For many, the start of a new Premiership season was a chance to put behind them the traumas of the World Cup and forget about the future of the national side.It was an opportunity to celebrate all that is good about Scottish football and put on hold those debates about who should succeed Steve Clarke and where the next generation of players is coming from.Or, at least, it would have been had the opening weekend not reminded us that the problem with Scotland is as apparent in the domestic game as it is in its international equivalent.Yes, the returning Premiership threw up its usual welcome mixture of passion, controversy and sometimes even quality, but can it fairly be described as Scottish?The country’s top flight has so few homegrown players, never mind ones young enough to be regarded as ‘emerging talent’, that a long-standing issue is turning into a crisis.As many were quick to point out, the showpiece opener at Tannadice on Friday had just two Scots in its starting line-ups. Dylan Tait captained Dundee United, while Lawrence Shankland wore the armband for Rangers. Lawrence Shankland was the only Scot in Rangers’ starting line-up at Tannadice on Friday Ibrahim Said scores for a Motherwell side that started their game against Hibs with no Scots Scottish FA chief football officer Craig Mulholland needs to establish pathways for native talentAt Easter Road today, Motherwell didn’t have a single Scot in their starting XI against Hibs, who had a grand total of two. At McDiarmid Park, Kilmarnock had just one (two if you count Melrose-born George Stanger, who has played age-group football for New Zealand).Elsewhere, Aberdeen and St Mirren had three, Hearts four and St Johnstone six. Hats off to Falkirk who had seven, but they kicked off their campaign with a home defeat and you wonder how many Scots will be in their first-choice team when the transfer window closes.So, three-quarters of the players who started on the opening weekend of the Scottish Premiership were not Scottish. It is a worrying snapshot of where we are at, especially at a time when the national side, dependent for so long on a core of senior players, badly needs new blood.You can argue about who the next Scotland manager should be. And whether a little more adventure is needed on the big stage. If Cape Verde can do it, why can’t Scotland?But there is no getting away from it: what stands between the national side and sustainable long-term success is the glaring shortage of elite players coming through the system.While Ben Gannon-Doak and Lennon Miller have the potential to emulate the likes of John McGinn and Andy Robertson, there is no conveyor belt presenting a new crop of elite professionals.Part of the problem is the exodus south of teenage players, often before they have even played first-team football. Unable to buy youngsters abroad due to Brexit regulations, English clubs are settling for promising Scots, knowing full well that they will do little more than strengthen competition at academy level.Statistics published over the weekend by The Athletic showed that hardly any of those who have been hoovered up by the Premier League ever experience playing in it.Most have seen out their apprenticeship before quietly departing and starting again in the lower divisions. By then, they have missed out on the early first-team grounding that is essential if they are to get ahead of the curve.They were too young to get game time in Scotland and not good enough to get it in England. It’s a double-whammy that is costing them and the clubs who produced them.In 2024, a Scottish FA ‘transition phase report’ examined how best to develop teenagers after age-group football. It revealed that 38 per cent of players in the full Scotland squad had cut their teeth in the country’s lower tiers. A third made their debut there.In other words, competitive men’s football is an essential staging post for players at that age. Despite the money, facilities and coaching expertise offered by Premier League clubs, none of it is more valuable than game time at an appropriate level.Which is why the key to Scottish football’s future is establishing a better pathway for young talent, one that enables players to get on the first-team ladder and see the benefits of it.That will be a priority for the Scottish FA’s recently-recruited chief football officer, Craig Mulholland, who will also play a central role in the appointment of a new manager. We are expected to hear from him in the weeks ahead.Plenty ideas have already come and gone, from B teams and performance schools to development leagues and, more recently, co-operation agreements that facilitate more flexible loans.But new ones are needed. Or at least old ones with a modern twist. Don’t be surprised if quotas find themselves back on the agenda, together with the return of the reserve league.However they do it, they need to bring about a cultural change, one that persuades Scottish players, managers and clubs that it is in everyone’s interests to keep young talent in these parts just a little longer.Only when that happens will there be a Scottish Premiership — and, by extension, a Scottish national side — to be really proud of.