Scottish football supporters have a running joke about what happens when things go wrong. Another think tank, another summit, another grand plan.
The cynicism is understandable.
For more than 15 years, Scottish football has been openly and publicly asking itself what it could be doing better. In particular, how it can produce more elite players and help the national team not just qualify for major tournaments, but compete at them.
Now the game is preparing for another attempt.
On Friday, all 42 SPFL clubs will gather in St Andrews for what the Scottish FA describes as a "critically important" forum on the future of the national game.
Craig Mulholland, the governing body's new chief football officer, will lead the discussion. His brief is to shape and deliver Scottish football's long-term development strategy.
Talent development is at the top of the agenda. Few within the game dispute that there is a problem.
Too few young Scottish players are making the grade at elite level in Scotland. Too many find their path to first-team football blocked. Increasing numbers are leaving altogether.
These concerns are not new. The same issues have come up in four major reviews and countless recommendations since 2010.
The challenge is agreeing on a solution.
One of the key concerns now is the lack of opportunities for young Scottish players at Premiership level. At the start of the 2016-17 season, approximately 53% of players who started in the first round of Premiership fixtures were born in Scotland. At the start of this season, that figure had fallen to 28%.
Compare that with Norway, where home-grown players accounted for around 73% of opening-day starters in 2016 and still made up approximately 72% at the start of the current campaign.
What that decline means for Scotland is open to debate. Either Scottish football is producing fewer players capable of competing at Premiership level, or clubs have become increasingly reluctant to hand opportunities to those coming through their academies.
Former pro youth coach Lloyd Gaffney believes the latter is a major factor. Gaffney spent a decade working in academy football at Dundee and Dundee United before eventually leaving the game, in part due to frustrations at what he saw.







