MADE IN SCOTLAND ..BY OUR OLD FIRM

RANGERS did it for the first time in March 2000. Celtic were 18 months behind them.

Fielded a team without a Scot in sight.

Remember the reaction? Outrage. Depression. The end of Scottish football as we'd known it. Endless examinations of where it had all gone wrong.

The nuclear winter of our game was upon us, the skies darkened by the fallout of years of neglecting our kids.

Couple that with the obsession of all things foreign at the time and it didn't take the world's great analytical minds to work it out.

Then, as Newton's third law tells us, for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.

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Which meant that the consequence of Scot-free Old Firm teams was pretty much an Old Firm-free Scotland team.

It has happened twice in the past five years - not one of them in the Scotland 11. And on plenty of other occasions Ibrox midfielder Barry Ferguson has been the sole flag-bearer for the big two.

Now look at them. Give or take a couple of reasonably predictable summer signings, you could be looking at a Scotland team made up entirely of Rangers and Celtic players.

Stretching a point maybe - but not too far.

Try picking a one to 11. Fine, it will take a miracle or an injury to shift Hearts keeper Craig Gordon from the national team's nets.

And maybe an even bigger miracle if either of the Old Firm could afford to buy him in the summer.

So we assume he will be there - but with Allan McGregor, David Marshall and Mark Brown all floating around as back up.

In front of him? Mark Wilson on the right, Stevie Smith on the left. A stick-on future full-back pairing.

Centre halves? Take your pick, they're all there anyway. Davie Weir, Steven Pressley, Andy Webster, Gary Caldwell, Stephen McManus.

In midfield you will have Paul Hartley and Barry Ferguson who are already stalwarts.

It's not inconceivable that Ibrox new boy Kevin Thomson could make his way into a squad.

And the chances are fairly high that Scott Brown and Lee McCulloch could both be Old Firm players by the summer - judging by the noises made in last month's transfer window.

And up front you have Kenny Miller and Kris Boyd.

OK, there are a few others who would look at that team and argue the toss over their right to a shirt ahead of some of them. Rightly so too.

Darren Fletcher would be a stonewall cert for example. I've said long enough that Russell Anderson deserves to be in the team. And James McFadden and Gary Naysmith would have a solid claim. Probably Shaun Maloney as well if he kicks on at Villa.

But that's not really the point.

Which is the fact that you COULD field a Scotland team from the Old Firm come August.

Six years ago, you couldn't have entered a Scotland beach volleyball pairing between them.

Why has it happened? Ask Gordon Strachan and Walter Smith. They will tell you it's a combination of financial constraints - buying Scottish is cheaper - and a patriotic will to roll your own for the good of the Scottish game.

Next question, though - is it a good thing? I'm no lover of the Old Firm but you'd still have to say it was.

Say what you like about other players and other clubs getting their chance but it can't have been healthy having your two biggest institutions as non-contributors to the national team. For starters, the more of them playing together, the better for us.

Communication and understanding in a team is massive. And the more of them playing at a higher level in Europe the better as well.

You have to assume at least one of Glasgow's big two will be in the Champions League every season if not both.

You also have the money filtering down if the Old Firmare buying domestically. It's getting back to the way it used to be. Rangers spend £2million on Thomson, Hibs take that and maybe invest it down the way, and so on.

The interesting thing will be the reaction from the punters.

Most Old Firm fans care for their club first and their country a distant second. Sweeping generalisation but they don't see losing players to the national squad as a great honour.

For most of the Scotland fans it's the other way round.

There will be exceptions but the make-up of the Tartan Army isn't heavy on Rangers and Celtic types and most of the others would boot the two of them into touch at the drop of a glengarry.

So when they see a Scotland side packed with Old Firm names will many in the Tartan Army find it difficult to back them?

Either way, though, it's progress. And when you look back six years that can't be bad.

Taken from the Sunday Mail