A recurring theme for the kids at Celtic and Rangers

The thorny issue of player pathways at Scotland's biggest clubs raised its head again last week when Ben Doak left Celtic for Liverpool. In doing so, the 16-year-old became the latest talented youngster to leave Lennoxtown for one of Europe's biggest clubs, following in the footsteps of Liam Morrison and Barry Hepburn, who joined Bayern Munich (2019 and 2020), and Josh Adam who left for Manchester City in August 2020.

Speak to parents of boys at Celtic and they will say a similar thing: the pathway at the club is compromised by the pressure to win matches. One only needs to look at the current dynamic of the regular Celtic first team squad which includes just five (six if we include the now-departed Adam Montgomery) players who have come through the Academy as the club attempts to wrest back the title from Rangers. Of that number, only one – Callum McGregor – could be considered a cast-iron regular.

But at least Celtic are utilising their youth system to a greater capacity. Across the city, it's virtually redundant: Alex Lowry provided a rare ray of hope for those in the Academy at Auchenhowie only for it to be snuffed out after a couple of Premiership matches in which the 18-year-old attacker did not set the world on fire having shone against Stirling Albion in the Scottish Cup. It's a similar story for defender Leon King who, despite impressing in the Lowland League with Rangers Colts' side, had just two appearances to his name for the first team.

Speaking to the former Rangers youngster Andy Dallas last week he said: “The clubs will say 'if they are good enough they'll play' which is always the classic shout but when there are jobs on the line it is much harder to put those players in. I was close to making my debut, but I'd only really played a handful of first-team games and gotten that exposure. I know they are in the Lowland League, [but] is that really going to prepare them for the likes of Braga etc? Then you look at teams in Holland, the likes of Ajax or in Spain, Barca B, they have their team playing in the second division producing a better standard of player that is more capable of putting on a proper fight for the jersey.”

Doak, no doubt, will believe he has a better chance of making it as a professional at the top level having signed for Liverpool. It's a thought process that is impossible to argue with.

Top six nonsense

And so the top six split has come and gone. This end-of-season ritual has never really made much sense to this columnist. In theory, it was devised to make games during the run-in more exciting as the campaign came to its end but in practice that has rarely been the case. Never more so has that scenario been true than during this season. Let's not take anything away from Dundee United, Ross County and Motherwell for securing their places in the top six on Saturday but there is something undoubtedly ludicrous about a denouement to the season in which at least four clubs beneath them could all finish with a higher points tally. There will, of course, still be a relegation issue to resolve and the battle for the European places but the split was introduced to increase excitement as the season thundered into the final weeks not, as has happened in this case, extinguish a fair degree of it.

Tierney's absence has scuttled Arsenal

It must be hoped that Kieran Tierney's knee injury does not have the same deleterious effect on Scotland's World Cup play-off aspirations as it has done on Arsenal's bid for a Champions League place.

The influential Scotland defender has missed Arsenal's last two games – which have both resulted in shock defeats at the hands of Crystal Palace and Brighton & Hove Albion – at a cost of five goals and their place in the top four in the process.

Mikel Arteta's side had built a reputation this season for being mean in defence but suddenly their goal difference is shot without their best defender and with inadequate reinforcements available to cope with the loss of the former Celtic man. The latest sticking-plaster fix saw Granit Xhaka replacing Tierney in the 2-1 defeat by Brighton – a scenario which in turn left the Gunners looking particularly porous through their midfield.

A Noble farewell for Waley-Cohen

About five minutes before the off in Saturday's Grand National, ITV's Alice Plunkett interviewed Sam Waley-Cohen as he prepared to take the mount on Noble Yeats for his last ever race as a National Hunt jockey. The 40-year-old amateur – an alumnus of Edinburgh University – said it would be the biggest win of his career (or words to that effect) which was a pretty significant claim given that he was a Gold Cup winner on Long Run in 2011. Sitting astride the 50/1 shot, it sounded like one of those banal statements all jockeys about to take on Aintree's marathon test make, right before they come a cropper at the first fence. All credit then to Waley-Cohen for backing words with deed by going out in style – even if he did manage to beat my own selections into second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh place respectively.

The NFL is a different country

There have been recent comparisons to a slave-trading mentality in American football. They were made last month when David Ojabo collapsed at his Michigan pro day and had to help himself from the field with a snapped Achilles. The video of the moment he sustained his injury made it on to social media and drew the ire of black NFL analyst Bucky Brooks, who said: “I know the NFL is a cold business but watching the lack of concern or empathy from the scouts, coaches and observers following David Ojabo’s injury bugs me.”

The death of Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Dwayne Haskins, who was killed after being struck by a car whilst out jogging on Saturday, seemed to back up the idea that NFL players are treated like pieces of meat. Consider the response delivered by former vice-president of player personnel for the Dallas Cowboys, Gil Brandt, when asked for his opinion on Haskins, 24, who said: “He was a guy that was living to be dead. It was always something [with Haskins]. Maybe if he stayed in school a year he wouldn’t do silly things [like] jogging on a highway.”

In the NFL, the attitude of the cotton-mill owner still pervades.

3

The number of wins recorded by Steven Gerrard's Aston Villa in their last 10 matches. Saturday's defeat by Tottenham was their fourth in a row, while previous manager Dean Smith was sacked in the autumn to make way for Gerrard after five successive defeats across October and November. The former Rangers manager's less-than-sterling league record in that time reads: W8, D2, L10.