THERE is a fantastic book called ‘Das Reboot’ by a man named Raphael Honigstein on how German football reinvented itself 15 years ago. I highly recommend it.

Back in 2000, the Germans decided that the game in their country wasn’t working so they sat down and came up with solutions about how to fix things. It’s fair to say the plans have gone pretty well.

There is a lot of talk about Gordon Strachan and others revealing a blueprint for the game here and while it might be asking a lot to replicate the success of Germany, I dearly hope that we find some answers because, without wishing to be negative, which I don’t like being, Scottish football from the national team down is struggling.

Celtic are perceived by many to be a Champions League club. They are not at present. I fear we are just a few years away from being lucky to have even one team in the Europa League, never mind in the top tournament.

Just look at this season which started with St Johnstone losing to Alaskert in Armenia way back in July. Scottish football’s European campaign has not got much better since that day.

We hold Celtic up as a shining light, but they had a poor campaign. They played badly in the games they lost and too often threw away chances when they were leading. The facts are that they have two points from five Europa League games and have conceded 15 goals in seven European matches.

That’s not good enough for Europe’s second competition, never mind the Champions League.

We as a country love nostalgia and I’m as bad as anyone for that. However, the world has changed compared to 40 years ago. There are more countries than ever before, clubs such as Qarabag who Celtic faced in the qualifying games are backed by seriously rich people, as are many others from far-flung countries, and we can’t compete.

Because of our wonderful northern climate, combined with a lack of facilities, the kids are not on a level playing field with their counterparts from other countries.

I also think we have to stop looking at the Europa League as a second prize, a result I think of having England as our neighbour. It’s not, at least for us. The past few months of watching Celtic proved there are capable teams in the competition.

And getting back to Thursday night for a moment, Ajax came to Glasgow missing five first-team players and still won.

Our clubs cannot just turn up to face some team they haven’t heard of before and think they will win. It doesn’t work like that. However, we need to look at the bigger picture and come up with a plan. We also need to ask what do we want for our clubs and the national team. There is a mutual interest here.

Summer football, for the umpteenth time, is being discussed and it might help. Steps are being taken at least and it will be interesting to see whether a cohesive plan will be drawn up.

But we do need a reality check. Of course, we should be doing better, but at the same time we are a small country and it’s getting more difficult by the year to compete against thoughtful clubs such as Molde and Malmo, as Celtic found out to their cost.

We all look back 40 years ago to when things were very different. We are a long way away from those days, I’m sad to say.

There are no easy answers and it is getting more difficult. As I said, we are not long from having no club, not even Celtic, getting to the group stages of the Europa League, although next summer I would imagine the hype once again will surround the chances of Celtic getting in with the big boys, and they are far from that standard.

We need to come up with something that helps every club and the national side as well. Germany, who were hardly struggling in terms of most football nations, did it and look where they are now. Or is that too sensible?