Craig Levein: The Saviour of Scottish Fitba?

[Richey Edwards]

4 minutes ago, KingRocketman II said:

I think he was being serious. As your archetypal "wee man" he sees everything through the prism of height and had real hang ups about it. We could have had a team of players who would have been the same height as the Serbs but Strachan picked players that he favoured (who tended to be slighter). His post match comments on genetics was an attempt at deflection whilst returning to a topic that he was obsessed by. 

I HOPED he was joking. If he was being serious, then he is a fucking idiot.

[VincentGuerin]

2 hours ago, gannonball said:

Ireland have qualified more for tournaments in my lifetime. There wasn’t any real  difference in quality in the squads at that time either so not exactly sure why you have mentioned them as if they are the Faroes or something. I do agree however Strachan is as stubborn as they come. Still can’t believe he’s at Dundee after the whole Mark Mcghee stuff.

 

2 hours ago, TheScarf said:

Because they had better managers than us (Trappatoni for example) and we had to make do with losers like Strachan.  We've always had better squads than them IMO, we finally have a better squad and a better manager and results are showing that.

The difference between Scotland and Ireland in the 21st century has basically been Robbie Keane.

Ireland have generally been about the same level as us. Some good Premier League-level players, some shite players, some decent managers, some less-good managers.

But they, like when Wales fell over Bale, have had a goalscorer, while we never have. An actual, top-level goalscorer.

If Robbie Keane had been Scottish, we'd probably have been in the knockouts of a couple of tournaments in the last twenty years.

[HuttonDressedAsLahm]

18 minutes ago, VincentGuerin said:

 

The difference between Scotland and Ireland in the 21st century has basically been Robbie Keane.

Ireland have generally been about the same level as us. Some good Premier League-level players, some shite players, some decent managers, some less-good managers.

But they, like when Wales fell over Bale, have had a goalscorer, while we never have. An actual, top-level goalscorer.

If Robbie Keane had been Scottish, we'd probably have been in the knockouts of a couple of tournaments in the last twenty years.

Exactly. ROI have been in free fall since around 2016, when Keane retired. That also timed with them losing Given, Whelan, O’Shea, and McGeady.

Keane was never an elite striker at club level, but was absurdly good at international level.

If we’d had a Bale, Haaland, Keane, or even an Arveladze, we’d have qualified for a tournament or two in the last 20 years.

Our problem has always been scoring goals, and we’ve missed out - quite routinely - by only a couple of points, or a poor result where a goalscorer would have made the difference.

Ireland are in the process of rebuilding, much like we were in 17-18, and Wales will be there very shortly.

We lack an international class striker/talisman, but our average player/strength in depth is far stronger than either Ireland or Wales.

And all of that said, I’d happily never play either of them again.

[theoriginalhedge]

5 hours ago, gannonball said:

 

The performance schools were recommended by the dossier by Henry Mcleish which was basically copying other nations who have done it.

Also Celtic were doing a link up I think before before Dundee Utd so he wasn’t implementing it for the first time in Scotland.

So to summarise he has f**k all really to do with any resurgence with Scotland. 

Craig was one of the few who actually went out and acted on that dossier . He knew change was needed.  I think that was basically the point the OP was making. 

Most at the time just went through the motions at Largs , got their badges and just continued with the same old tat they were taught 20 years earlier as players. Unfortunately for Brechin , we ended up with quite a few of these types who talk a great game but do f**k all to follow it up. 

In my opinion Craig is one of football's genuine good guys. Very approachable and honest. 

Edited September 28, 2022 by theoriginalhedge

[Falcor Roar]

29 minutes ago, theoriginalhedge said:

Craig was one of the few who actually went out and acted on that dossier . He knew change was needed.  I think that was basically the point the OP was making. 

Most at the time just went through the motions at Largs , got their badges and just continued with the same old tat they were taught 20 years earlier as players. Unfortunately for Brechin , we ended up with quite a few of these types who talk a great game but do f**k all to follow it up. 

In my opinion Craig is one of football's genuine good guys. Very approachable and honest. 

Hi Craig, hiya pal.

[Boo Khaki]

I met him at a party once. He was down to earth, and very funny.

[ArabFC]

22 hours ago, theoriginalhedge said:

Craig was one of the few who actually went out and acted on that dossier . He knew change was needed.  I think that was basically the point the OP was making. 

Most at the time just went through the motions at Largs , got their badges and just continued with the same old tat they were taught 20 years earlier as players. Unfortunately for Brechin , we ended up with quite a few of these types who talk a great game but do f**k all to follow it up. 

In my opinion Craig is one of football's genuine good guys. Very approachable and honest. 

Yup.

I honestly don't know who would deserve most of the credit, but it's obvious to me that the players coming through these days are technically better than what came before.

And I remember Levein not only advocating for this but helping making it happen at both United and at the SFA. United's performance school partnership with St John's was setup circa 2009 - a few years before the SFA took it over.

Regardless of who, what report etc, from around that time the notion of training kids to be better took hold and we seem to be reaping the benefits of that now.

 

[Jacky1990]

On 28/09/2022 at 11:58, Miguel Sanchez said:

Craig Forsyth over Andy Robertson because he was tall

 

It was the Chris Martin over Leigh Griffiths one that always pissed me off back with Griffiths was good.

To be fair though, Martin was a good target man in that a target is easier to hit when its fuckin stationary for 90 mins.

[Richey Edwards]

20 minutes ago, Jacky1990 said:

It was the Chris Martin over Leigh Griffiths one that always pissed me off back with Griffiths was good.

To be fair though, Martin was a good target man in that a target is easier to hit when its fuckin stationary for 90 mins.

I am not sure I ever celebrated a last minute winner quite like I celebrated Chris Martin's last minute winner.

[craigkillie]

Martin generally did well for Scotland from the England game onwards, no idea why McLeish binned him so unceremoniously in favour of junk like Marc McNulty.

[Gordon EF]

On 28/09/2022 at 09:04, Richey Edwards said:

Gordon Strachan identified that Scotland's footballers were genetically inferior to other country's footballers, so the current squad were created and artificially aged in a secret laboratory underneath Hampden Park.

Unfortunately, someone pressed the "full back" button on the machine six times in row.

[Richey Edwards]

Just now, Gordon EF said:

Unfortunately, someone pressed the "full back" button on the machine six times in row.

Is it like a coffee machine were it takes ages to start so you press the button again and you end up getting five espressos?

[Gordon EF]

5 minutes ago, Richey Edwards said:

Is it like a coffee machine were it takes ages to start so you press the button again and you end up getting five espressos?

Aye, like when the printer's out of ink but some knob just keeps hitting print. Standing there with Robertson and Tierney and it's still pumping out Josh Doigs and Calvin Ramseys.