"Poor decisions based on inherent bias and misassumption have been well covered by books such as Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman, Moneyball by Michael Lewis — both of which are referenced here — and Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell. But McDowall must be one of the first to have applied such thinking to how ‘talent identification and development’ is practised — or perhaps more correctly mis-practised — in Scottish football... The national side’s success may have papered over the cracks for the time being but The System is an important book that should be reached for the next time a round of soul searching in the national game begins."