WE'VE SCOT A LOT TO BE PROUD OF

NINE bosses out of 42 gone since August. More than 20 per cent in three months. It looks bad. REALLY bad.

But don't sweat it. Don't get all glass-half-empty on the state of the game.

Because right now we're coming into a vintage era for Scottish management. Trust me.

It may have taken a decade of discovery, of trial and error. And error. And error.

But the day is coming when we are back to being almost completely self-sufficient. When we become football's equivalent of The Good Life.

A few years ago you'd have been laughed out of town for suggesting it.

But look around our game now and tell me guys like Alex Smith - who always maintained we had better to offer than the second-rate foreign imports drowning us - weren't right all along.

It was Thursday that started me thinking about it. Two years to the day since Wee Berti got the Scotland heave-ho.

Look at what's happened since.

A return to a quality Scottish manager and a rise of 63 places in the world rankings from 88 to 25.

But it's not just at international level we've suddenly got it right.

If Dunfermline appoint a Scottish manager this week we'll have 10 natives in charge of SPL clubs for the first time in 10 years.

When you look down the list you see guys who are putting their all into the game, who are soaking up knowledge and experience like sponges. Guys who believe in themselves.

Gordon Strachan. Dismissed by so many for the Celtic job yet look at him now.

I took him for the Scotland job two years ago and still say he'll be the next one.

Charlie Christie at Inverness.

Only 40, less than a year in the job but every time you talk to him you realise how much he's growing. First manager of the month award in October seven games without defeat. And people doubted his appointment?

Gus MacPherson at St Mirren.

Only 38 and confounding expectations of his side on a weekly basis.

Yogi Hughes. Early 40s, youngest team in the SPL, quality football a trademark and a slave to the future with his Falkirk youth set-up.

Maurice Malpas is another who's quietly winning people over at Motherwell.

And this week we've had the re-introduction of Craig Levein and Peter Houston at Dundee United - the best appointment Eddie Thompson could have made as long as he gives them more than 10 months.

And John Collins, one of our classiest operators on the park, is getting his chance at Hibs.

It has taken a long time for chairmen to realise it - but better late than never. And as things turn around off the pitch it will be reflected on it. Look at the top teams and the players they depend on.

The Old Firm have returned to a Scottish core. Both started six Scots in Europe in midweek.

It's not that long since Rangers had none and Celtic had two tops in Rab Douglas and Jackie McNamara.

Hearts? They have three untouchables in their side no matter who's picking it. Gordon, Pressley, Hartley.

Beyond the top three every other side is 90 per cent heavy with homegrown players.

Don't get me wrong - this isn't xenophobia.

There's nothing wrong with some outside influence - as long as it's quality.

Look at Paul Le Guen. Irrespective of the doubts now, his arrival was a major coup for Rangers AND Scottish football.

He'll be worth it. Same on the playing front with guys like Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink.

They need to have something they can show us. Otherwise what's the point?

We're proving now what plenty of us knew in the first place. That we HAVE the talent ourselves, if we were allowed to prove it.

And if you look at the way the game's developing in the dugout and on the park, the message is pretty clear: Roll your own.

The 10 Scottish SPL managers in 1996/97 were: Roy Aitken (Aberdeen), Tommy Burns (Celtic), Tommy McLean (Dundee Utd), Bert Paton (Dunfermline), Jim Jefferies (Hearts), Jim Duffy (Hibs), Alex Totten (Kilmarnock), Alex McLeish (Motherwell), Iain Munro (Raith Rovers), Walter Smith (Rangers).

Taken from the Sunday Mail