THE years he spent playing in Scotland and England and then coaching and managing down south before he was appointed SFA performance director helped Malky Mackay to build up extensive and impressive contacts in the game.
He has been able to enlist a fair few well-kent faces in his ongoing efforts to improve standards and results at every level and in every area of the Scottish game; Eric Black, Kenny Dalglish, Sean Dyche and Henrik Larsson, for example, have all answered his call of late and provided insight into their particular areas of expertise.
The two day masterclasses in the art of both attacking and defending – midfield play will follow in the near future – that Mackay has put on for around 70 aspiring youth coaches at the national performance centre at Oriam proved to be enlightening and inspiring as a result.
“Eric was fabulous, Kenny was terrific and Henrik was interesting,” he said. “Somebody asked Henrik what he felt like when he moved to Barcelona and walked in the front door at their training ground on the first day. He told him: ‘I felt relief - I was relieved I didn’t have to be the main man every day’.
“He had lived with the pressure of having to be the guy who scored the goals, be the hero if you like, for seven years at Celtic. It was a great insight into the man and his thought processes. You could have heard a pin drop.”
Still, Mackay is, as much as he enjoyed listening to the experiences of his fabled former team-mate, far more concerned with helping our most promising football talents to make big names for themselves at major clubs across Europe in the future.
The strides forward he is confident are being made at every age-group level and the success of a few members of the more youthful members of the Scotland Under-21 side at the prestigious Toulon Tournament during the summer strongly suggest to him that we may not have long to wait.
“We took Billy Gilmour of Chelsea to Toulon along with Chris Hamilton of Hearts, Mikey Johnston of Celtic, Elliott Watt of Wolves and Fraser Hornby of Everton,” he said. “We took two 16-year-olds and three 19-year-olds. We said: ‘OK, let’s see if they can handle it’.
“Billy ended up being the breakthrough player of the tournament out of 220 kids. Mikey scored a fabulous goal against England in the semi-final and was named the third best player in the tournament.
“When you see the top 100 players who have played in Toulon, too, it is incredible. They are the best players in the world, Lionel Messi, Zinedine Zidane, Thierry Henry and the like. So for us to come out with the breakthrough player and third best player was unbelievable.
“It is a huge benefit that tournament. It is a forerunner to an under-21 campaign and to determining if a player can kick on to men’s football. We are running to find players who can go from youth teams into first teams.
“I look at Billy and see the huge potential he has and the leader he can become. Rangers did a great job with him. But he has gone to Chelsea and kicked on again. He has been promoted to their under-23 side at 17 years old He is starting to develop man’s legs and get about the pitch better.
“Glenn Middleton and Ross McCrorie are playing at Rangers and Mikey Johnston and Lewis Morgan have been involved with Celtic as well. It is all about having patience with these players because there is massive potential there in terms of pace and ability and guile.
“There is a clarity of message with the various youth teams in the association about how we are going to be, how we are going to play and a bravery among the coaches to embrace it. When I see the results of the last 18 months I can see small wins, small steps that we have taken.”
Mackay feels becoming more in tune with teenage hopefuls and their ways has helped in their development. The old guard frequently blame the decline of both the national team and club game in this country on the “X-Box generation” and suspect they are more concerned with their performance on FIFA ’19 than playing in the World Cup one day.
The performance director and his associates, though, have turned that love of new technology to their advantage. “How do young players learn?” he said. “Well, WhatsApp groups are the best way for young players to connect mostly nowadays. They are at ease with iPad learning.
“We have now got Coach Paint - it is a bit like what you would expect Jamie Carragher to be using on Sky on a Monday night. Scot Gemmill has the TV in the dressing room at half time with the Under-21s.
“Again, how do young players learn? They are comfortable with this sort of thing. That is one of the upsides to the way things are going player wise in the modern generation.
“We will keep fast tracking them if we feel they are ready to step up a level while bearing in mind that we have to be careful with physicality. I am, in collaboration with the clubs, going to keep pushing them when we think that they are ready to go up.”
Alex McLeish has certainly not been shy about promoting the best emerging talents to the senior Scotland side since being appointed manager for a second time back in February – the likes of Jack Hendry, Oli McBurnie, Scott McKenna, Lewis Morgan and John Souttar have all got game time on his watch.
The wisdom of doing that is being questioned by disgruntled supporters in the wake of the poor showing and disappointing defeat against Israel in a Nations League match in Haifa on Thursday evening.
Mackay, who himself went with an inexperienced team when he took charge for the friendly against the Netherlands at Pittodrie last year, is hopeful that supporters remain patient during this transitional period and that McLeish perseveres with his youth policy. He is sure that, in time, they are good enough to come of age at international level.
“Alex has been very open,” he said. “Any time he is in, and he is in a lot, we have a cup of tea and talk. He will ask me about young players. We have got a lot coming through who are technically better and more athletic. If we can keep this group together we will start to beat mid-ranking European countries on a regular basis. That is the obstacle we have got to get over. That is the important thing here. The top teams are the top teams and that will always be the case. We saw that against Belgium.
“But then you saw us beating Hungary and Albania. Let’s get back to judging ourselves against mid-ranking European teams. If we have younger players who are technically better than they were and athletic then we have a chance.
“We have got to try and get to the Euros. That brings money back into the country. As well as the kudos and enjoyment of going to the finals, there is prize money that comes in and that gets distributed to clubs. It filters back down.
“Money comes in here and goes out to the clubs and the coaches and the players and helps to improve standards. It takes a while. But it is a self-perpetuating cycle. It is about all of us.”
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