SFA should stick with foreign policy in Mark Wotte replacement hunt

Mark Wotte’s departure from Scottish football was disappointing to see.

Five years ago, in my role as Chief Executive of the SFA, I first mooted the idea that we should appoint a foreigner as the country’s Performance Director.

The Republic of Ireland had recently brought in a Dutchman, and I thought it was a good idea for us to do likewise.

George Peat, the Association’s President at the time, vetoed my proposal, arguing we had no need for the position.

However, George was integral in the appointment of Henry McLeish, and the conclusions of his Review ushered in Wotte’s arrival.

That was a good thing. Change was required and we needed someone from outside someone open-minded and experienced in the outside football world to implement them.

Some people didn’t like Wotte’s attitude. Some people didn’t like his initiatives. Some people just didn’t like him.

Personally, I wasn’t a fan of the Under-20 league that Wotte insisted was implemented.

When players get to that age, they should be playing in men’s football.

Of course, football is such a sport of opinions, you are never going to get 100% agreement on Wotte’s overall impact.

I think, too, that even with the good ideas, you have to be very careful how they are put into practice.

The Performance Schools, for example, are great in the way they bring kids on in their careers.

But we have to be very careful these are not allowed to foster elitism.

It is a fact of life that young footballers develop at very different rates. I know because it happened to me.

I wasn’t judged good enough to make it into the Ayrshire Schools Under-15 side, yet by the time I was 17, I was playing regularly in the Kilmarnock first team against the likes of Rangers and Celtic.

An even better example is Andrew Robertson.

Rejected by Celtic as a kid, he ended up playing amateur football for Queen’s Park in the fourth tier of the Scottish game.

A year later he was making his Scotland debut as a Scottish Premiership player.

Now he is regular in the English Premier League, living a life that others can only dream about.

That tells you how important it is not to discourage kids. They can still go on to become your future internationalists.

It is not how quickly you develop it is your ability and mentality that will determine whether you make it.

Overall, I would say Mark Wotte did a decent job. He got the ball rolling in terms of getting the changes in place that the game needed.

It is important that process continues so there will need to be a replacement. Right now, there is no-one who springs to mind.

For me, the replacement should again come from outside the country, ideally someone with experience of the Scottish game.

I say that because it is my opinion there are too many closed-minds in Scotland. It is hard to change people’s ideas.

Wotte’s personality was not to everybody’s tastes but I think it did help to get things done.

There has been talk of the Professional Game Board being unhappy with the way the things were being done under the Dutchman’s charge, and that they felt money was being wasted.

I am not sure about that. The money was there and, to my eyes, it was used on initiatives for the betterment of the Scottish game.

Anyway, who is to say the professionals clubs always get things right themselves? People in glass houses…