I think this is a key issue and one I keep leaning towards.
I don't think it's really that big nations (or indeed medium ones) have gotten a grip on their youth development - we beat Germany and Italy in those two Euro finals, and lost to Argentina in the WC semis - but rather that we've fallen far behind. I think our model of shipping players to England when they're 16 is woefully outdated (and indeed harder now with Brexit). Most other countries (a) have proper youth development plans in place which the SFAI seem to think are below them and (b) have a professional domestic environment for players to start into before moving abroad. This latter has the dual benefit of giving players more first-team football (including European football, potentially) at a younger age and of generating funds to reinvest into the domestic game.
For me, that's the single biggest issue facing us at the moment. I know things are changing in the past while, but I'm not sure they've changed enough to give too much confidence for the future yet.
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