Comments From Tommy Burns
Comments from Tommy Burns posted below, from an interview in The Times.
I know it's in the context of Scotland vs USA tomorrow but it's clear to me how it's of relevance to the situation prevailing in Irish soccer.
The Scots have been the butt of a lot of slagging but recent away wins in Norway and Slovenia, the latter 3-0, with what is largely a young but hungry team, is a lot more than what our Premiership stars have been able to produce in 18 years of away games. A 1-1 home draw with Italy was quite credible and they should have done better against Belarus.
I mantain that a well balanced & well managed / motivated side can achieve results at this level even if the personnel are not all playing top flight football. Scotland and USA both can teach us a thing or two I reckon.
Burns keen for Scotland to follow American lead
By Phil Gordon
WHEN Tommy Burns played at the celebrated Giants Stadium 24 summers ago, his American hosts were green with envy. He was about to embark on a season that would see him help Scotland to the 1982 World Cup finals, while they could only sit back and dream of such a day.
Yet, those roles have been reversed. A fact that will be underlined tomorrow when Scotland face the United States in a friendly at Hampden Park. It is the Scots who are now providing warm-up opposition for the Americans ahead of the greatest show on earth.
The US are about to embrace their fifth successive finals. Currently Bruce Arena’s side hold an impressive seventh place in the Fifa rankings, while Scotland lag more than 60 places behind. Burns could never have envisaged that when he was given his first taste of US soccer all those years ago, in a friendly for Celtic against the New York Cosmos. Despite the subsequent closure of the glamorous team that once boasted Pelé and Franz Beckenbauer — Cosmos folded in 1985, a year after the league, the NASL —it is the Americans who are now truly giants at the beautiful game, while the Scots are positively Lilliputian.
There are more than 40 American players now earning their living abroad, everywhere from Manchester United to PSV Eindhoven, while the new generation are coming through from the present professional structure, Major League Soccer. Such is the strength in depth of US football, that though established Barclays Premiership players like Claudio Reyna and Brad Friedel are not available, Arena has a depth to his squad that Walter Smith must admire.
Indeed, the United States are also among the world’s top eight nations at youth level as well, reaching the quarterfinals of the Fifa Under-17 World Cup last month in Peru, where they eventually lost to Holland but defeated Italy along the way. The most precocious discovery of the US system, Freddy Adu, who is just 15 and playing for DC United, has been left at home.
Burns, who also oversees Celtic’s youth development programme in addition to his national team duties, believes that this devotion to the base level of the game is what has allowed the Americans to build a strong set-up. “They have produced a lot of good young players and made great strides over the last ten years, some of whom have gained experience in European leagues,” Burns noted. “Clubs such as Ajax,
PSV, Manchester United and AC Milan all have training camps in the US and nurture players. The Americans have been successful in every other sport, so it was inevitable that they would do it in football.
“I remember going on pre-season tour with Celtic to the US in 1981 and we played the New York Cosmos. They had a lot of world-class players in the era, like Pelé, but not so many American players.
“They had one guy who was the US’s most-capped player (the players Burns refers to, Rick Davis, earned a then-record total of 36 caps, whereas the present holder, Reyna, has amassed 107). Yet, the US did not really have a good national team back then. Guys like Reyna and Tim Howard have come here and established themselves in the most prestigious league in the world.”
Reyna, of course, spent three years with Rangers after making his initial breakthrough with Bayer Leverkusen and there are four Bundesliga players among Arena’s squad for Hampden. That is the sort of CV Burns would like Scotland’s players to acquire but he feels that this friendly is the ideal occasion for some of Smith’s own fringe players to make their mark.
“When Walter took over, he looked at the Future Team that Berti Vogts set up and very quickly added the players to the full squad that he felt we needed,” Burns explained. “We have not had too many friendlies since Walter came in. He is of a mind that it is better for players to play in pressurised competitive games, rather than go through a lot friendlies, but this is a chance for some of those younger players, such as Derek Riordan, Garry O ’Connor, Scott Brown and Jamie Smith, to make an impact at international level. The real questions will be asked when the pressure is on but this an indicator as to whether they can cope at this level.”
Indeed, Burns believes that the man who deserves credit for any talent emerging on to Scotland’s radar is the muchvilified Vogts. “Berti had two jobs,” Burns explained. “The initial one was to find players who could play at international level but he was also under pressure to qualify for Euro 2004. He took us to the play-offs. It was a patient process and a lot of players got their foot in the door.
“We found players like Darren Fletcher, James McFadden, Craig Gordon and even Steven Pressley and now they are established international players. Berti’s plan has proved to be the right way. He took all the stick when we lost friendly games but he gave us half a dozen who can play at international level, although it cost — he paid the price with his own job.”
Riordan is looking to stake his own claim for a regular role up front for Smith, given the absence of Kenny Miller and Paul Dickov. The Hibernian striker made his debut in August in the 2-2 friendly draw away to Austria but almost immediately was jettisoned by both Smith and Tony Mowbray, his manager at Easter Road.
“It was hard to take, being left out of both sides, but I just had to work hard and get back in the plans,” Riordan said. “Tony Mowbray thought I was lazy and I have improved my work ethic. However, I was left on the bench when Hibernian played Dnipro in the Uefa Cup at Easter Road, which was hard to take because it was the club’s biggest game in years and I had worked so hard last season to get us there.”
Riordan scored in the away leg in Ukraine to demonstrate that he can play at a high level. Reproducing that potency against the United States might open a door for a January transfer. “I would like to play in a bigger league one day,” he said, “you cannot spend 15 years at one club, but right now I am happy with Hibernian.”
