When things go wrong in Scottish football, there's a running joke among supporters about what comes next: Another think tank, another summit, another grand plan. For more than 15 years, Scottish football has been openly and publicly asking itself what it could be doing better. In particular, how it can produce more elite players and help the national team not just qualify for major tournaments, but compete at them.
Now, the game is preparing for another attempt. All 42 SPFL clubs gathered in St Andrews on Friday for what the Scottish FA describes as a "critically important" forum on the future of the national game. Leading the discussion will be the governing body's new chief football officer, Craig Mulholland, whose brief is to shape and deliver Scottish football's long-term development strategy.
Top of the agenda is talent development - and there are few within the game who dispute that there is a problem. Too few young Scottish players are making the grade at elite level in Scotland. Too many find their path to first-team football blocked.
And increasing numbers are leaving altogether. These concerns are not new - the same issues have come up in four major reviews and in countless recommendations since 2010. The challenge is agreeing on a solution.
One of the key concerns now is the lack of opportunities for young Scottish players at Premiership level. At the start of the 2016-17 season, approximately 53% of players who started in the first round of Premiership fixtures were born in Scotland. At the start of this season, that figure had fallen to 28%.
Compare that with Norway, where home-grown players accounted for around 73% of opening-day starters in 2016 and still made up approximately 72% at the start of the current campaign. What that decline means for Scotland is open to debate. Either Scottish football is producing fewer players capable of competing at Premiership level, or clubs have become increasingly reluctant to hand opportunities to those coming through their academies.
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