There's plenty to be optimistic about in Scottish football these days. 

Try telling that to ex-Rangers man Kris Boyd.

The former striker had fans in an uproar with his claims that there are no great players kicking a ball in Scotland.

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But it wasn't that he gave his opinion - one he's earned the right to give after scoring 273 goals during his time at Ibrox and Kilmarnock - that seemed to cause such outrage. 

No. The issue was that Boyd made the claims live on Sky Sports in front of an audience of thousands.

And not just thousands of Scots, either.

Pundits, players and managers have been harping on for God-knows how long about bigging up our game.

About promoting Scottish football as something to be proud of. Every weird, wacky and wonderful aspect of it.

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So it's virtually unforgivable that a man who has made a career from the game in this country would so easily and quickly belittle the game on a platform like Sky Sports.

I can't imagine Sky will have been too chuffed with his comments, either.

The broadcast giant recently won the rights to show live 'Scottish fitba' from next season by splashing what is believed to be around £30million per-season.

Why would they do that if the standard of player or quality of team wasn't anything 'great'?

And let's unpack the 'great player' debate itself.

Boyd's fellow pundit, Kris Commons, rhymed off two names he considered to be great players.

Celtic's Callum McGregor and James Forrest were the pair Commons hailed in his rebuttal - only for Boyd to jump in again to clarify that he believes them to be 'great' for Celtic and NOT in a footballing sense, generally.

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McGregor beat every other player in world football last season, clocking in a whopping 5,894 minutes played.

James Forrest walked away with a host of individual accolades last season and continues to do the business both domestically and in the Europa League.

Across the city, Alfredo Morelos is being touted as a £20million player who could be set for a move to the English Premier League next summer, if reports are to be believed.

The Colombian has scored 25 goals in 29 games for Rangers this season already - including 13 goals in Europe.

Whatever you think of the prices being thrown around, that return is not to be sniffed at.

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But let's also take into consideration the potential of Scotland's stars.

After all, clubs these days seem to look closer at potential. They buy potential, and that's one thing the Scottish league has an abundance of. 

They spend fortunes on players they expect will come good in the future. 

Kieran Tierney has a huge future in the game and Arsenal forked out £25million because they could see it.

So if we look a bit closer at Boyd's thoughts, not only are there a handful of great players currently starring in Scotland, but there are even more with the talent, skill and *buzzword incoming* POTENTIAL to be greater still.

Odsonne Edouard is one. Aaron Hickey another, and we've not even started to talk about Ryan Christie. 

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David Turnbull and Lewis Ferguson look likely to go far as does Kris Ajer, who most would argue has almost an unlimited potential in the game. Ryan Kent has proven to be an impressive player for Rangers already and it remains to be seen how far he can go. 

Boyd would've known his point would bring him a bit of heat.

It might even be what he was looking for.

There are some great players playing in Scotland right now. Players who could head down south and play in almost any club in the English Premier League.

That's what Scottish football has going for it.

Well, it's one of many things.