Is there anything in the Scottish water supply or gene pool that stops us producing world-class athletes?
The answer is patently "no"; Sir Chris Hoy and Andy Murray are proof positive.
So, having been as guilty as the next man or woman of producing a litany of excuses which supposedly stop us from producing top footballers, my own patience, and perhaps yours too, snapped, with this week's Europa League results.
Forget summer football, improved facilities, better coaching, more PE in schools and all the other stuff which apologists have been yabbering on about for ages.
Clouds are gathering over Scottish football following the nation's poor showing in European competition. Photo: SNS
Yes, all of the above are crucial and hugely important, but while every one of them is required and some are starting to fall into place, none of them will make an ounce of difference if there is an absence of other key factors.
Appetite, desire, hard work, discipline, hunger for success, but mostly love of the sport, are all the ingredients required to produce top athletes and footballers.
And sadly, it seems that too many of our footballers from a young age don't have enough of any of the above.
If they did, the football pitches which I have been driving past these last six weeks of the Dundee school holidays would have been teeming with budding Messis and Xavis instead of lying empty.
With all four Scottish clubs out of Europe before August has ended and, in the Old Firm's case, losing to sides they were expected to beat comfortably, once again we are hand-wringing and soul searching about the state of the nation's favourite sport.
But, contained within the national squad announced by Craig Levein for the European Championship qualifiers, 12 play for Premiership clubs.
Twelve Scots playing in arguably the top league in the world.
Twelve Scots who have shown all the qualities I have mentioned to take them to the top of the game.
The trick is how to produce more footballers with those qualities and retain some of them domestically so that our clubs can improve on their recent dire European record.
I have little doubt that there are kids of enormous talent playing football in Scotland and they need all the support they can get.
But how do you instill into the next generation of our footballers the work ethic required to make the grade?
How do you inculcate the desire to undergo the endless hours of repetitive practice required, the lung-bursting demands, the heart-pumping effort needed to rise to the top in a chosen sport?
Earlier this week I watched Scotland's latest sporting world champion - yes, world champion - in action at Manchester Velodrome.
Fresh from winning the gold medal in the junior men's sprint competition at the UCI Junior World Track Championships in Moscow last week, 18-year-old John Paul gave a stunning performance of power and speed to add a 2011 National Champion's jersey to his European and World titles.
Being a minority sport, his achievement didn't make many column inches and the levels of fitness and discipline required in it would be beyond the capabilities of most aspiring footballers.
But he has all the qualities in abundance which our next generation of footballers require.
In a sport where facilities are very poor he has risen to the dizzy heights of world champion by willpower, strength of conviction and sheer hard work.
No, there is nothing in the gene pool or water supply to stop our kids becoming top footballers.
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/jimspence/2011/08/my_patience_with_our_game_has.html
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