Sad day when England's top flight is Scot-free

There isn't really any rhyme or reason to it, but you can't deny the fact that because Sir Alex has gone he might not have as much of an influence. He obviously helped David Moyes get the job at Manchester United, but he was that much of a Godfather down there that I think he helped position a few other managers in their jobs. The Scottish manager had a tradition about him, a background, that English clubs wanted. Chairmen really loved that kind of approach.

Clubs have maybe lost a wee bit of trust in Scottish managers. But I still stand by them. I think it is just a phase, and I am sure they will be back. All it will take is somebody to do well then English chairmen will start believing in our managers again.

I don't really think the standard of Scottish domestic football affects the standing of our managers too much, because already most of the Scottish managers who succeeded down there had proved themselves at ENGLISH clubs. Davie Moyes had done a great job at Everton before he went to Manchester United, and Lambert had done superbly at Norwich before he went to Aston Villa. Guys like Malky Mackay, Owen Coyle and Alan Irvine had all worked their way up the English system. What it might need now for a new wave is for guys like Alex Neil, who has hit the ground running at Norwich, to go down there and make themselves a success.

I think Paul Lambert has been a victim of that club's expectation, a bit like Sheffield Wednesday back in the day. The demand of the fans is that Villa should be up there challenging, but I don't think is realistic any more. But results have gone badly, and it doesn't help when your team doesn't score goals. If you play marauding full backs like Alan Hutton, or players like Christian Benteke, you can't say that you aren't playing an attacking brand of football. But fans see it in black and white. When results aren't going your way anything can get used against you. Maybe it isn't the best time to be a Scottish manager down in England.

But I really think you will find that the top Scottish managers are as modern and forward thinking as any coaches in the world. You look at Alex Neil and you could throw in Neil Lennon, who was reared up here, and is already getting associated with that Aston Villa job. It always surprised me that no English Premiership club took a chance on him, despite managing to beat Barcelona and qualify for the last 16 of the Champions League. Perhaps they felt Celtic were almost guaranteed to win domestically so he didn't get any credit for that.

I HATE to say it, but the bumper new £5.136bn domestic rights deal agreed between Sky and BT Sport for Barclays Premier League rights renders the Scottish domestic game an afterthought. When I was at Rangers, we might not have won if we were paired against an English side in European competition, but we would have been competitive and fancied our chances. I don't think any Scottish side will ever be able to say that again.

But we have to stop measuring ourselves against England. Wherever you go in the world - Antigua, America, the Arab States - people are tuning into watch the Barclays Premier League. You can't say the same for Scotland.

People have called for politicians and regulators to intervene but we've just got to take it on the chin and try to look after our own product. I think we need to look at every single thing to try to increase our portion of TV money going forward. And a big part of that, of course, is getting our bigger clubs - Hearts, Hibs and Rangers - back in the top flight, although It could take as long as five years for Rangers to be competitive with Celtic again.

I think most people who would look at our game from outside would say it is in a bad way, that there is not a great standard. You saw it in the Old Firm game which was a poor match played on a bad pitch. I don't agree with the doom merchants who say we could end up like the League of Ireland, I think we will always be way better than that, but I think we need to try to make our game better.

You get poor matches in every league, say Aston Villa versus Stoke, but personally I think the ratio of these matches in Scotland is higher than it is in the Barclays Premier League. Having said that, I enjoy watching Aberdeen just now, Dundee United are good to watch, and Celtic play some great football. Our biggest clubs are already switching their focus onto buying the best players in the Scottish market, like Celtic buying Armstrong and Mackay-Steven and Aberdeen with Kenny McLean.

It could be used as a fresh attempt for Celtic and Rangers to try to get down south, but the truth is the English games doesn't want or need them. In the unlikely event they did have a chance to go down, they would have to prove their worth and show how much they want it, by starting in League Two or the Championship.