Clueless punter

In 1928 Scotland beat England 5-1 and forever in Scottish football folklore became The Wembley Wizards. 1928 was before I was born. The goalie played for Queens Park.Alan Morton was the winger.
I often despair at the current  BBC radio Scotland fitba discussion. The casual and lazy use of 'you know' peppers each and almost ever sentence. Here's a thought; if the expert asks us to ' you know' then I must 'know' and the punter can be disregarded.
Amongst the current 'experts' the  self assured raconteur is one 'Stephen Thompson' best described in a Scotsman's poll of best Scottish punters as 'easily the best dressed of the punters on the list'. A former Scottish international I witnessed his goal in Dortmund's Westphallen Stadion in our 2003, 2-1 defeat. A brilliant stadium.
Bland might be his method of summarising Scottish fitba, criticism of current managers and players is rare.
He may one day care to explain his constant use of the word 'brilliant'. 'Brilliant' is an adjective last earned in Scotland possibly by Henrik Larsson, or to balance the books Brian Laudrup. One could conjour synonyms for brilliant; beaming, bedazzling, candescent, lucid, radiant. However Scottish fitba, brilliant, surely not. We now have access to top flight football 24 hours a day worldwide.
Pittodrie with a 30 yard shot that narrowly  misses? Brilliant.  Really? Fir Park?
Whenever I venture south I am continually  asked by English friends and colleagues; what ever happened to good Scottish footballers?
The context of the well intentioned question is easy; up until 30 odd years ago Scottish players populated England's top  clubs in vast numbers. We had players who dominated the wonderful Leeds United teams of the 60s and 70s. Manchester United had Law. The Liverpool who dominated Europe had a backbone of Scots, Dalglish and Souness for goodness sake.
Our almost constant qualification for the World Cup 1974-1998 was in hindsight our golden international era.
History, ours , most of it was  before I was born.
Last week  I was aghast at Thompson's admission that the pre-Argentina Hampden send off was 'before I was born'.
The SFA sent their 1954 World Cup squad of 14 players to Switzerland with their own training gear and a set of extra thick woolen jerseys in the expectation of chilly weather. We ,they were  trounced 7-0 by Uraguay in 90 degree heat. Before I was born.
The 1974 pre-West Germany rowing boat incident. I was 16. A necessary requirement for Scottish fitba misdemeanors.
Then there was the Argentina send off. Demanded by the police for safety reasons and authorised by the SFA, not wanted by Aly Mcleod. A prelude to the impending disaster that was our World Cup 1978. Before Stephen was born.
History. Does it matter?
Our fitba history is littered with great players. Grabbing defeat from the jaws of victory. Tales of stramash.
John Greig’s last minute winner, Italy 1965.
To understand why many still care for Scottish fitba it requires an understanding of the past, when we were often good, sometimes terrible and more often than not Scottish, much of it before any of us alive today were born.

Hamish