCann

However, while Fergus is clearly more of a businessman than I am, he was never a professional footballer, and won’t ever appreciate the feeling of walking out at Hampden for your Scotland debut. Or lifting a trophy in the colours of the team you have supported all your life standing on the podium in that main stand.

Without passion and romance football has nothing, and Hampden is exactly where my love affair with the game started.

At the age of nine, the first ever football match I attended was at the old ground to see St Mirren beat Dundee United 1-0 to lift the Scottish Cup. I was one of over 51,000 people there that day and I can still vividly remember it. There’s not a lot I can recall from my childhood, but the vision of standing on a Hampden terracing watching that will always live with me.

Twenty three years on, it was my turn to lift a trophy for the club. The League Cup final of 2013 was the highlight of my career when you consider who I was playing for, and I’m sorry, doing it at Hampden is a massive part of that.

Would it have felt the same lifting a trophy at Celtic Park or Ibrox? No it wouldn’t.

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As a kid you dream about winning a cup you don’t imagine doing it at these two grounds. Not even Celtic and Rangers fans would.

For showcase occasions I loved it. A big part of the buzz of playing at a cup final or for your country was to get on that buzz, drive through the crowds before ducking under the stand and going straight into the changing room. From a player’s point of view, the facilities are second-to-none when it comes to warm ups, the dressing room.

The whole excitedment is founded on not just the game itself, but the novelty of playing at a stadium there to host such occasions. There’s nothing special about going to play a final at a ground you visit two to three times a season anyway.

Of course, Hampden isn’t perfect. I’ve been there as a fan, as a player and as a pundit and when it’s full there is nothing like it. Only in June I was there for Scotland v England and the place was rocking. A Celtic v Rangers game in a cup final? The atmosphere is immense.

It’s only when the place isn’t full that it lets itself down.

I’ve played for Scotland there when it’s been half full and it does feel soulless and flat. There’s no denying that when not filled to capacity it’s just not the same.

But that’s why now could be the time to take a different approach and find a middle ground.

Murrayfield is a terrific stadium but you say its name and just think ‘rugby’. It’s also even bigger than Hampden so lower attended games would be even worse.

But the recent friendly with the Netherlands at Pittodrie proved we have a host of stadiums around the country the right size for hosting challenge matches and even group games.

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Tynecastle is stunning now, as is Easter Road. Add a newly-developed Pittodrie into the mix and we could see competitive qualifiers played throughout the country. Fergus is right, other countries do it and so can we.

Having said that, for me finals and big games should always be played at Hampden. It’s not perfect, but neither are the alternatives. Neither is Scottish football for that matter.

But it’s woven into the very fabric of our national game, it’s part of our sporting history. Moving all our games away from it may come down to finances, but there are just certain things that money can’t buy.