Scotland v Albania

[Guts]

18 minutes ago, gannonball said:

Even as a Celtic fan I really dont get this. His employers told him it was a legitimate way of paying him. Having worked offshore I have seen similar fly by night companies and accountants tell their employees/clients  only to get stung eventually. Yes Rangers had players they shouldnt have had but I dont blame any of football staff for being there as they were also brought in under false pretendes. 

Cant believe I am defending Mcleish here as the man comes across as a drunken fool these days and shouldnt be near a stadium as pundit let alone as a manager. But he’s not a cheat.

Whether he was aware at the time or not he did cheat the Scottish game and should not have been considered for the job on that alone. Surprising if you really can't "get this" it is quite simple really. 

[gannonball]

1 minute ago, Guts said:

Whether he was aware at the time or not he did cheat the Scottish game and should not have been considered for the job on that alone. Surprising if you really can't "get this" it is quite simple really. 

He didnt cheat the Scottish game, he didn't own Rangers and it also wasn't his job to register his contract with the governing bodies. It’s not quite simple at all.

[LondonHMFC]

When McLeish was appointed, I said it was an uninspiring and boring choice, and that's exactly how I feel about this evenings fixture. Don't hold out much hope for it. 

Albania seem to be very inconsistent under Panucci, beating the likes of Turkey but getting humped by Kosovo (albeit both friendlies). 

Have seen the keeper Strakosha a fair bit with Lazio, a fantastic shot stopper, but definitely has a blunder in him. 

Can't see there being an abundance of goals. 

 

[Jambomo]

Even as a Celtic fan I really dont get this. His employers told him it was a legitimate way of paying him. Having worked offshore I have seen similar fly by night companies and accountants tell their employees/clients of similar ‘avoidance’ methods  only to get stung eventually. Yes Rangers had players they shouldnt have had but I dont blame any of football staff for being there as they were also brought in under false pretendes. 
Cant believe I am defending Mcleish here as the man comes across as a drunken fool these days and shouldnt be near a stadium as pundit let alone as a manager. But he’s not a cheat.

Whilst I agree with you that it isn’t really his fault, I suspect that now having a massive tax bill pending is probably one of the reasons he’s been given this job now, when he really shouldn’t have been.

[Pull My Strings]

57 minutes ago, Guts said:

I'm not well up on this but is this right: our governing body have put a man in charge who could be made to repay tax bills he racked up through cheating the Scottish game and if he does need to he'll pay it from wages he's earned by scottish football fans paying into our game?

 

Don't know how to add a twitter snapshot/link.

McLeish is hopeless but the EBT shit has got nothing to do with his suitability as Scotland manager. Are there not Celtic only forums where this sort of tin foil hattery can be discussed in private without burdening the rest of the population.

[ayrshire_nomad]

Anyone know how ticket sales are going for this one?

[Pull My Strings]

4 minutes ago, Jambomo said:

 

Whilst I agree with you that it isn’t really his fault, I suspect that now having a massive tax bill pending is probably one of the reasons he’s been given this job now, when he really shouldn’t have been.

 

Do you mean one of the reasons he accepted the job? I'd be very surprised if his impending penury (if such occurs) had any bearing on the SFA giving him a job. I doubt it had much bearing on him accepting the job either, that would be down to his inability to get a decent gig in the club game.

[mozam76]

5 minutes ago, ayrshire_nomad said:

Anyone know how ticket sales are going for this one?

Sales of approx. 16k were reported on the BBC on Friday night.  

[Jambomo]

Do you mean one of the reasons he accepted the job? I'd be very surprised if his impending penury (if such occurs) had any bearing on the SFA giving him a job. I doubt it had much bearing on him accepting the job either, that would be down to his inability to get a decent gig in the club game.

 

Would you really be surprised if it had a bearing on the SFA offering him a job? I would not be, It has been for many years pretty obvious that it’s a “jobs for the boys” kind of mentality at the SFA.

 

Given how long he’d been out of football when he was offered the job and that he hasn’t been immensely successful as a manager anyway, I struggle to see why he was considered as a clear favourite for the post.

[Estragon]

1 hour ago, sergie's no1 fan said:

But remember Strachan gave stupid interviews after every game.

McLeish/SFA has destroyed any momentum we had built up going into the latter stages of the last campaign.

Nonsense, WGS did a good enough job of that himself.  I can't believe the widespread amnesia that seems to have clouded our collective memory of what an abject, cowardly performance Strachan supervised in Slovenia.  He should have been bulleted for that in isolation.

Must win qualifier is it?  Aye, nae bother - just let the opposition have as much territory and possession as they want - try wriggling your legs a bit in the closing stages.  f**k off.

[Guts]

2 minutes ago, Pull My Strings said:

McLeish is hopeless but the EBT shit has got nothing to do with his suitability as Scotland manager. Are there not Celtic only forums where this sort of tin foil hattery can be discussed in private without burdening the rest of the population.

The SFA shouldn't have appointed a guy that was tainted by it, even if he was a managerial masterlass. The fact he is hopeless only makes it worse. It is a shame that the population don't really care and it shouldn't be a "Celtic fan thing" either. You do have point though in that I shouldn't really have posted it in the match thread as it is off subject, I thought this was a general Scotland national team thread.

[Savage Henry]

13 minutes ago, Pull My Strings said:

McLeish is hopeless but the EBT shit has got nothing to do with his suitability as Scotland manager. Are there not Celtic only forums where this sort of tin foil hattery can be discussed in private without burdening the rest of the population.

Correct.  I think he's hapless and a retrograde appointment, but EBT usage is utterly irrelevant in that matter.  But because certain Celtic support think the world is out to get them, they'll use it as a stick to beat him with.  EBT use is a matter for him and his accountant, and that's it.

[forameus]

4 minutes ago, Guts said:

The SFA shouldn't have appointed a guy that was tainted by it, even if he was a managerial masterlass. The fact he is hopeless only makes it worse. It is a shame that the population don't really care and it shouldn't be a "Celtic fan thing" either. You do have point though in that I shouldn't really have posted it in the match thread as it is off subject, I thought this was a general Scotland national team thread.

Yet in this case, it clearly is.  Fans were quite happy to appoint someone caught well over the drink-drive limit in Michael O'Neill, and you think this is something people should be raging about?

He shouldn't have been appointed because he's not really good enough, given that's the only valid reason.

 

[JamesM82]

9 minutes ago, forameus said:

Yet in this case, it clearly is.  Fans were quite happy to appoint someone caught well over the drink-drive limit in Michael O'Neill, and you think this is something people should be raging about?

He shouldn't have been appointed because he's not really good enough, given that's the only valid reason.

 

I noticed folk on Friday bemoaning the appointment of "alcoholic" Alex McLeish and the failure to appoint convicted drink driver Michael O'Neill.

*shrugs*

[craigkillie]

11 minutes ago, Estragon said:

Nonsense, WGS did a good enough job of that himself.  I can't believe the widespread amnesia that seems to have clouded our collective memory of what an abject, cowardly performance Strachan supervised in Slovenia.  He should have been bulleted for that in isolation.

Must win qualifier is it?  Aye, nae bother - just let the opposition have as much territory and possession as they want - try wriggling your legs a bit in the closing stages.  f**k off.

You correctly called out the revisionism from others on Strachan, but the bit I've bolded is every bit as bad in the opposite direction. We were 1-0 up at half-time in that game, and we conceded two soft goals from set pieces.

[gannonball]

1 hour ago, Guts said:

our governing body have put a man in charge who could be made to repay tax bills he racked up through cheating the Scottish game 

 

 

42 minutes ago, Guts said:

Whether he was aware at the time or not he did cheat the Scottish game

 

18 minutes ago, Guts said:

The SFA shouldn't have appointed a guy that was tainted by it

So we've gone from him being an outright cheat, an unaware cheat to guy whos been tainted.

He’s now a bewildering mess of man who should not be left in charge of his own thoughts let alone a team.  But he is not a cheat.

[Big Chief Toffee Teeth]

Many of the Albanian players are playing at a higher level than our players.
And they're more skilful.
I can see a shit awful 1-1 draw here.
 

I played against an Albanian works' team in Tuscany five years ago. They were amazingly skilful and absolutely thrashed us Scots lads. Not suggesting that this is any barometer for tonight's game.......

[forameus]

9 minutes ago, JamesM82 said:

I noticed folk on Friday bemoaning the appointment of "alcoholic" Alex McLeish and the failure to appoint convicted drink driver Michael O'Neill.

In the same post.

And add to that the curious case of the vitriol around the possibility of Malky Mackay getting the job, while touting O'Neill.  Not to get into "bad-man-top-trumps" but Malky' indiscretions didn't have the possibility of killing people.

And before the knicker-wetters arrive, I'm not defending either party.  I'd have been alright with O'Neill getting the job, given he seemed to have the actual accumen to do it, and would have been against Mackay getting it because he's the complete opposite.  That's all that should come into the choice.

8 minutes ago, craigkillie said:

You correctly called out the revisionism from others on Strachan, but the bit I've bolded is every bit as bad in the opposite direction. We were 1-0 up at half-time in that game, and we conceded two soft goals from set pieces.

The revisionism on Strachan (from some, I don't think he was as bad as some make out, but was still right to get punted when he did) is just part of the wider attitude most fans have.  The next guy will be pure brilliant, just like, looking back, the previous guy was actually not that bad.  This current guy's shite, can't wait til the next one/should have been the previous one.  We see it with managers, and we see it similarly with players.  Everything will be alright when Steven Fletcher gets involved/Steven Fletcher's fucking shite.  Oliver Burke will save us/Oliver Burke is shite.  etc etc

[JamesM82]

1 minute ago, forameus said:

And add to that the curious case of the vitriol around the possibility of Malky Mackay getting the job, while touting O'Neill.  Not to get into "bad-man-top-trumps" but Malky' indiscretions didn't have the possibility of killing people.

And before the knicker-wetters arrive, I'm not defending either party.  I'd have been alright with O'Neill getting the job, given he seemed to have the actual accumen to do it, and would have been against Mackay getting it because he's the complete opposite.  That's all that should come into the choice.

The revisionism on Strachan (from some, I don't think he was as bad as some make out, but was still right to get punted when he did) is just part of the wider attitude most fans have.  The next guy will be pure brilliant, just like the previous guy was brilliant.  This current guy's shite, can't wait til the next one/should have been the previous one.  We see it with managers, and we see it similarly with players.  Everything will be alright when Steven Fletcher gets involved/Steven Fletcher's fucking shite.  Oliver Burke will save us/Oliver Burke is shite.  etc etc

Things have gone badly for so long that people just want a cheat code to instant success. With little or no rational thought applied.

[Suspect Device]

Albania are 5/1 with bet365.

At least the bookies are confident of us getting a result if the fans aren't.