American singer Lenny Kravitz once sang "If you want it you've got to believe."
Whilst Kravitz would never be considered as a renowned philosopher, he does raise a pertinent point in relation to the Scotland football team. Belief is a trait that seems to be lacking in this side and has been for the most part over the last 15 years or so.
Sure Scotland have had their moments such as the incredible home and away wins over France in the Euro 2008 campaign (our most glorious failure of a campaign, where we got 24 points and still didn't qualify), a Hampden win over Holland and beating Croatia away from home in 2013, when they were ranked fourth in the world.
However, the brutal fact remains Scotland have failed to qualify for a tournament since the 1998 World Cup and in that time have only reached two play offs, both for the European Championships of 2000 and 2004. The failure to qualify for Euro 2016 is particularly galling considering the increase in nations competing went up to 24 and the fact all the other home nations will be living it up in France.
Other smaller nations such as Iceland and Albania will also be taking their place in the finals. Whilst there might be shock at the Dutch not qualifying, only 15 months after finishing third at the World Cup, I'm much more concerned with the problems Scotland face having only seen them qualify for three major tournaments in my lifetime, all of which were when I was seven or younger.
For me, a huge part of the failure is down to the mentality of the Scotland set-up from the players to the management, right down to the fans and the media (Yes, I'm not afraid of criticising the industry I work in). Whilst like Kravitz, I also don't claim to be a profound philosopher here are five things I think Scotland need to do mentally in order to boost our chances of qualifying in the future.
1. Stop celebrating failure
Due to Scotland's lack of qualifying for major tournaments in the last two decades, the attitude of many fans has switched from analysing why that has happened to simply accepting we will be watching on the televisions screens every two years. That is plain wrong. Take Sunday's game against Gibraltar for example. Whilst I have nothing wrong with Tartan Army supporters voicing support for Gordon Strachan, when you break it down they are chanting for a man who led us to two wins outwith the Gibraltar games in this campaign.
Whilst the majority overall would have booked tickets for Portugal thinking this could have been a qualification party, there didn't seem to be much doom and gloom at the fact Scotland didn't qualify just three days earlier. I'm not in the process of stopping folk enjoying themselves abroad, but to me it sent out the wrong message.
It sent out the message that, "Oh well, we've failed again, we may as well just have a party here and forget about it." Instead, people who were there should have been asking questions about why it had went wrong, why Strachan didn't use this game as a chance to blood some new talent, why Scotland players weren't up for it in Georgia.
Until the vast majority of the Tartan Army get serious, then the players will know that they will get their support whatever happens. That's not healthy. Personally I had no interest in Sunday's game and stuck on a Kevin Bridges DVD instead. I know someone else who was watching Mad Men. Not true fans? Not at all. Living in the real world? Most definitely.
2. Stop blaming bad luck and bad group draws
All too often Scotland fans bemoan the bad luck we get and the bad groups we are drawn into. Whilst there can be no denying Robert Lewandowski's late equaliser for Poland on Thursday night was a fortunate goal, were Scotland not fortunate with two strikes against Germany? Or how about Shaun Maloney's deflected efforts against Georgia and Ireland?
Fortunate goals happen in football and Scotland can benefit or not from them. There is no evidence to suggest that bad luck is at the root of our failure to qualify and frankly it is a really lazy excuse to use upon elimination from the potential of qualification.
Scotland should have had more than enough to get out of this group, or at the bare minimum get into a play off spot. The truth is we were not good enough. We were the only nation to lose to Georgia away from home and only took five points (including a win over Gibraltar) from the last 15 available in the group.
Would I have fancied Scotland to qualify from Wales's group or Northern Ireland's? Potentially yes. I think we would have had enough in Northern Ireland's group but the facts remain that a win in Georgia would have got us a play off spot so there's no point in blaming a bad draw. Same goes for the Euro 2012 group when Craig Levein farcically played no one up front away to Czech Republic, who were hardly world beaters. Failure to beat Lithuania away that campaign cost us too.
If Scotland fans and management honestly think drawing teams like Lithuania and Georgia are bad draws then we can forget about qualifying for major tournaments for another generation.
3. Don't talk about 'bogey teams'
Following on from that previous point, far too much was made about a 2-0 loss Scotland suffered in the Euro 2008 campaign away to Georgia, in the build up to the game in Tbilisi in September. The media were particularly guilty of it in the week leading up to the match. You couldn't get away from it if you were reading the papers, listening to press conferences or even just seeing posts on social media.
Quite what relevance a game eight years ago had to this qualifying campaign, I am still struggling to work out. That was all done and dusted. Scotland had a team featuring Graeme Murty, Graham Alexander and Stephen Pearson in that night. Hardly players who are playing for us now.
Georgia had won four qualifiers since then including wins over Gibraltar and Malta. They were ranked almost 150th in the Fifa Rankings for a reason. They aren't that good and weren't in 2007 either. We should have been talking up how Scotland have much better players than them, play better football and how every other nation had gone to Tbilisi and won.
Instead we talked about how 2007 haunted us and how it could happen again and how Tbilisi temperatures could affect the players. What typical Scottish negativity.
Our first World Cup qualifier is away to Malta next September. Spare me the nonsense about it being a potentially tricky start. Just say as it is- Scotland should be winning these games.
4. Think outside the box
What I mean by this is, why not look to other sports as a source of inspiration. Paul McGinley, the European Ryder Cup captain used this to wonderful effect when he brought in Sir Alex Ferguson to give the team a pep talk before last years event at Gleneagles.
Whilst I'm not claiming Fergie won the Ryder Cup for Europe, his speeches were clearly an inspiration to the team, no matter where they were from on the continent. They knew exactly who he was and how much he'd achieved. They were keen to write their own places in history after listening to him.
So why don't the Scotland management team take a leaf out of McGinley's book? Why not pick up the phone to Sir Chris Hoy and ask him to come along to a training session ahead of a vital qualifier to give an insight into how he became the country's most successful Olympian ever?
Why not get in touch with Andy Murray to see how he believed he could always win a Grand Slam and as to how he coped with the pressure of that Wimbledon final in 2013?
Why not even ring up world darts champion Gary Anderson? He had to beat the best player to ever throw a dart, Phil Taylor to collect the world title earlier this year and that was down to him believing he had the beating of Taylor.
Those are just some suggestions and ones I feel could certainly make the Scotland players think a little differently. Whilst those sportstars have done brilliantly, football is still the national sport and it would give the whole nation a lift if they qualified.
5. Believe you can beat anyone
This sounds simplistic but it's rarely a belief you see Scotland carry onto the pitch. Credit must go to Ireland for taking four points out of six against world champions Germany in our Euro group, but far too much of the analysis in Scotland bemoaned how Ireland had managed to do that.
Instead we should have been looking at how we failed to hold onto positions where with 20 minutes to go in Germany we were on course for a point and looked the better team and at Hampden where we were level at half-time?
We need to rediscover the belief that ensured we beat France twice and ran world champions Italy hugely close. But we need to get away from 'bravery in defeat' and 'glorious failure'. Those cliches will get us nowhere. Instead, we need to go out on the park home and away truly believing we can win. Anything can happen in a game of football; shocks happen all the time. Largely it's down to the underdogs mindset.
Scotland can have their day in major tournaments again and there are plenty talented players coming through. Here's hoping they bring belief into future squads.
