How to neuter a goal-machine...

henrik that's naw funny

Poor Steve Kean has three games to save his job.


He'll be appointed Scotland manager before September then.

" I thought ROI would never qualify for anything again after Staunton and we have idiots in the FAI taking €400,000 a year for nothing. But support the players, not the association. "

There's an idea. Or maybe say something constructive instead of constantly panning your own national side.

This is the first time ever we've had a nationwide programme for youth development which doesn't rely on the clubs payiing for it (or not bothering, as is usually the case) - put in place by Levein. But that doesn't appear on a scoreboard so some folk don't think it matters.

He maybe did only get Utd to 5th place while halving the wage bill and replacing the entire starting 11 without a signings budget (easy), but we've subsequently produced almost 4 complete starting 11s, which have won the Scottish Cup and qualified for Europe 3 times. None of these players have cost the club more than a few grand in transfer fees, due to the scouting network and youth systems Levein put in place:

Conway, Swanson, Goodwillie, Ryan, Mackay-Steven, Sandaza, Gomis, Bauben, Dillon, Zaluska, Pernis, Watson, Dixon, Kalvenes, Russell, Kenneth, Daly, etc etc etc.

But no, he is a numpty who doesn't know what he's doing.

"He's pure nivver won nuthing"

Can someone explain to me why the national manager of Scotland, a country who have literally never won anything at international level, has to have won silverware?

Barcelona,

There is no doubt some the the criticism of Avril is OTT. Having said that, have you seen us play lately? We are less than the sum of our parts at the moment, and for Scotland to have any hope we need to be more.

Barca,
Whether he's done alright at club level or not should be beside the point. His record with Scotland, the stubbornness with players like fletcher and his striker-less formations is abysmal.

If Scotland were serious about getting a decent manager they'd pay up and get a quality foreign manager.

I think Levein's correct about the Fletcher "issue". He's the boss, and Fletcher isn't. look at Cormack's statement today - THAT is how to react to being dropped.

I'm not defending his record on the park necessarily, I just think he is doing so much more than trying to win games, because there is now so uch more to the job of Scotland manager, and he's the first one who's bothered addressing any of the other issues.

And the thanks he gets for it is legions of folk saying he's useless. He has been exactly as successful as every other manager we've had since 1998. And that includes Smith and McLeish.

I thought Smith was a fantastic manager for us, but he was still panned by half the country, and he wasn't able to avoid results like losing at home to Belarus or throwing away qualification against Macedonia.

Bull$hit Mr Han Man... You come right out of a comic book

Steve Kean has 3 games to save his job, for me, CL should have one and that's the Serbia game. If he dares to settle for a draw at home to a team that were trumped by Estonia last time out I'll be furious.

Agreed he has tried to implement plans at youth level and, tbh, he actually talks a good game. If he did what he said I'd be happy.

I have nothing against him, I just want him to stop using away tactics at home, no tactics away other than defend for your life and stop showing ridiculous levels of favouritism to certain players.

" I have nothing against him, I just want him to stop using away tactics at home, no tactics away other than defend for your life and stop showing ridiculous levels of favouritism to certain players."

People said exactly the same thing about Andy Roxburgh, Craig Brown, Walter Smith etc. It's just what we say about our managers. If they're not completely inept like Vogts or Burley, they're not exciting enough, and they don't pick the players we want them to pick.

When Smith shored up the defense he was a saviour, then when we lost to Belarus at home he was too negative. Blah blah.

Who has Levein shown a ridiculous level of favouritism to so far?

How was the 2-2 draw with the Czech Republic settling for a draw, or away tactics at home? Or the 3-2 game with Spain? In what way were those tactics in any way overly defensive or negative?

I don't think the guy's always right, or even the best available choice, I just think some Scotland fans should actually have a think about why they are so constantly negative about our national side and management team.

I'm not a huge Levein hater, I was actually happy enough with his appointment to begin with. We are not or ever going to play free flowing football, we know this but, 2nd half against Spain aside, we have not been "fantastic" as Levein claims.

He settled for a draw in Lithuania when they were there for the taking, played for a draw in Prague, put a bunch of carthorses in an attacking formation at home to Leichtenstein and played so defensively at home to Czechs in a game we needed to win it was untrue. We were very lucky to be 2-1 ahead in that game, we basically took our only 2 chances, we will not win the majority of home games playing so defensively.

He originally had a love in for McCulloch but at least he learned his lesson there, Kevin Thomson til he got crocked again and again and again, Brown when Celtic fans wouldn't have given him a game for Celtic, Kenny Misser, Caldwell walked into the team when he'd been out injured for months and wasn't even deemed fit enough to play for his club, Hutton no matter how unfit he is and of course the Liverpool reserve Danny Wilson.

I still have some faith, my point is if he is going to be cautious at home to Serbia then he clearly doesn't have the guts for it. We really do need 6 points from these opening 2 games but I can see him touting Serbia as an "excellent side" and settling for a draw and we are not going to get anywhere like that.