LET'S RAISE A GLASS TO OUR GAME

THERE'S always a Scrooge. It's the law this time of year.

Someone to throw the wet blanket of misery over your festive flames.

And this Christmas the award goes to all those who have come up with the following question: "What does it say about the nick of our game that a quarter of the teams in the SPL are fighting over a 40-year-old?"

I must have been asked this 10 times last week. And by plenty of people who should know better.

So let's answer them. It says absolutely NOTHING about the state of our game.

What they're really trying to say is clubs should be beyond having to resort to Craig Brewster.

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And that by doing so either we're depriving a kid of a jersey or elsewe don't have one worth filling it.

But they're missing the point by a mile on both fronts. First, if you do have players of potential there's no-one better at bringing it out of them.

Big Craigy almost single-handedly made Stevie Crawford into a 25-cap internationalist.

He partnered Garry O'Connor first Scotland appearance.

And his partnership with Craig Dargo up at Inverness was one of the best in the league.

That's what Brew gives you - intelligence and development. Yes, even at 40. And even if he only plays half an hour off the bench every week he'll give you all you need in training.

The managers who were chasing him for the short-term are no mugs.

It's the ones who weren't I'd be more worried about.

But anyone who thinks five months of that is somehow indicative of Scottish football being in trouble? Where the hell have you been in 2006?

Honestly, I can't remember writing an end-of-year report and feeling more optimistic. Look at the past 12 months. From 88th to 25th in the FIFA rankings. Top of a Euro 2008 group no-one gave us a snowball's of even finishing fourth in.

Victory over World Cup finalists France. A trophy in the cabinet at Hampden even if it is just the Kirin Cup.

In Europe we've had Rangers playing in the last 16 of the Champions League - and Celtic qualifying for the same stagewith another spectacular home run.

We have two teams still in the running after Christmas for the first time in 35 years. And we've depth about us too. We've seen the Old Firm split for the first time in 11 years when Hearts took the second Champions League place.

We've seen a Second Division team make it to the Scottish Cup Final and into Europe. We'vemore Scottish managers in the SPL than we've had for a decade.

Youth? The Under-19s in the European Championships final in Poland under Tam Wilson and Archie Gemmill for starters.

They saw off France, Portugal, the Czech Republic and Turkey along the way.

The next generation are also into the Elite Round already, an achievement that included a fantastic win over Germany. And for the first time in decades decent English clubs are chasing our kids.

Killie's Stevie Naismith has been down at Arsenal and is a stone-cold cert for a big move.

A squadron of Premiership clubs are chasing Jamie McCarthy from Hamilton Accies. He'll sign for one soon.

Siamese twins Scotty Brown and Kevin Thomson will fetch Hibs millions if they and their agent get their way.

When was the last time ANY of that happened?

And we've seen a serious attempt at last to start getting the bigots out of the stands and back into the sewers where they belong.

It's been a long time coming and it's needed a bit of arm-up-the-back force to get the Old Firm's backsides into gear.

But we've seen enough from Rangers and Celtic in recent weeks to know they're no longer just paying lip-service to the idea.

I can't think for the life of me why anyone would believe 2006 has been anything other than a great year for Scottish football. So here's to 2007. And for God's sake cheer up ...

Taken from the Sunday Mail