WHINE OF THE WEEK THIS WEEK: SCOTTISH FITBA   Thanks to the good people of Stowells of Chelsea, I'm now ready to put together a brand new weekend whine. But what to whine about? There's little that is moanworthy going on at Middlesbrough with Steve 'Mac' McClaren firmly in charge and taking the team to something like new heights (mind you, you should have seen me go during the Bryan Robson days!), and the Premiership at large is currently too dull to elicit much in the way of a decent drunken rant. Hark! What's this?

I have no beef with the Jocks, to be honest, and I'm pleased to count amongst my scene mates the estimable Gio of The Gaffer fame, who is a confirmed Rangers fan from Edinburgh (eh? String 'im up!), and who once went into a tirade at me over the future of Scottish football during a previously civilised conversation on msn. Your man's in-depth glance at Scottish fitba on his site fair caught my heart, and looked at many of the issues dogging the game north of the border. However, one thing I was left wondering about was the fact that for a country that is in freefall in terms of its national team, the Scottish certainly appear to have a golden future if they are prepared to grasp it. Or so it seems to me.

You see bored reader, I have noted the high number of remarks about the prospects for the Swedes should their players turn out to be anything like as good as they are on Championship Manager, and the Scots aren't far behind in this regard. We all know about Mark Kerr, of course, but what about Stephen Pearson, Keigan Parker (left, sorry right), Alex Notman, Robert 'Bob' Malcolm and Stephen Hughes? All the above are youngsters who could walk into most CM Premiership sides, suggesting that Scotland may be in safe hands in several years' time. But how true is this in reality? Are the Scots about to mount something of a resurgence under the fatherly tutelage of Berti McVogts, or is it all just a smokescreen, a false dawn like the time in 1978 when (look, you've alienated your Scottish readers already, so don't go there! - ed)…

Considering that 2002 marks that 130th year of the Scottish Football Association, things are looking decidedly un-rosy for those who follow the fortunes of their troubled, ever-changing national side. It never used to be like this, of course. Back when I was a kid, top class Scottish players dominated the English game. Kenny Dalglish, Graeme Souness and Alan Hansen were household names, whilst the axioms of Sir Matt Busby and Bill (Frankly Mr) Shankley were as questioned as a Joe Stalin edict. Where's it all gone wrong? More pertinently, how did it ever seem to be right? Scotland has by and large always been in the grip of the Old Firm, a term so antiquated that it belongs in the Kray brothers' lexicon Recently the two pugilists have fought their battles with foreign personnel, buying in labour from Europe rather than developing their own stars. This would appear to hold many answers to the auld debate about Scottish regression, and it is sickening for us Sassenachs to have to watch either Rangers or Celtic once a-bloody-gain on the box each weekend. Maybe one day Sky will take a chance and show two non-OF teams battling it out, though this is to be doubted. My favourite Scottish team is Celtic, by the way.

Anyhow, those youngsters. Does CM have it right? Has the tartan army got little to worry about because the future's bright, the future's…er, under the influence of a German coach? Let's bear in mind that in CM, players' skills can often be magnified to meet the demands of their particular league. Now in reality, the two big clubs would tramp all over their opponents in the SPL, but it is unusual that such a degree of imparity occurs in CM, thus certain teams are made out to be better than they really are, Take Dundee for instance, where Lee Wilkie, Gavin Rae and Jamie Langfield all ply their youthful trade. Clearly their abilities would have to be exaggerated if they are to offer any semblance of a fighting chance, and indeed this is the case with all three in with a decent hope of becoming greats in your game. The former has already had a pop for McVogts in reality, and Langfield represents a possibility for Scottish goalies to progress beyond the bland Rab Douglas.

However in CM there is little prospect of the promising CM Scots being realised in the Blade Runner depressiveness that is the real world. Let's face it, Norwich's Alex Notman is not going to move to a big club and transform into the world strider that he could be in the game, is he? And 'Bob' Malcolm is a decent prospect, but will he really command a regular first team place at Rangers, let alone Scotland? Unlikely. In any case, it has been good to see Robbie Stockdale become wee Rab McStockdale as he joins the Scottish cause, but again this is a player who is only just finding his feet in league football, never mind (nae bother?) the international stage.

The Jocks have a good deal of work to do, and I can't help but think that seeing the stars of tomorrow on CM01/02 won't help them. So that was an irregular ramble on the state of things in Scotland, which would have been much more focused without (i) wine (ii) a conversation halfway through with Liam from TF90 who has published my comments about his Big Brother contest on the site (can't get away with anything, readers) (iii) Pet Sounds by the Beach Boys on the headphones (I'm serious, you should listen to it) (iv) brain cells out of synch. Yes, sorry everyone. This was a mindless diatribe, something that was started with good intentions but losing its way somewhere in midstream (much like England v Sweden) and never quite recovering. Oh well, it's a school night tomorrow so sobriety is more or less assured. Quality content then, or something like it. Maybe.