The world has changed dramatically in the last year but there must have been a familiar feeling for Gordon Strachan as he watched this week’s Euro 2020 fixtures.
As a former Scotland boss and a player who represented his country 50 times, he would have been gutted after watching Steve Clarke ’s side slump to an opening Group D defeat to Czech Republic.
But Strachan’s disappointment would have been compounded with what he witnessed in some of the fixtures in the following days after that 2-0 Hampden loss.
That is if his words five years ago are anything to go by and a desperate plea to our country’s coaches that has so far remained unanswered.
Strachan was national team boss when he spoke to the media at the squad hotel in Malta during an end of season friendly double header.
As we provided cannon fodder - sorry, opposition - for Euro heavyweights Italy and France he was frustrated at the lack of game-changing quality at his disposal.
Strachan wasn’t being greedy. He didn’t want a team of superstars - just one. One, or maybe two, that could make the difference and elevate the national side to a different level.
It’s ironic that two of the examples he gave that day were Welsh wizards Gareth Bale and Aaron Ramsey.
A few weeks after Strachan spoke the duo would go on to play leading roles that golden summer as the Dragons reached the Euro 2016 semi-finals.
And there they were again on Wednesday at the heart of more Welsh success as they revived their combination to secure a win over Turkey that will see them into the knockout stage of this summer’s tournament.
The fact it came a couple of days after Scotland lost to the Czechs due to some individual brilliance from the opposition talisman Patrik Schick won’t have been lost on Strachan.
Strachan was exasperated at the grassroots system which he felt was pandering to the middle which was holding the best back.
Speaking back then in 2016, he said: “We have to produce players. It’s producing two top players from the system every year.
“Two top players. Not just 20 ordinary ones. We don’t have to make 20 better in the Under-16s at Motherwell. We need to make one of them brilliant.
“Look at Poland with Robert Lewandowski. Take his goals out, they wouldn’t be going to France. Stick him in our team, we’re there. Absolutely.
“Gareth Bale? You’re there. Zlatan Ibrahimovic? You’re there. That’s what you have to do. Produce the players. Not hundreds of them. One.
“Wales have two in Gareth Bale and Aaron Ramsey. It’s not ten. So it’s not about teams — we have to produce the individual players.”
Scotland have at least ended their time in the international wilderness since Strachan spoke by qualifying for Euro 2020 but his point was still evident.
It was hammered home 24 hours prior to Bale and Ramsey starring for Wales when Cristiano Ronaldo was the difference as he turned the game in Portugal’s favour late on against Hungary.
Also in the five years since Strachan held court, Scotland have actually produced arguably world class players in the shape of Andy Robertson and Kieran Tierney.
The problem is they are both left backs and not in the positions where they can provide that creative spark that change a game.
The same goes for Scott McTominay and the emerging Billy Gilmour who are playing at the very highest level.
Clarke insisted there wasn’t much between the sides after the defeat against the Czech Republic and it was small margins.
But Schick’s second goal in particular summed up that bit of individual quality as he produced the goal of the tournament contender with his long range stunner beyond David Marshall.
Clarke has built a solid team built on a strong work ethic and it has at least got us back on the big stage but that will always take you so far.
A real creative superstar is what is missing. For a nation that produced in abundance, it has been missing for a lot longer than the five years since Strachan said his piece and it’s up to our country’s coaches to find them again.
