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1 hour ago, Chairman Mao said:

Harry Souttar helping Stoke City to victory away to Aston Villa tonight.

 

Aye. The reason I get such a bee in my bonnet about it is it is so disappointing. So exasperating, all these years why can't we produce good players then we produce some and lose them to other countries.

Just like McGeady and McCarthy Souttar is now another one we will have to watch be excellent for ten years and be just what we're missing.  I would have loved to see McGeady and McFadden in the same Scotland team, and McCarthy would add so much to us. People think our midfield is very strong but we don't have a midfielder like him and they're so important at that level especially for a team like us.

Another clean sheet tonight, that's no goals conceded in the three cup games so far I believe, and a clean sheet in the league too, is that no goals in all four of his appearances so far?  

Anyway, there's nobody could seriously be claiming at this point he wouldn't have been at the very least in this latest squad and probably in the last couple of squads by this point, and is playing at a higher level than any other defender we have of a similar age.

He may even have put in a couple of decent performances and claimed a spot already next to McKenna and we could be looking quite solid there.  Its incredibly frustrating.

We lost all three of those, and others, all because the people that run our game are total wallopers. 

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10 hours ago, Chairman Mao said:

Harry Souttar helping Stoke City to victory away to Aston Villa tonight.

 

Feel there was a real missed opportunity with him. Yes, he got relegated in a dreadful County side, but he had zero help from the rest of the defence and was raw as hell at the time.

Edited by Comrie
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3 hours ago, Comrie said:

Feel there was a real missed opportunity with him. Yes, he got relegated in a dreadful County side, but he had zero help from the rest of the defence and was raw as hell at the time.

He was a teenager, how Ross County performed in the 40% of a season he was there is utterly irrelevant in judging him as a player. The only thing you can use from that is did he play, yes he did every week from the start ful 90 from his first day there till his last, so he did excellent, that's all you can ask for from a kid on loan. That's a pass with flying colours, how Ross County did is irrelevant.

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5 minutes ago, Enigma said:

It’s all a moot point. He chose Australia. Can’t really blame him, probably realised he’d a good chance of getting to at least a couple of world cups.

I do blame him. I don't respect people that do that, I think its very low and indicative of bad character. As I say someone like Arfield I completely respect and best of luck to him with Canada, he gave Scotland every chance, someone that walks away from their own country as a teenager is an arsehole.

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I always thought with John Souttar already being involved with the top team that Harry would naturally and gladly follow. It's maybe a similar complacency from the national team setup that led to him slipping through our fingers.

 

I agree we should have made a better effort to secure him (not sure we could have justified giving him a cap unless there was a pisstake friendly at the time, but even that wouldn't have tied him down), as I reckon it wouldn't have taken a lot to do so.

 

He is a loss though not currently a great one, but in years to come depending on where his career takes him he could become a sore one.

 

 

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What specifically do you think we should have done to "secure him"?
I'm not a football coach (like some of us on here [emoji57]) so I don't know how these things are normally done, but a simple, sincere one to one chat for one thing could only have been helpful. Something along the lines of "you're really important for us and the top team manager sees you as a potential future CB partner alongside your brother." Even bringing him into the u21s early to match words with actions.

Maybe something like the one to one chat was done, I don't know. It's just a gut feeling that the odds started on our side yet he ended up going with Australia. That suggests to me that we didn't make as much of an effort as we could have to keep him happy and focused on becoming a Scotland player.

If it was simply a case of Australia waving a cap at him and him fucking off then sod him, but I feel like our association were most likely remiss as they have been several times in the past.

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And I can guarantee you, you can take this to the bank, it was Ricky Sbragia who was in charge of the u19s at the time, Souttar had played for them then they stopped picking him. 100% nailed on it was because 'he pure isnae playing first team fitba ken'.

For the fucking under 19s!   There's a wee clue in the name there as to the point I'm trying to make.  
Its an UNDER NINETEEN team, what fucking difference would it make if you're playing first team football or not?  They aren't even a first team themselves. 

He was playing regularly for Stoke u23s at the time, instead they picked haddies who were playing first team football for shite clubs.  So Souttar was punished for progressing further in his career earlier, its ridiculous. 

You should just be picking the best eligible players, which he has been right through his whole career for the appropriate age group.  It was a total no-brainer to pick him all the time, but we had a literal no-brainer making the decisions.

But that's why it would have been, and that's what happens when you put idiots in charge of things.

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1 minute ago, Gordopolis said:

I'm not a football coach (like some of us on here emoji57.png) so I don't know how these things are normally done, but a simple, sincere one to one chat for one thing could only have been helpful. Something along the lines of "you're really important for us and the top team manager sees you as a potential future CB partner alongside your brother." Even bringing him into the u21s early to match words with actions.

Maybe something like the one to one chat was done, I don't know. It's just a gut feeling that the odds started on our side yet he ended up going with Australia. That suggests to me that we didn't make as much of an effort as we could have to keep him happy and focused on becoming a Scotland player.

If it was simply a case of Australia waving a cap at him and him fucking off then sod him, but I feel like our association were most likely remiss as they have been several times in the past.
 

He said himself the reason was he hadn't been called up by Scotland for either u19 or u21 squad for nearly two years, whilst fit and being better than people that were getting called up regularly, and he had no contact from them. So Australia asked the question he went aye why not, they saw him realised they've got a fucking gem so capped him straight away and he's gone now.

Now imo he should have contacted Scotland said what's going on and said to Australia give us a couple of years to see if Scotland works out etc, but its Scotland's fault. If they had looked after him properly he'd be our player, he wanted to play for us.

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He said himself the reason was he hadn't been called up by Scotland for either u19 or u21 squad for nearly two years, whilst fit and being better than people that were getting called up regularly, and he had no contact from them. So Australia asked the question he went aye why not, they saw him realised they've got a fucking gem so capped him straight away and he's gone now.
Now imo he should have contacted Scotland said what's going on and said to Australia give us a couple of years to see if Scotland works out etc, but its Scotland's fault. If they had looked after him properly he'd be our player, he wanted to play for us.


I didn't know that about him appealing for a call-up. Sbragia really was a simpleton.
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Anyway no point dwelling on it any more. I never said he was Beckenbauer btw, in typical fashion some on here completely misrepresented things, I said he's easily good enough for Scotland, would improve us, will almost certainly play in the premiership, and is at least as good or better than all the other defenders we have of a similar age. 

He is, that's all true. He's also progressed further in his career than any defender we have of a similar age so far.

Its just going to be one more we have to watch doing excellent for a long long time and wondering what might have been.  Btw him, McTominay, Dykes we all of a sudden become excellent at set pieces which are very important for a team like us, no more pish from Strachan about being genetically inferior either, I think he's actually the tallest player in Europe just now. 

And he loves to wander out of defence and waltz past a couple of players, just so fuckin Scottish with how he plays a bit gallus and would suit international football very well.  Same with his brother if he didn't have his injury problems.

I genuinely believe H Souttar would almost certainly be a first choice for Scotland already btw. Who are our first choice pairing? Nobody knows, we don't have one. All you have to do is come and do well for a game or two look the part the jersey's yours, I think he would have done that already and would be first choice next to McKenna.

But its done now.  I find it hard to let things like that go, McCarthy still pisses me off every week, such a class act, but what are you gonna do.

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2 minutes ago, Gordopolis said:


 

 


I didn't know that about him appealing for a call-up. Sbragia really was a simpleton.

 

He didn't publicly appeal, when he went to Australia the reason he gave was that Scotland hadn't called him up for two years and nobody had been in touch and he wanted to play for Scotland but Scotland apparently didn't want him.

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