As , the country which produces arguably the finest and most gifted players on the planet, I found myself wondering whether we could ever again go some small way to producing players of the highest calibre, as we once did.
If not, who or what is to blame and do we need to reinvent the wheel to change things?
In recent weeks, two ex-professional footballers who played the game at the top level have said to me that we should scrap the current pro youth set-up in the Scottish game.
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chief executive (pictured with George Peat) needs the help of everyone in the Scottish game.
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He was only appointed in July but must often have felt that he was captaining the footballing equivalent of the titanic.
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The SFA, according to Celtic QC , is Last week's written judgement by in the matter of appeal against a six-match touchline ban, found that SFA president George Peat's presence while the Celtic manager's fate was being decided by the disciplinary committee was Ìý
A first-year law student would have known that, so why didn't the SFA?
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was not just a great game of football, it also emphasised everything that is good about the Scottish game.
Firstly, referees don't get many plaudits, so hats off to Steve Conroy, who, despite understandable concerns over a pitch that was a mud-bath in places, let the game go ahead and handled it with real common sense.
And well done to Brechin and their volunteer army for getting the pitch playable after a night of snow and rain.
But, mainly, a huge well done to both sets of players who showed terrific skill and commitment in equal measure in extremely trying underfoot conditions amid driving rain.
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In the 1930s a crowd of 25,500 packed Stark's Park on a Wednesday afternoon for a Scottish Cup quarter-final replay between and .
The first match had been watched by 19,000 at the old Bayview.
The treasurers of those two clubs, or indeed most others in Scotland, are unlikely to ever again witness crowds of that magnitude.
But at Rovers, things are looking brighter than they have done for some time.
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They pay me to watch football and talk football. That’s some people's idea of Christmas every day. I can't deny it's mine too. I view the football world through a different lens from some journalists, because I live and work in Dundee. The Old Firm are interesting, but so was my breakfast this morning. There is a whole lot more on the Scottish football menu than the big two. From the SPL to the juniors, the game offers lots of dishes, and they all get my taste buds going.