MARK Wotte believes there is “light in the darkness” for Scottish football.

The former Saints boss today gave his thoughts on the state of the nation’s game, having settled into his role as the country’s first ever performance director.

Wotte was appointed to the newly-created post in June, and has since been poring over the Scottish leagues, assessing the available talent.

The Dutchman believes there are some hidden gems to be unearthed, but has warned clubs that they risk harming the national game if they refuse to give home-grown players a chance.

He points to Celtic and Scotland winger James Forrest as a prime example of what can be achieved.

“I saw that Kilmarnock and Celtic recently only had five Scottish players on the pitch from 22 and that makes me very sad,” said Wotte, who was sacked by Saints in the summer of 2009, following Markus Liebherr’s takeover at St Mary’s.

“But the best player on the pitch was a 19-year-old Scottish player and that's the light in the darkness for me.

“It means there are good, young Scottish players and we should give them more of a chance to play, more first team football.

“I see some players from abroad and I've seen similar quality young Scottish football players but they are not allowed to get a chance because it's a little risk to put a young player on the pitch.

“I'm so happy with James Forrest at the moment because he is the light in the darkness for us. He is the next star and he is a young, Scottish-educated player.

“There must be more James Forrests. Of course there are more. But Celtic give him the opportunity to shine.”

Wotte, who worked with some of the Netherlands’ best talent when he was the Dutch Under-21 head coach, said the dismal effort by Scottish club sides in European competition this season should serve as a harsh lesson.

“I think everybody in August got a real wake-up call and a reality check when Hearts lost 5-0 against Spurs, which can happen because the difference in money is massive,” he said.

“But also when Rangers and Celtic were kicked out of Europe - that was really the week that everybody understood that we need to do something else and we need to keep on improving ourselves otherwise we are on the wrong side of the hill. We want to go up, we don't want to go down.”

Wotte’s remit with the SFA is overseeing elite player development at every level. In the long run, it is hoped that will help Scotland end their lengthy absence from major international finals – the 1998 World Cup remains the last tournament they qualified for.

“I've seen all levels - I've been to the national team, the Scottish Premier League, the Scottish Football Leagues, the youth leagues,” said Wotte. “I've been around and, in general, I think we are underachieving.

“To be honest, we are not good enough and we can do a much better job in general at every level.”

The Scottish FA will now create seven regional performance schools that Wotte hopes will nurture the country’s best young talent.

“We have an exciting project coming up with the seven performance schools, which are football schools in a very unique way,” he said.

“We want to create a situation where the best youth players in a region can attend the performance school and start the curriculum every day with football for one and a half hours.

“It means they will have a lot of extra hours to have good quality football sessions five teams a week. If we are producing better youth players, everything will be better in Scotland.

“I can only tell you my opinion. I'm coming from another country and just assessing the situation in this country. It's an easy discussion for me - if you don't invest in your youth, you will not have anything at the end.

“I am sure that in 2020, six or seven players in the national team will have a performance school history. There is no doubt in my mind. We just have to be patient and sometimes that is difficult in football because we want to be better tomorrow.”