Hamilton Aiming To Be The Best

Craig Levein. Judging by how the post-game talk was dominated by whether the Scottish FA should replace him or not when Scotland lost to Belgium in the World Cup qualifying stage, a defeat that left them bottom of their group with just two points, you would think that pointing at the manager was all that was needed to identify the reasons behind this dire situation.

Yet, for all Levein's defects and mistakes, the fault lines of Scottish football lie much deeper than the manager's role. For a nation that once produced world class players like Kenny Dalglish and Dennis Law, Scotland now struggles to produce players who are even remotely close to that level.

There are many reasons for that, yet one of them has to be the lack of vision shown by clubs. Few have dared to be innovative; fewer still have been brave enough to build their teams around the players coming out of their system.

Hamilton Academical, however, are among those few. Their youth system attracted attention for producing James McCarthy, who made his debut for them before he had turned sixteen, and James McArthur whose debut came as a seventeen year old. Both players helped Hamilton reach the Premier League before being sold for significant amounts to Wigan.

The rest of this article can be read on Blueprint for Football where it was originally published or at In Bed With Maradona who requested to re-publish the piece.