Time to go Steve Clarke

[KingRocketman II]

3 minutes ago, accies1874 said:

I agree but I wonder if a Scotland manager had ever been sacked in the midst of a seven-match unbeaten run.

The timing of it was weird in that sense, but less so when you think that we had a new generation emerging which I don't think Strachan could've been trusted to integrate.

Strachan would still have gone to the English Championship as his preferred source - McBurnie would be at Hall of Fame level cap numbers with Matt Phillips not far behind him. 

[placidcasual]

1 hour ago, TheScarf said:

Remember when the Scotland manager was Gordon Strachan? 

Found his level setting cones up for 2nd tier also-rans Dundee.

[Loominous]

I think with Bing it was also the fact that after the Denmark game he wanted Clarke to stay and then after the Ukraine game he wanted him to go and now he wants him to stay. If that isn't fickle then I don't know what is. It really is the worst of football fans - absolutely zero patience and just too fickle for my taste and to come on now claiming he was right just takes the biscuit. 

[Donathan]

Food for thought. We all hope this doesn’t happen any time soon, but if Clarke was to decide to move on or take a club job then who would be the best candidates for the role? 

[TheScarf]

Klopp IMO.

[2426255]

Ian Baraclough

 

[accies1874]

I'd imagine Moyes will be out of West Ham by the end of the season and he's, imo, the only Scottish candidate worth talking about. Could end up that he's taken another job by the time Clarke leaves (presumably once our involvement in Euro 2024 ends) or has been out of work too long. This spell at West Ham makes the prospect of Moyes more appealing than he was when Strachan or McLeish left.

Still a lot of time for things to change, but you'd hope that the SFA are planning for it anyway.

[Ewan8472]

3 hours ago, Monkey Tennis said:

Strachan was a noisy see dick throughout his unsuccessful spell.

It doesn't require the benefit of hindsight to say he should have been removed earlier.

 

1 hour ago, Donathan said:

Food for thought. We all hope this doesn’t happen any time soon, but if Clarke was to decide to move on or take a club job then who would be the best candidates for the role? 

Good point , and was there any other applicants when AC applied ?

Edited September 29, 2022 by Ewan8472

[2426255]

On 23/06/2021 at 09:08, BingMcCrosby said:

Overall performances and results have been poor.

We managed to get to this tournament by an excellent draw with serbia. A game we should have won in the 90mins. That along with the England game is our only good performances under Clarke.

Hes produced some good performances when our backs to the wall. But thats it. He's unable to win games at home, we always look like the away team.

He got us to a tournament for the first time in 23 years, but we were not good. 2 home games and 0 points, its unforgivable.

Hes already made a terrible start to the next qualifying. Its time we parted ways, hes never going to be a good manager for us.

Last night as Souness says was dark ages stuff. Also the wrong team and tactics. 

But the worst thing of all was the reluctance to change things. We were on top in spells for the first half. Croatia started to control the game and we left the players out there to rot. Rather than freshen things up and get back at them. 

The changes were to litte to late and now were out. Arguably the worst team in the tournament.

Yes turkey and North Macedonia lost all 3 games, but neither played a home game. And we played 2. 

Nothing against the guy, I want every scotland manager to succeed. But its been poor overall. It really has.

Strachan when we went deserved to go, but he had the team playing better than this. Were going nowhere.

 

[Falcor Roar]

At least the jobs no longer the poisoned chalice it once was, thanks in major part to SSC. I can imagine there will be choice for the SFA when the day comes. 

[Gordopolis]

Strachan was - in hindsight - a wee fanny who failed in most respects. The only thing I would credit him for is in making us a bit more attacking (than Levein), without being overly open and inviting lots of heavy defeats (as happened with Burley).

His patter was angry wee man stuff, and the cherry on the cake was that eugenics line after his final game. He should have been gone before then but as others have pointed out, that very good and unexpected lift in form and 7 game run that nearly got us qualified for WC 2018 kept him in a job until that final, unsuccessful match.

All that said, it's worth recalling how it felt 'in the moment', specifically during the middle of the Euro 2016 qualifying campaign (I'm thinking of the build up to the Dublin match for some reason).

We were well in the mix, and there was a general sense of improvement with the new, faster and more attacking and effective style - something that was dubbed 'the system' a lot on here. Then there were the players that had arrived on the scene in Strachan's reign: Ikechi Anya turned up and showed us that explosive pace is great to watch and very useful in terms of getting results. Cracking wee player. Russell Martin too, I think - for a while he seemed to have 'fixed' our defence, alongside a young Grant Hanley.

Anyway, not sure it ever felt anything like as good as it does now with SCC, but it definitely didn't feel like a dark age or anything like that. 

It's brilliant to be riding this wave of success just now, though I expect a rational and more objective assessment of how well Clarke has done will come a few years down the line, when we're looking in the rear view mirror. Here's hoping we can look back on this period as just the beginning of a mini golden age for the national team.

[velo army]

33 minutes ago, Gordopolis said:

Strachan was - in hindsight - a wee fanny who failed in most respects. The only thing I would credit him for is in making us a bit more attacking (than Levein), without being overly open and inviting lots of heavy defeats (as happened with Burley).

His patter was angry wee man stuff, and the cherry on the cake was that eugenics line after his final game. He should have been gone before then but as others have pointed out, that very good and unexpected lift in form and 7 game run that nearly got us qualified for WC 2018 kept him in a job until that final, unsuccessful match.

All that said, it's worth recalling how it felt 'in the moment', specifically during the middle of the Euro 2016 qualifying campaign (I'm thinking of the build up to the Dublin match for some reason).

We were well in the mix, and there was a general sense of improvement with the new, faster and more attacking and effective style - something that was dubbed 'the system' a lot on here. Then there were the players that had arrived on the scene in Strachan's reign: Ikechi Anya turned up and showed us that explosive pace is great to watch and very useful in terms of getting results. Cracking wee player. Russell Martin too, I think - for a while he seemed to have 'fixed' our defence, alongside a young Grant Hanley.

Anyway, not sure it ever felt anything like as good as it does now with SCC, but it definitely didn't feel like a dark age or anything like that. 

It's brilliant to be riding this wave of success just now, though I expect a rational and more objective assessment of how well Clarke has done will come a few years down the line, when we're looking in the rear view mirror. Here's hoping we can look back on this period as just the beginning of a mini golden age for the national team.

Good post, but I think, like many, you've taken this line at face value.

Strachan was an excellent man manager and part of his method in this was to take pressure off of his players. He never came out and said that the players had a flat performance, or that they were poor. The eugenics line became the story, and nobody talked about how we just weren't at it against Slovenia. We were poor and the defending at both Slovenia goals was dreadful, but even now the narrative of that game is defined by us just not being tall enough as a race. It was a clever distraction designed to take the pressure off his players. That's all. I don't believe Strachan believed a word of it.

 

[TheScarf]

Cheers for that, Gordon.

[effeffsee_the2nd]

1 hour ago, Gordopolis said:

Strachan always was - and not with  hindsight - a wee fanny who failed in most respects. .

FTFY

I posted on here at the time, we went something like 16 months or more where our only competetive wins were against malta and gibralter, we didn't manage a win against a team of professional footballers in over a year

[TheScarf]

I think Malta are professional but just absolutely shite.  I agree with your point, however.  No wins against non-minnows.

[bdu98196]

4 hours ago, Donathan said:

Food for thought. We all hope this doesn’t happen any time soon, but if Clarke was to decide to move on or take a club job then who would be the best candidates for the role? 

Stuart Baxter

[Bing.McCrosby]

5 hours ago, Falcor Roar said:

It's utterly bizarre. Even if you somehow agree that Clarke's changing of formation and personel is tantamount to a 'complete' tactical turnabout, it still stands that he wouldn't have had that opportunity had Bing had his way back in June or after the Euros.

The dignified position would be to put your hand up and acknowledge your short sightedness. 

Ill answer all of these same points again sure.

If changing formation and personal isn't a complete tactical turnaround then what is?? What else is there to change?

Now your disagreeing with Steve Clarke, not me.

If a new manager was appointed he may or may not have achieved better results. I dont know, you don't know. So how could I be wrong about this. Personally I think we would be at the world cup right now if we had.

I think if you read back I already admitted i was wrong. What else do you want??

On 28/09/2022 at 11:03, BingMcCrosby said:

What people are looking for is me and others to admit they got it wrong.

BTW I was wrong, I didn't think Clarke would change his tactics and make us a more progressive team. But he has and its great. So in that aspect yeah I was wrong.

 

[scottsdad]

5 hours ago, Donathan said:

Food for thought. We all hope this doesn’t happen any time soon, but if Clarke was to decide to move on or take a club job then who would be the best candidates for the role? 

There can be only one.

[Bing.McCrosby]

4 hours ago, Loominous said:

I think with Bing it was also the fact that after the Denmark game he wanted Clarke to stay and then after the Ukraine game he wanted him to go and now he wants him to stay. If that isn't fickle then I don't know what is. It really is the worst of football fans - absolutely zero patience and just too fickle for my taste and to come on now claiming he was right just takes the biscuit. 

Mate i think your point has been made, your posting the same thing every page.

[Theroadlesstravelled]

Craig Brown MKII.

He’s making up for the shitshow that was the Euros and that WC qualifier.