BRAVE by name, brave by nature.

Only time will tell if it is a success or not. The future of Scottish football depends on it, though.

It is a team effort, a collective responsibility. Another generation game is set to begin across the country and the prize on offer is the ultimate one for those who dream of pulling on a dark blue jersey.

Craig Mulholland’s main focus doesn’t go beyond the gates of Auchenhowie. His sights are wide-ranging, though.

The Rangers Head of Academy was a member of the working party that compiled the Project Brave blueprint for the Scottish FA.

With the domestic season behind us, attentions will switch to the international arena once again in the coming days and Mulholland hopes the big picture will soon make pleasant viewing for everyone in our game.

“We are taking the resource we have as a country and focusing it best we can, by reducing the numbers slightly, onto the very best players,” he told SportTimes.

“When you look at the measures that are coming as part of Project Brave, I think everyone would agree with the concept. We are really focusing on the elite players.

“It is just making sure that those clubs that don’t end up part of it are looked after as well so that kids are still able to play football regardless of the level.

“If you look at the initial SFA project when they changed things, those kids that are just coming out of the Performance Schools have just been to the European championships with Scotland and were minutes away from making the quarter finals.

“But they won’t become top players unless we radically change what we do from 17 to 21.

“We have always done pretty well up to 17s but if we want success for the national team in three, four, five years’ time we need to make sure that we don’t make the same mistakes we have made in the past.

“That means being brave, make different decisions, put different programmes in place. That is going to be critical for us and Malky Mackay and the guys at the SFA are fully aware of that.”

It was Brian McClair that got the ball rolling on Project Brave but Mackay that has been tasked with getting it over the line. The goal can’t be missed.

His appointment as Performance Director was a controversial one for a number of reasons yet he has made a positive first impression on many.

There is still work to be done but Mulholland is pleased with the progress that is being made at Hampden and further afield.

He said: “I need to say, Malky’s passion for this job has been outstanding.

“We had a lot of consultation with him in regards to the games programme but he has been round all the clubs. He is on the phone, he is available to you, he makes things happen.

“We wants to work with the clubs but he is clearly driven and he has got a vision to change things.

“When you look at the changes taking place at a lot of the clubs, and at the SFA, for the first time in a long time I feel a real togetherness.

“Everyone acknowledges that we need to change and people are heading in the right direction together. That has got to be a positive because that has not necessarily been the case for a number of years.

“There is a recognition that the clubs and the SFA have to work closely together and if we pull that together properly then we will hopefully get a much higher level of player coming through.”

It is the Scottish national side that must reap the biggest rewards from Project Brave but clubs up and down the country will also feel the benefit it if it all goes to plan.

Mulholland has implemented a series of changes at Auchenhowie as Rangers invest in the future and look to produce their own Ibrox stars.

The blueprint is tailored to their needs but the challenges are the same for kids at all levels and with all clubs.

Mulholland said: “If you look at the Premier League now, the average age of a player making his debut is 23. We will still have kids who make their debuts at 17.

“What the kid who makes his debut at 17 needs is different to the one that makes his debut at 21, 22, 23. So we need to do a mixture of things.

“It is the kind of innovation we have shown with the games programme, it is loan options, it is making sure that player still has a pathway back to the first team, it is Colt teams, which is something we are still pushing hard on.

“There are a whole range of options and the pathway for every player is going to be different. They progress at varying levels in terms of their physical development and their maturity and opportunities come at different times. What we need to do is look at every player as an individual project and say ‘how can we best develop them?’

“At the moment, we have got a 37 per cent drop off of players from Under-17s to Under-21s.

“No other sport would put up with that when a third of their best talent is disappearing. We have to address that balance quickly so that our top prospects at 17 are still our top prospects at 21 going into first teams.”