Reluctant Ally McCoist reckons his fellow pundit Jason Cundy was right enough with his scathing Scottish football rant - even if the Englishman was a bit "harsh" in the way he put it over.
Scottish clubs have been a major disappointment in Europe this season with Celtic the latest club to crash out altogether after Tuesday night's draw with Shakhtar. Motherwell and Dundee United are long since gone and Rangers and Hearts both need unlikely turnarounds to salvage their hopes of playing European football after Christmas.
The particular focus has been on Glasgow's big two with Rangers losing four successive games on their return to the Champions League, shipping 16 goals in the process. Celtic meanwhile only managed two points from their five games as the coefficient ranking sinks like a stone. That led to Cundy branding Scottish clubs "fourth tier" as far as the European stage is concerned, and McCoist was reluctant to agree.
The former Ibrox striker admits SPFL clubs are "miles behind" in Europe - although he does reckon his talkSPORT colleague was harsh. He said: "He's right, isn't he? The annoying thing is he's right. Miles behind top level European football. Of course he's right.
"The Scottish clubs in European competition this year have been a big disappointment. I don't think there's any doubt about that.
"After last season when Rangers were fantastic in getting to a Europa League final. This season, I've got to be honest, Rangers did well getting to the Champions League group stages with a good result over in Holland.
"But, and I include Hearts and Motherwell, the results have been really poor. There are a number of reasons for it, there's absolutely no chance the Scottish clubs can compete on a consistent basis against the finances of the top teams in European football.
"But Rangers and Celtic can't have it both ways because they've got more money than the rest of the teams in Scotland, so there's got to be a balance. But I've been really disappointed in the level of result of Scottish teams in Europe. So I've got to agree with Jason. I think he's slightly harsh in the way he puts it over."
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