Scotland’s World Cup introspection could start in a few places. We could recount the cornerstones of the Steve Clarke era: the goalless training games that built the defensive base; the speech that dampened eyes before the epic night that sealed World Cup qualification against Denmark; the final supper in Charlotte last month when he announced that his new four-year contract would torn be up after just four weeks.We could talk about the requirements of the next manager and who is best placed to get the team to the 2030 World Cup. The nationality, the experience, the formation, the style.But the more people you speak to about what is next for Scottish football, the more it becomes apparent that these questions are inadequate in both scope and urgency.The real question is: where are the next elite-level players and what is the plan to start producing them again?Andy Robertson, Kieran Tierney, Lewis Ferguson, John McGinn and Scott McTominay will all be on the wrong side of 30 at the next World Cup. Even Billy Gilmour will be approaching that milestone.Who is next off the conveyor belt? The harsh truth is that no such thing exists. Simply put, hardly any Scottish teenagers are playing first-team football. The Scottish Premiership is not platforming nearly enough teenage talents and the very best ones are being gobbled up by English academies.In December 2020, a month before freedom of movement was due to end following the Brexit transition period, The Athletic explored how the constitutional change would likely see Scottish academies become vulnerable to English advances since the latter would no longer be able to fish in European waters until after the age of 18.The numbers have outstripped those fears. The database created by The Athletic below shows how the rate of migration to England has increased from 35 teenagers between 2012 and 2020, to 66 between 2021 and 2026. Thirteen have gone in the first seven months of this year alone.