analysis Dttchman motivated by sheer scale of challenge ahead, writes Richard Wilson WOTTE'S BLUEPRINT

His remit is to change the way young players are developed, and revise a few deeply entrenched attitudes in Scottish football, but there is still scope to let some extravagant ambition loose.

Wotte is a 50-year-old Dutchman whose playing career was modest and ended at 26 due to injury, and whose coaching career has involved 11 clubs in four different countries.

Beyond a short spell as manager of Southampton in 2009, Wotte has little profile in the United Kingdom, but then he can claim a pedigree that is impressive enough to demand respect.

During spells as a coach at FC Utrecht, technical director of Feyenoord and as manager of the Netherlands under-21 side, he was involved in the development of nine members of the Dutch side that played in the 2010 World Cup final -- Dirk Kuyt, Maarten Stekelenburg, Nigel de Jong, John Heitinga, Rafael van der Vaart, Arjen Robben, Wesley Sneijder, Robin van Persie and Joris Mathijsen.

The relevant point to Scotland is that the Netherlands failed to reach the 2002 World Cup and even if the Dutch have a more structured approach to youth development, and a long-held reputation for developing world-class footballers, the change in circumstances in eight years is something Wotte is keen to emphasise.

He starts work on July 18 and spent yesterday afternoon looking at houses, so that he and his wife can live permanently in Scotland. A blunt, assured figure, who talks with the same clipped tone as Dick Advocaat during his time at Rangers, Wotte seems forthright. Both Craig Levein, the Scotland manager, and Stewart Regan, the SFA chief executive, describe the performance director position as critical to Scotland’s hopes of qualifying for international tournaments and producing top-class footballers, and Wotte is motivated by the sheer scale of the challenge that faces him. As if to emphasise the inadequacy of the current set-up, Levein spoke of the SFA having no idea who the best players are at all the age groups beneath under-15.

“I could sit here all day and tell you what we’re not doing correctly,” Levein said. “It’s a complete and utter nonsense that we have to trial the 15-year-olds to find the best kids when they’ve been at clubs since they were 11.”

Wotte’s challenge is to implement the SFA’s performance strategy, but also to identify and develop the country’s elite young players, including persuading club youth coaches to support his philosophies.

“It’s normal, when a foreigner is coming in, to face scepticism,” the Dutchman said. “But I’m not concerned by that. You hope that there are intelligent coaches in the youth departments in Scotland -- that they will not look at today but tomorrow. Coaching those coaches will be very important. But they have to be open-minded to change.

“If a club is judging a youth coach by results, then we have the first problem. It’s all about a philosophy. It should matter that you produce players of a higher quality for the first-team. But it’s very difficult sometimes to tell a coach not to put this tall, clumsy defender into the team, when you should play a smaller boy with more intelligence, more cleverness and more agility. The top four in the world are small, clever, have a very good technique and are very agile -- Messi, Iniesta, Xavi and Sneijeder.”

Levein and Regan have been talking to youth coaches about the performance strategy, and Wotte will now meet the academy directors to explain his vision. But it is the players not yet old enough for the youth system that will be most influenced by the move away from valuing physical attributes ahead of technique and awareness.

Wotte believes that by “2014 we can see high-profile results”, but that may mean that younger players are benefiting from the elite development he has established, rather than the national team qualifying for the World Cup finals.

It essentially comes down to a question of faith; Wotte has been an academy director in Holland and at Southampton, and has a background in developing young players into world-class footballers. His ideas marry with the SFA’s performance strategy, and he can implement others now that he has been appointed. But it is up to existing coaches, and parents, to believe in his ideas, to embrace them.

“Talent identification should be a shared responsibility,” he said. “The 12-year-olds of Holland are picked by the scouts of the national association but also by the big clubs. I have to sit down with all the heads of the academies in Scotland and ask them to co-operate with us. They’re intelligent people so they will make the right decisions and the right choices for the boys. They are not going to lose players. We will add something to their academy education.”

Wotte is aware of the lack of all-weather facilities, the challenges of playing through a typical Scottish winter, and the reliance on “route one” football. But he is an optimist: “It won’t be easy to change,” he said, “but you have to try.”