May and June face Peru & Mexico

[JamesM82]

On 16/05/2018 at 15:40, JamesM82 said:

Pretty much already there. Total number of caps in the squad now is 119, or just over 5 per player. Only two with >11 caps (A McGregor and Mulgrew).

McGregor out and replaced by Bain. All of the goalkeepers are uncapped. Now down to 81 caps total.

[Gordopolis]

Good news. Means we have to blood a new keeper.

[kenny131]

These friendlys need scrapped with so many call offs already and I think there will be more pull outs. It's a farse

[Poet of the Macabre]

1 hour ago, kenny131 said:

It's a farse

 

[pawpar]

Just noticed that Peru are current unofficial world champions. If Scotland then beat them that makes us world champions. 

Official details here - https://www.ufwc.co.uk/

[Guest DAVIDB69]

Games are on bbc Scotland can’t see them being on Eurosport as well

[RobbieD]

4 hours ago, DAVIDB69 said:

Games are on bbc Scotland can’t see them being on Eurosport as well

Where’d you see that? Just read that they aren’t on TV at all

[Guest DAVIDB69]

Where’d you see that? Just read that they aren’t on TV at all

Advertised at the end of the Scottish cup final highlights show also a programme about Argentina 78 is going to be on sometime soon. I will guess at the 40th anniversary of the Peru game or maybe when we play them in 10 days or so

[King Kebab]

Games are on bbc Scotland can’t see them being on Eurosport as well

Hope you're right because I cannot find any reference to them being on Eurosport now, it's like it's all been removed!!!

[Guest DAVIDB69]

Hope you're right because I cannot find any reference to them being on Eurosport now, it's like it's all been removed!!!

Open up sport scene cup final highlights on iPlayer go right to the end 38 minutes or so and Jonathan Sutherland tells you

[King Kebab]

Open up sport scene cup final highlights on iPlayer go right to the end 38 minutes or so and Jonathan Sutherland tells you

It's ok, I believe you!!!

[wastecoatwilly]

Armstrong and Souttar pull out what a waste of time.

[Melanius Mullarkey]

Ok, I’ll fucking go then but I’ll need to go in goals every 15 mins or so for a breather.

[HibeeJibee]

Media and plenty supporters are criticising the friendlies being arranged. To me this misses the point: surely criticism should be levelled at the players who are withdrawing?

It's not like it's an unusual idea to play friendlies now - most nations will be playing including many that have not qualified for WC2018, and many will be doing so considerably deeper into the post-season than we are. Even within the British Isles we find Wales and Northern Ireland also travelling to the Americas; Eire are visiting France then hosting USA.

If we weren't playing now, we'd have gone 6 months without a game by time NL started (and it's only by chance we're in 3-team group and idle the opening day to have a friendly v Belgium) and only played twice in preceding 10 months.


As it stands we've now just 1 player in the entire squad with serious experience (Mulgrew) and only 3 more with any notable experience at all to speak of (and 2 of those are McGinn and Paterson - the other Phillips). Wales, Northern Ireland, Eire are nothing like so badly depleted. With a new manager you'd expect extra motivation, too?

People are always looking for reasons why we haven't qualified for 20yrs, and not playing enough games was a good example. Perhaps a lack of total commitment from the players is another?

[wastecoatwilly]

3 minutes ago, HibeeJibee said:

Media and plenty supporters are criticising the friendlies being arranged. To me this misses the point: surely criticism should be levelled at the players who are withdrawing?

It's not like it's an unusual idea to play friendlies now - most nations will be playing including many that have not qualified for WC2018, and many will be doing so considerably deeper into the post-season than we are. Even within the British Isles we find Wales and Northern Ireland also travelling to the Americas; Eire are visiting France then hosting USA.

If we weren't playing now, we'd have gone 6 months without a game by time NL started (and it's only by chance we're in 3-team group and idle the opening day to have a friendly v Belgium) and only played twice in preceding 10 months.

People are always looking for reasons why we haven't qualified for 20yrs, and not playing enough games was a good example. Perhaps a lack of total commitment from the players is another?

I'm sorry but if the SFA had appointed a better manager to take Scotland forward for me there would be less call off's from the players,the fact that McLeish walked away from the Scotland job before in favour of a club job has created this,it's not just lack of commitment from the players, i point the finger at the SFA and the manager for lack of commitment to the Scottish national game.

[Enigma]

Call be a good opportunity now to call up Bates.

[Rodhull]

4 minutes ago, wastecoatwilly said:

I'm sorry but if the SFA had appointed a better manager to take Scotland forward for me there would be less call off's from the players,the fact that McLeish walked away from the Scotland job before in favour of a club job has created this,it's not just lack of commitment from the players, i point the finger at the SFA and the manager for lack of commitment to the Scottish national game.

C'mon really? I wasn't a fan of Mcleish getting the job either but bar one or two none of the players in and around the Scotland squad now were involved then so I doubt any of them are dropping out due to personal resentment or lack of respect for Mcleish. These dropouts would likely be happening even if Strachan had stayed on.

[wastecoatwilly]

8 minutes ago, Rodhull said:

C'mon really? I wasn't a fan of Mcleish getting the job either but bar one or two none of the players in and around the Scotland squad now were involved then so I doubt any of them are dropping out due to personal resentment or lack of respect for Mcleish. These dropouts would likely be happening even if Strachan had stayed on.

If you can look at this from the point of view that if we had qualified for the world cup the squad that's going would look very different from the squad that is staying at home you can't have it both ways.

[Gordopolis]

Media and plenty supporters are criticising the friendlies being arranged. To me this misses the point: surely criticism should be levelled at the players who are withdrawing?

It's not like it's an unusual idea to play friendlies now - most nations will be playing including many that have not qualified for WC2018, and many will be doing so considerably deeper into the post-season than we are. Even within the British Isles we find Wales and Northern Ireland also travelling to the Americas; Eire are visiting France then hosting USA.

If we weren't playing now, we'd have gone 6 months without a game by time NL started (and it's only by chance we're in 3-team group and idle the opening day to have a friendly v Belgium) and only played twice in preceding 10 months.


As it stands we've now just 1 player in the entire squad with serious experience (Mulgrew) and only 3 more with any notable experience at all to speak of (and 2 of those are McGinn and Paterson - the other Phillips). Wales, Northern Ireland, Eire are nothing like so badly depleted. With a new manager you'd expect extra motivation, too?

People are always looking for reasons why we haven't qualified for 20yrs, and not playing enough games was a good example. Perhaps a lack of total commitment from the players is another?

Absolutely spot on

[forameus]

1 hour ago, wastecoatwilly said:

I'm sorry but if the SFA had appointed a better manager to take Scotland forward for me there would be less call off's from the players,the fact that McLeish walked away from the Scotland job before in favour of a club job has created this,it's not just lack of commitment from the players, i point the finger at the SFA and the manager for lack of commitment to the Scottish national game.

Aye, all the players had their cases packed, saw McLeish was the manager and huffed their way out of the squad.  

It goes some to be up there with some of the more ridiculous posts on this forum, but you're pretty close here.

1 hour ago, HibeeJibee said:

Media and plenty supporters are criticising the friendlies being arranged. To me this misses the point: surely criticism should be levelled at the players who are withdrawing?

It's not like it's an unusual idea to play friendlies now - most nations will be playing including many that have not qualified for WC2018, and many will be doing so considerably deeper into the post-season than we are. Even within the British Isles we find Wales and Northern Ireland also travelling to the Americas; Eire are visiting France then hosting USA.

If we weren't playing now, we'd have gone 6 months without a game by time NL started (and it's only by chance we're in 3-team group and idle the opening day to have a friendly v Belgium) and only played twice in preceding 10 months.


As it stands we've now just 1 player in the entire squad with serious experience (Mulgrew) and only 3 more with any notable experience at all to speak of (and 2 of those are McGinn and Paterson - the other Phillips). Wales, Northern Ireland, Eire are nothing like so badly depleted. With a new manager you'd expect extra motivation, too?

People are always looking for reasons why we haven't qualified for 20yrs, and not playing enough games was a good example. Perhaps a lack of total commitment from the players is another?

Again, spot on.  The only thing that could be questioned about the games is the location, but I'd imagine that was out of their hands.  The pool of opponents is probably pretty small given the SFA have only recently discovered we can actually organise games of football against teams outwith competitive ones.  But it's not like we're going to some backwater hell-hole, this should be a trip most players are desperate to make.

As it is though, plenty pull out.  I doubt we'll ever hear the true reason behind most of them, but I'd imagine in a lot of cases you've got clubs leaning on them.  If your manager takes you aside and says that he'd really rather you didn't head off to South America, what do you do?  I'm sure Tam Shortbread down the pub would say he wouldn't care, and that he'd represent his country anyway, but it's nowhere near as simple as that.  Granted some will be in the cannae be arsed camp though.

Anyway, I wouldn't necessarily say that the call-offs are a problem.  We'd have plenty if this was a mid-season game played in Cardiff.  McLeish's job now has to be to guage whether the call-off is genuine or not from the player's perspective.  If he thinks they're at it, he should be remembering that for next time, and calling up the fringe players who might well prove useful in future.