World Cup Qualifiers | October 2017 | Play off draw on Tuesday

Peanut Butter said:
You can't polish a turd mate. Strachan has done wonders with that lot.
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We've been absolute wank for years. Scottish football is absolutely dire to watch, i've had many debates with my mates about the quality and I've always stood by my comparison of league 1 level of play is what we see day in day out in the SPL. Because of that, we'll never produce the quality required to comfortably beat teams.

This qualifying campaign has been very good, we've got some surprising results, but if there's things guaranteed in life, it's death, taxes and Scotland fecking it up somehow.
 
Red Dreams said:
Now we have to put up with the papers bigging up England and see them go out from the group stages.
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But that's the best bit. Watch them get carried away, endure it even. Your payback? Seeing Dele Alli on his knees with tears rolling down his face plastered over all the newspapers.
 
Camy89 said:
We've been absolute wank for years. Scottish football is absolutely dire to watch, i've had many debates with my mates about the quality and I've always stood by my comparison of league 1 level of play is what we see day in day out in the SPL. Because of that, we'll never produce the quality required to comfortably beat teams.

This qualifying campaign has been very good, we've got some surprising results, but if there's things guaranteed in life, it's death, taxes and Scotland fecking it up somehow.
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Celtic tend to be more Championship level and in recent times would perhaps hold their own in the bottom half of the SPL. The rest of the league is probably League One standard though, with a few dire teams at the bottom probably at League Two level.

Still, other fairly average leagues often manage to have decent national teams. Questions have to be asked as to why it's been generations since we've produced any player who could reasonably be seen as world-class.
 
Camy89 said:
We've been absolute wank for years. Scottish football is absolutely dire to watch, i've had many debates with my mates about the quality and I've always stood by my comparison of league 1 level of play is what we see day in day out in the SPL. Because of that, we'll never produce the quality required to comfortably beat teams.

This qualifying campaign has been very good, we've got some surprising results, but if there's things guaranteed in life, it's death, taxes and Scotland fecking it up somehow.
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Not true at all. Polish Ekstraklasa is even more dogshit yet we've produced some great players over the years and now manage to get into EC/WC. I'd say that your biggest problem (and it would partially apply to other British nations and Irishes) is that many of your players rather stay in the UK than challenge themselves somewhere abroad where they would have to face such problems as possibly learning a new language, learning different playing styles, approaches, etc. For a good number of those players it's more comfortable to stay in Championship or benchwarm at some shitty EPL clubs than try going to your Bundesligas, Ligue Uns and Serie As.
 
Cheesy said:
We're not great, but we're not that bad a side. Griffiths is a very good striker. Armstrong's a good midfielder. Tierney and Robertson are both talented full-backs, and Tierney's likely going to keep improving.

I think the frustration comes more from the fact that we ultimately always fail in qualification. Naturally we know we're not the best side out there and that we're not going to make every tournament, but with better management and better organisation plenty of similarly average sides have managed to make international tournaments in recent years. We'll have gone 22 years without making one on the off-chance we qualify for 2020. Otherwise we'll be looking at a quarter of a century.
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I respectfully disagree mate.

Who would have done a better job with Scotland? There's a reason why Scotland haven't qualified for a major competition since 1998. They simply don't have good enough players.

Scotland are no different to the Slovenia's or Austria's of this world. No manager would have qualified Scotland this year or the previous campaign. International football is brutal at times.
 
I hope we (ireland) don't go out with a whimper tomorrow.
I know we are not world beaters but we have got players to play some football and that's proven with performances of some of our players in premier league. They are more than holding their own.

Brady Hendricks arter McLean all solid premier league players even Steven fecking ward is playing well for burnley even tho I don't like him. Hoolohan has to play and long up top.
Please don't play glen whelan.

I hope our manager trusts out players to win. I think we can but it is all down to how o neill sets us out.

And the fecking FAI given him a new contract before qualifiers are up is a joke they done similar with trap. Every other county would wait until they see how we fare up.

You have to remember we were 5 points clear in this group at one point and now struggling for qualification. I think questions have to be asked of the manager rather than rewarding him.

All that said come on you boys in green tomorrow !!!!
 
Kostur said:
Not true at all. Polish Ekstraklasa is even more dogshit yet we've produced some great players over the years and now manage to get into EC/WC. I'd say that your biggest problem (and it would partially apply to other British nations and Irishes) is that many of your players rather stay in the UK than challenge themselves somewhere abroad where they would have to face such problems as possibly learning a new language, learning different playing styles, approaches, etc. For a good number of those players it's more comfortable to stay in Championship or benchwarm at some shitty EPL clubs than try going to your Bundesligas, Ligue Uns and Serie As.
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Poland’s population about 9 times greater than Scotland. You should produce some decent players and qualify for tournaments.
 
Cheesy said:
Celtic tend to be more Championship level and in recent times would perhaps hold their own in the bottom half of the SPL. The rest of the league is probably League One standard though, with a few dire teams at the bottom probably at League Two level.

Still, other fairly average leagues often manage to have decent national teams. Questions have to be asked as to why it's been generations since we've produced any player who could reasonably be seen as world-class.
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Celtic in the bottom half of the SPL?
 
Kostur said:
Not true at all. Polish Ekstraklasa is even more dogshit yet we've produced some great players over the years and now manage to get into EC/WC. I'd say that your biggest problem (and it would partially apply to other British nations and Irishes) is that many of your players rather stay in the UK than challenge themselves somewhere abroad where they would have to face such problems as possibly learning a new language, learning different playing styles, approaches, etc. For a good number of those players it's more comfortable to stay in Championship or benchwarm at some shitty EPL clubs than try going to your Bundesligas, Ligue Uns and Serie As.
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I think you highlighted the wrong part of my post but I see your point (although you have much more people to choose from with regards population). I'm actually not sure how many Scottish players are playing abroad, but I suspect it's not that many. Whether this is by their choice or just that they haven't been offered the chance due to either not being good enough or not enough exposure, I'm not sure.

Our best player, personally, is Tierney. He's rapid and is very good for Celtic. I worry that all he'll do is play for Celtic and that will stunt his development. United have been keeping an eye on him and I'd love for him to sign, he's a great full-back.

I still stand by my thoughts that, apart from Tierney, our squad is not good, lack quality and are ageing.
 
Something has to be done about these lasers fans shine on the players in the stadiums. Heavy fines and stadium bans are in order.
 
Peanut Butter said:
I respectfully disagree mate.

Who would have done a better job with Scotland? There's a reason why Scotland haven't qualified for a major competition since 1998. They simply don't have good enough players.

Scotland are no different to the Slovenia's or Austria's of this world. No manager would have qualified Scotland this year or the previous campaign. International football is brutal at times.
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Both of whom have qualified for international tournaments since 1998. I'm not arguing that we're a particularly good side or that we should be reaching every tournament; we aren't good enough for that. What I am saying is that with better management we'd be capable of reaching an occasional tournament, perhaps 1/4. Plenty of fairly average teams manage to make the occasional big tournament and we shouldn't be any different.

Even if we're not great, Strachan's made some fairly basic errors in his time as manager when it comes to team selection and his tactical approach. Like an array of coaches who have come before him he's incredibly negative and risk-averse, which is undone by the fact that we're not very good at defending. He gives game-time to players who are nowhere near good enough to be in the side; as I've said, it's only recently Griffiths has become our out-and-out main striker, when in reality he probably should've been for much longer.

Granted, quite who we can get in manager-wise is the problem. Strachan should - and probably will - go after this insipid campaign but we'll probably bring in Moyes. Or MacKay. Or Lambert. I wouldn't be against looking abroad again though, to see if there's a potentially left-field candidate out there who could come in with a new approach and direction. Vogts was a disaster but we shouldn't rule out all foreign managers due to that.
 
Peanut Butter said:
Scotland are no different to the Slovenia's or Austria's of this world.
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Without wanting to be controversial on this one, I struggle to see where does Scotland have someone like Oblak or Ilicic on their team, or like Alaba and Ilsanker for Austria.
Kostur said:
I'd say that your biggest problem (and it would partially apply to other British nations and Irishes) is that many of your players rather stay in the UK than challenge themselves somewhere abroad where they would have to face such problems as possibly learning a new language, learning different playing styles, approaches, etc.
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Probably true, after the Bosman ruling when our best players in Portugal started to play in better leagues than ours we started to qualify to all tournaments except France 98.
 
Cheesy said:
Celtic tend to be more Championship level and in recent times would perhaps hold their own in the bottom half of the SPL. The rest of the league is probably League One standard though, with a few dire teams at the bottom probably at League Two level.

Still, other fairly average leagues often manage to have decent national teams. Questions have to be asked as to why it's been generations since we've produced any player who could reasonably be seen as world-class.
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You need to do what Wales do and pursue every player in English academies with Scottish grandparents. Koromoko Dembele’s Scotland age group do pretty well you know. If you can bring one special talent like that through then that would be a big boost. Think Welsh players are more common in English academies too, they are better than Scottish ones.
 
Camy89 said:
I think you highlighted the wrong part of my post but I see your point (although you have much more people to choose from with regards population). I'm actually not sure how many Scottish players are playing abroad, but I suspect it's not that many. Whether this is by their choice or just that they haven't been offered the chance due to either not being good enough or not enough exposure, I'm not sure.

Our best player, personally, is Tierney. He's rapid and is very good for Celtic. I worry that all he'll do is play for Celtic and that will stunt his development. United have been keeping an eye on him and I'd love for him to sign, he's a great full-back.

I still stand by my thoughts that, apart from Tierney, our squad is not good, lack quality and are ageing.
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Tierney's excellent - I reckon he'll be down south within a year or two if his progression continues. Griffiths is also very good though and Armstrong's decent as well.
 
Cheesy said:
Granted, quite who we can get in manager-wise is the problem. Strachan should - and probably will - go after this insipid campaign but we'll probably bring in Moyes. Or MacKay. Or Lambert. I wouldn't be against looking abroad again though, to see if there's a potentially left-field candidate out there who could come in with a new approach and direction. Vogts was a disaster but we shouldn't rule out all foreign managers due to that.
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If there is a god, please don't let this happen.
 
Wilt said:
They need to sack Southgate now .....we'll be an embarrassment in the WC with him in charge.

Never thought I'd say this..... give the England job to Giggs, despite his lack of any experience, I'm positive he could do no worse than that simpleton Southgate who has won feck all and never will.
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Give it Giggsy till the end of the world cup?
 
Cheesy said:
Tierney's excellent - I reckon he'll be down south within a year or two if his progression continues. Griffiths is also very good though and Armstrong's decent as well.
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I went to watch Celtic v Partick last year at Parkhead (I'm an Aberdeen fan, but went with my gf's family who are staunch Celtic fans) and saw Tierney after the game getting picked up by his parents. :lol:
 
Classical Mechanic said:
Poland’s population about 9 times greater than Scotland. You should produce some decent players and qualify for tournaments.
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It's a nice argument and all but then you have Iceland having what, 350k people compared to your 5,3 mil? China and India are shite at football and produce feck all.
 
Kostur said:
It's a nice argument and all but then you have Iceland having what, 350k people compared to your 5,3 mil? China and India are shite at football and produce feck all.
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Probably Iceland is the best example for Scotland, they have 15 times less population and are going for the second tournament in a row, but of course it helps to have a bigger number of Federated players to choose.
 
Cheesy said:
Tierney's excellent - I reckon he'll be down south within a year or two if his progression continues. Griffiths is also very good though and Armstrong's decent as well.
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We've been scouting him extensively for the last year or so according to many reports. It's kinda unlucky of Scotland that two of their best prospects play in the same position.
 
SCP said:
Probably Iceland is the best example for Scotland, they have 15 times less population and are going for the second tournament in a row, but of course it helps to have a bigger number of Federated players to choose.
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Yeah I know that Iceland would suffice, threw China and India so it's not an exception that proves the rule stuff.
 
Northern Ireland have started well, look really good with their passing. Big team too.
 
Kostur said:
Not true at all. Polish Ekstraklasa is even more dogshit yet we've produced some great players over the years and now manage to get into EC/WC. I'd say that your biggest problem (and it would partially apply to other British nations and Irishes) is that many of your players rather stay in the UK than challenge themselves somewhere abroad where they would have to face such problems as possibly learning a new language, learning different playing styles, approaches, etc. For a good number of those players it's more comfortable to stay in Championship or benchwarm at some shitty EPL clubs than try going to your Bundesligas, Ligue Uns and Serie As.
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What's the difference between a scottish player warming the bench for a PL side and warming the bench for an italian/german/spanish side? You are good because you have guys like Lewandowski, Zielinski, Milik, Kuba, Glik, Krychowiak, etc. Those guys left Poland because they were good, they didn't become good because they left Poland
 
Kostur said:
Yeah I know that Iceland would suffice, threw China and India so it's not an exception that proves the rule stuff.
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Not to mention in the past they qualified for tournaments with less teams, reality is that football changed a lot on the last 25 years, even more after the Bosman ruling.
 
Great scenes in Aleaxandria. Shirtless kids running onto the field to celebrate with Salah lol.
 
giorno said:
Those guys left Poland because they were good, they didn't become good because they left Poland
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They improve their level training and competing with better managers and better players.
 
Kostur said:
It's a nice argument and all but then you have Iceland having what, 350k people compared to your 5,3 mil? China and India are shite at football and produce feck all.
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If you are a relatively wealthy country that loves football with 40m people in it, as Poland is, you should be doing half decent at football. Much harder for a small country like Scotland to succeed. They can do better though but I don’t see them comparable to Poland.

This Iceland team will be a one off. It is unsustainable to maintain their level with such a small talent pool. In India cricket is life and they are bloody good at that, football isn,t on anything like the same level and it is a very poor country. China doesn’t have a football culture like we do in Europe but they are immense at the Olympics for one because it is important to them.

If India and China could improve infrastructure and Football was as popular as it is in Europe they would be winning world cups.
 
What the hell have Arsenal done to Mustafi? We need to call the UN or the ICC in Den Haag. This is an atrocity.
 
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