Next Scotland Manager Mk II

[skippy2015]

Burke did alright against Lithuania and Strachan got booed for hooking him.
In a display of the thin skinned petulance for which he became increasingly noted, Strachan then left him unstripped for the next game, one he said required experience and in which we crumpled to a pitiful 3-0 defeat.

Burke had a bad game especially defensively wasn’t tracking back and got skinned at least twice by the Lithuanian left midfielder. had one good run at the start- will be a good player in future but had a poor game

[DeeTillEhDeh]

The point is that Strachan has gone - time to move on and stopping doing what might have been.

[troopio]

Gary Caldwell seems to be "keen" to speak to the SFA....Perhaps he is worth speaking to at least? Maybe have him and McLeish working alongside each other? I was never a huge Caldwell fan but one thing is for sure, the lad loves his country and quite importantly (it would seem) wants the job.....Maybe it is time to go with someone younger, who would have fresher ideas and who, in fairness, has very recent experience of what it is like to play for the Nation.

 

[Monkey Tennis]

28 minutes ago, troopio said:

Gary Caldwell seems to be "keen" to speak to the SFA....Perhaps he is worth speaking to at least? Maybe have him and McLeish working alongside each other? I was never a huge Caldwell fan but one thing is for sure, the lad loves his country and quite importantly (it would seem) wants the job.....Maybe it is time to go with someone younger, who would have fresher ideas and who, in fairness, has very recent experience of what it is like to play for the Nation.

 

What?

Loving your country and wanting the job are important criteria?

They're going to need to print off a lot of application forms.

[forameus]

1 hour ago, Monkey Tennis said:

What?

Loving your country and wanting the job are important criteria?

They're going to need to print off a lot of application forms.

Well, the two mentioned can be important criteria, but I'd also like them to maybe assess suitability for the role too.  Maybe even above those along with a lot of others, if I could be so bold.

[C4mmy31]

Kilmarnock boss Steve Clarke has ruled himself out of the running for the Scotland job.

"You get quoted because I'm up here and I'm in the public eye in Scotland. “But I came here to work for Kilmarnock and I'm happy here now."

[Virtual Insanity]

Right. 

[Monkey Tennis]

3 minutes ago, C4mmy31 said:

Kilmarnock boss Steve Clarke has ruled himself out of the running for the Scotland job.

"You get quoted because I'm up here and I'm in the public eye in Scotland. “But I came here to work for Kilmarnock and I'm happy here now."

Is that an actual ruling out, or just a suitably humble and polite response to a speculative question?

[C4mmy31]

The full interview should be up on KillieFC TV shortly....

[SpoonTon]

31 minutes ago, Monkey Tennis said:

Is that an actual ruling out, or just a suitably humble and polite response to a speculative question?

I agree. There's nothing in that quote which rules himself out. 

[Virtual Insanity]

In fact, saying he's happy here 'now' and that the Scotland job is a fantastic opportunity for someone could almost be read as someone who wants the job - which I would bloody hope he would, if we can't attract the Killie manager we might as well pack it in for good. 

[Dunning1874]

16 hours ago, skippy2015 said:

“Diddies” this is the Scottish mentality when it comes to football. Are Georgia diddies really? Do you watch the Scottish league?

Yes. Georgia may not be at the San Marino level of minnow, but they are absolutely among the worst sides in Europe and our two defeats to them are among the worst results in our history. 

Starting with their win over us in 2007 they have played 50 competitive games. They've won 7 of them, including the two against us. The other five were another excellent win against Croatia, Malta, Belarus & Gibraltar x2. In that time they've never finished outwith the bottom two of their group and have lost to such titans of European football as Cyprus, while they failed to win a single game in the most recent campaign despite having Moldova in their group.

It's undeniable that some Scottish people are stuck in the 80s and are deluded about what Scotland's place in the footballing world should realistically be, but saying that we have no right to expect wins over a side the level of Georgia isn't an example of realists rallying against those who expect too much; it's the other side of the deluded coin, vastly understating how good Scotland's players are to absolve managers of blame for unacceptable results. We have never been as bad as Georgia are and losing to them is disgraceful.

It's people like you saying 'Aren't Scotland a complete diddy team as well though?' that allow shitehawks like Levein and Strachan to escape the level of criticism they deserve after results like drawing with Lithuania, in Levein's case actually playing for the draw and claiming it was a good point in the aftermath. On both occasions, those draws ultimately cost us qualification.

[Monkey Tennis]

2 minutes ago, Dunning1874 said:

Yes. Georgia may not be at the San Marino level of minnow, but they are absolutely among the worst sides in Europe and our two defeats to them are among the worst results in our history. 

Starting with their win over us in 2007 they have played 50 competitive games. They've won 7 of them, including the two against us. The other five were another excellent win against Croatia, Malta, Belarus & Gibraltar x2. In that time they've never finished outwith the bottom two of their group and have lost to such titans of European football as Cyprus, while they failed to win a single game in the most recent campaign despite having Moldova in their group.

It's undeniable that some Scottish people are stuck in the 80s and are deluded about what Scotland's place in the footballing world should realistically be, but saying that we have no right to expect wins over a side the level of Georgia isn't an example realism rallying against people who expect too much; it's the other side of the deluded coin, vastly understating how good Scotland's players are to absolve terrible managers of blame for unacceptable results. We have never been as bad as Georgia are and losing to them is disgraceful.

It's people like you saying 'Aren't Scotland a complete diddy team as well though?' that allow shitehawks like Levein and Strachan to escape the level of criticism they deserve after results like drawing with Lithuania, in Levein's case actually playing for the draw and claiming it was a good point in the aftermath. On both occasions, those draws ultimately cost us qualification.

Excellent post.

[forameus]

33 minutes ago, Dunning1874 said:

Yes. Georgia may not be at the San Marino level of minnow, but they are absolutely among the worst sides in Europe and our two defeats to them are among the worst results in our history. 

Starting with their win over us in 2007 they have played 50 competitive games. They've won 7 of them, including the two against us. The other five were another excellent win against Croatia, Malta, Belarus & Gibraltar x2. In that time they've never finished outwith the bottom two of their group and have lost to such titans of European football as Cyprus, while they failed to win a single game in the most recent campaign despite having Moldova in their group.

It's undeniable that some Scottish people are stuck in the 80s and are deluded about what Scotland's place in the footballing world should realistically be, but saying that we have no right to expect wins over a side the level of Georgia isn't an example of realists rallying against those who expect too much; it's the other side of the deluded coin, vastly understating how good Scotland's players are to absolve managers of blame for unacceptable results. We have never been as bad as Georgia are and losing to them is disgraceful.

It's people like you saying 'Aren't Scotland a complete diddy team as well though?' that allow shitehawks like Levein and Strachan to escape the level of criticism they deserve after results like drawing with Lithuania, in Levein's case actually playing for the draw and claiming it was a good point in the aftermath. On both occasions, those draws ultimately cost us qualification.

I think there is still a place in football for the term "diddy", I think the gap has closed considerably.  There are still absolute super-diddies - I'd expect teams like Georgia to beat teams like Gibraltar every time (and they did, twice, aggregate 7-0), for example.  But although Georgia should be on a tier below us, and are, they have improved to the point where they're a lot more streetwise, and in a lot of cases technically competent enough that we're completely unprepared.

It's partly down to the outdated attitude you mention that these teams are diddies and we should be easily beating them.  We should have beaten them on both occasions we lost, but I expect that attitude was over-egged to the point where just being well-organised was enough to completely befuddle us.  The Strachan one especially - he started off with the wrong approach, and only changed it once their goal went in.  By that time it was far too late, because Georgia knew exactly how to play against us.  I remember us playing dull, slow passes square across the line of their box, watching this wall just sit there while we did nothing.  

So although they're still diddies, they haven't stayed standing still while we have.

[Savage Henry]

4 hours ago, C4mmy31 said:

Kilmarnock boss Steve Clarke has ruled himself out of the running for the Scotland job.

"You get quoted because I'm up here and I'm in the public eye in Scotland. “But I came here to work for Kilmarnock and I'm happy here now."

That's a non-denial denial straight out of the McInnes envelope.  In other words, "I'd be delighted to hear your best offer, but I'm not promising anything."

Either way, though, if Steve Clarke is the calibre of candidate they are looking for, it's going to be a very long time before Scotland qualifies for anything.  

[skippy2015]

Yes. Georgia may not be at the San Marino level of minnow, but they are absolutely among the worst sides in Europe and our two defeats to them are among the worst results in our history. 
Starting with their win over us in 2007 they have played 50 competitive games. They've won 7 of them, including the two against us. The other five were another excellent win against Croatia, Malta, Belarus & Gibraltar x2. In that time they've never finished outwith the bottom two of their group and have lost to such titans of European football as Cyprus, while they failed to win a single game in the most recent campaign despite having Moldova in their group.
It's undeniable that some Scottish people are stuck in the 80s and are deluded about what Scotland's place in the footballing world should realistically be, but saying that we have no right to expect wins over a side the level of Georgia isn't an example of realists rallying against those who expect too much; it's the other side of the deluded coin, vastly understating how good Scotland's players are to absolve managers of blame for unacceptable results. We have never been as bad as Georgia are and losing to them is disgraceful.
It's people like you saying 'Aren't Scotland a complete diddy team as well though?' that allow shitehawks like Levein and Strachan to escape the level of criticism they deserve after results like drawing with Lithuania, in Levein's case actually playing for the draw and claiming it was a good point in the aftermath. On both occasions, those draws ultimately cost us qualification.

Funny how nobody ever mentions the 1 nil home defeat to Belarus in 2006 World Cup qualifying - prob because it was Walter smith in charge and not Strachan.

I agree with a lot you are saying but we are picking Strachans worst game in charge here. All I’m saying is we got rid of Strachan at the wrong time team was on the up played 6 won 4 drawn 2 in 2017 against a good standard of opposition. Strachan as we can see has a section of fans who have an irrational hatred of him. I have friends who are Celtic fans who despise him even though he was far more successful than Martin O’Neil and Brendan Rogers on the European stage and won 3 consecutive titles.

It’s done now and we are probably going to get Steve Clark so let’s see how he does.

[DiegoDiego]

17 hours ago, skippy2015 said:

“Diddies” this is the Scottish mentality when it comes to football. Are Georgia diddies really? Do you watch the Scottish league?

Do you watch the Georgian league? Even Brechin would manage to win a game over there.

[SpoonTon]

In defence of Strachan, he at least made us competitive again with the nations around our level. Levein's best competitive results were home draws against Serbia and Czech Republic, the worst results being a home draw with Macedonia and an away draw with Lithuania. There were no results of note and nothing which remotely looked like helping us qualify. Similarly under Burley, we managed a home draw against Norway (and were hammered away). We also lost to Macedonia. 

Strachan managed 2 draws against Poland, a win and a draw against Ireland, a win and a draw against Slovenia, a win against Slovakia, 2 wins against Croatia, and a point against England. Failing to beat Georgia away and Lithuania at home were massive failures, and there were a couple of other horrible performances in there.  I don't think Strachan can have any complaints about being sacked for those results, but the fact of the matter is that we improved significantly in our ability to compete against nations capable of qualifying for tournaments. I think Strachan took us back to the level that we should be at, but also failed to help us to the consistency needed to actually qualify. 

The problem at the moment is that I'm looking at the possible appointments as manager, and seeing a whole bunch of Burleys and Leveins. That doesn't mean that we shouldn't have tried to improve on what Strachan managed by replacing him (and we're in that position now in any case) but I can't see any realistic options who I'd particularity want as Scotland boss. 

[skippy2015]

Do you watch the Georgian league? Even Brechin would manage to win a game over there.

Do they get regularly beaten by teams from Luxembourg Lithuania and Gibraltar to ?

[SpoonTon]

3 minutes ago, DiegoDiego said:

Do you watch the Georgian league? Even Brechin would manage to win a game over there.

Brechin? You mean the winless team from the second tier of the nation that brought you European competition defeats against teams from Luxembourg, Lithuania, Malta, and Armenia?