GIVEN his own prowess with the ball at his feet, John Collins is an obvious expert to turn to when contemplating the current decline of Scottish football. But he further marks himself out as someone worth listening to due to his experiences elsewhere.
Former First Minister Henry McLeish, for one, would have felt his ears prick up had he heard Collins, who played at AS Monaco as well as Hibernian, Celtic, Everton and Fulham, wrestle with the subject of what has gone wrong with the game here. Unlike
those whose input is purely criticism, Collins yesterday sought to provide a remedy as he lamented the decline in skill highlighted perhaps most starkly by Rangers' 4-1 defeat by Unirea Urcizeni last month.
McLeish, who is fronting a review of the game scheduled to be submitted early next year, later applauded Collins' vision of the future, which involves football academies designed to refine not only the talents of young footballers, but also turn out educated young men.
"The ages of 14 to 16 are big for kids in terms of development – physically, technically and tactically," Collins pointed out.
It is a system which has been in place in France for some time, and is perhaps best demonstrated at the Fernand Sastre National Technical Centre in Clairefontaine. This academy, opened just over 20 years ago during a bleak time for French football, helped develop the likes of Nicholas Anelka, Louis Saha and Thierry Henry.
Scotland is in the midst of a similar downturn in fortunes, with McLeish's services recruited by the Scottish Football Association to head a committee reviewing the Scottish game. "The mood is sombre," acknowledged McLeish yesterday with reference to the current circumstances. "Understandably the papers have been filled with the problems facing us at the present time. But we have a great history and a great tradition. There remains a great interest in the game. But I remain committed to the idea that there is a great deal more we could be doing."
Collins is of the same mind, and he has had the opportunity to tackle the subject since resigning as Hibs manager almost two years ago. A short spell in charge of the Belgian club Royal Charleroi SC saw him soak up the practices of another football culture, while also imposing his own ideas. But it is Scotland's fortunes which the 58-times capped midfielder cares most deeply about, and he is keen to offer his input as debate about the national game's future reaches fever pitch amid revelations of financial meltdown at one of the country's two biggest clubs.
The national team has not also qualified for a major finals since Collins himself contributed to the cause at France 98. It was at this World Cup that the host nation reaped the benefit of the work achieved at Clairefontaine, defeating Brazil 3-0 in the final.
"I don't think the way forward is spending £10million on a player," said Collins. "You are hoping teams will find another Henrik Larsson for £650,000, but it is getting harder and harder."
Even this sum is beyond the likes of Rangers at present, and Collins is alert to how strange this sounds having felt the financial force of the Ibrox club when a player at Celtic.
"Who would have thought that when I was playing in the mid-90s?" he asked. "It has happened and Rangers are in a difficult situation. Celtic wouldn't want to be in that situation a few years down the line. Fans want to see top-class players, but they have to be realistic as well."
While Hibs have been one of the few clubs to invest in a state of the art training ground, Collins feels the game needs to go further and start nurturing players from the age of 14.
"They need to be training more at a younger age and putting more hours in under the club structure," he says of young Scottish footballers. "There are less kids playing football in Scotland, so we need to get them under the umbrella of the clubs at a younger age and get them training every day of the week. French kids go into their academies at 14 and they are full-time. In Scotland, they can't become full-time until 16, but those two years of training every day make a big difference.
"I think it would be better to invest money in academies than taking a punt on a £10 million player at £50,000-a-week. The French academy system is expensive but every team has to have it. Education sits side-by-side with the training. You go in at 14 years old, go to school for two hours, back to the training pitch and then back to school. Having education as part of it is the beauty of that system. It goes full-time with their football."
