Who's responsible ?
Is it the players ?
Is its the manager and coaches ?
Is it the tactics ?
Is it the lack of ambition and belief ?
Is it the clubs ?
Is it the SFA ?
Is it the structure of the game ?
Will it ever change ?
They're all responsible. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. No
Never do we look at a group and go for it from the off. Instead we start looking at permutations to finish 2nd or 3rd before a games has been played. We continually fail to acknowledge the importance of games...and so the merry go round continues
The fans must also accept some of the blame for accepting the pash in front of us. For falling for the pre-March hype and post match spin ad nauseum. Time to sit up say. Not accepting that pash anymore..
Whatever happened to Henry Mcleish's report. Full of proper suggestions. But too many heads would roll in her SFA and the inertia there can't be ersed to do the hard work to implement it...so kicked into the long grass .
We're a parochial wee backward country only interested in self-interest at club level and self preservation with the corridors of the SFA. The players couldn't give a flying fook because they'll continue to pick up daft wages for little in return and be excused for their failing by managers and fans of their respective clubs. The manager will continue to fail because of our inferiority complex mentality. And because certain "favourites" will always be on the team irrespective of form. It's should be easier to get dropped from the team than get picked. Not the other way round. Gutless performances are rewarded with an opportunity to redeem but ultimately repeat the same pash performances. Not good enough. Players need to be dropped and replaced.
That's why we need to go back to a foreign coach. The SFA need to get their hand in their placket and invest in a successful international coach. A guy that knows what it takes to win and qualify at that level. No not another Berti Vogts. But you Gus Hiddink or D ick Advocaat type. A strong disciplinarian type. There are too many sentimentalities attached to picking our national team and too many entrenched views on our ability and ambition.we need to break these cycles. We need a manager to pick the best/from players. Not through tinted spectacles. We need a manager that is tactically aware and brave enough to approach each game positively and see it as a must win game. We need a manager willing to take a chance and stop talking about "stopping the opposition" but start talking. About how we're gonna beat the opposition. You don't need world beaters at 1-11. Wales have proven that. You need a solid committed team willing to take a chance. We have enough players playing at a high enough level to compete and qualify. I don't accept this nonsense of limited resources because Wales, NI and ROI are all smaller and of far more limited resources. Iceland have also shown in this qualifying campaign I'm a group containing Holland Warburton has also proven it at Rangers. Night and day performances and attiutdes from a team that were devoid of ideas and creativity under Mccoist. I'm not a Martin Oneil fan but you can never fault his ability to get the best out of lesser players. They will always give a 100% no matter what.
We will only get this by separating sentiment from our game. By having a coach and management that can select players on ability and form and adopt a positive, committed and modern approach. We will only get that through a top quality foreign coach who has no allegiances or sentiment for our game. And we will only get that if the SFA invest properly in our future.
Don't hold your breath !!
Thoughts ?
Scotland's continued failure to qualify ...
posted on 6/9/15
Personally i think we are showing genuine signs of improvement, and we are certainly not out of this group yet.
As to why we(among many others) have fallen over the last 20 years, thats down to the ludicrous amount of no name foreigners filling the premier league clubs.
posted on 6/9/15
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posted on 6/9/15
How old are you though?
Times are changing.
posted on 6/9/15
Wales are effectively an England B team.
I don't mean this the wrong way, but all of Wales players (to my knowledge) play in the English Leagues, even there best club sides are in the Premier League and Championship
To that end, Wales have an advantage over Scotland, in that the two biggest club sides in the country are playing at a level much higher than our clubs are.
Ashley Williams for example.....he's the equivalent of a Scottish centre back plying his trade for one of the old firm, proud to play for a Welsh club and his country.
He's playing at Premier League level while he does that....A Scottish CB doing the same woukd be up against Aberdeen and Dundee United, not Chelsea, Man City and Arsenal.
For me, that's a major difference, Welsh talent is recognised in England more because many of them start in England, and progress through the ranks easier as a result, whereas our players have to work miracles in Scotland just to get recognised by club like Southampton never mind the big boys
posted on 7/9/15
had this discussion many many times
its simple
Scottish teachers stopped taking extra curricular activites for 4 or 5 years in the 80s as part of their pay disputed with Thatcher
This meant that schools stopped producing players for that time the 1998 team was the last generation who most came through the schools system
The SFA, and the clubs did nothing at the time to rectify this for years as it took 10 to 15 years for the effects to show
During this time when the effects did start to show, clubs went out and got foreigner's in to fill the void. Almost bankrupting the game
We are now playing catch up, and while we did nothing the rest of the world moved on, the berlin wall collapsed and we got 10s of new country's who are making it much harder
Solution is simple ..start producing better youngsters...just don't ask me how we do that
posted on 7/9/15
My memories of playing football with coaches as a kid (I wasn't very good so gave up on it to just play with mates mostly) was that in general they wanted to win the game too much. Rather than focusing on getting the young people to enjoy playing and get better they wanted to teach how to win. They had it backwards in my opinion.
posted on 7/9/15
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posted on 7/9/15
curly I cant disagree with anything you said
we have too many clubs
For a country of 5 million to have 42 senior clubs is just plain stupid
Lanarkshire for example has
Motherwell
Hamiltion
Airdrie
Albion rovers
Clyde
all with in 5 miles of each other and all apart from Hamiltion have flirted with or actually been liquidated in the recent past
We need a total revamp of the league structure and management (sack Doncaster and regan now for a start)
20 or 24 senior teams max
with Community feeder clubs given tax breaks and incentives for youth development
The pro youth setup need to be looked at as it obviously is not working apart from Hamilton and mibby Dundee Utd
posted on 7/9/15
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posted on 7/9/15
Overhaul at SFA and SPFL is needed. But they are gonna need to be pushed as they all know they've got a sweet gig going right now.
With clubs we want the best of both worlds. I think everyone agrees that there are too many senior clubs for our size but we don't want to lose any of them, especially the traditional ones that have bounced around the leagues for a century .
If all the Lanarkshire teams were to merge there'd be an outcry and a lot of it from the fans that don't go near the grounds but a Lanarkshire United for example would be decent sized club.
I'd need to check with Castle but I'm sure that Bursaspor and Trabzonspor were formed in this fashion. And they're the only teams to break the dominance of Turkish league from the Istanbul giants. I think a few Belgian sides have merged in recent seasons too in order to survive at a competitive level.
Then there's options like Summer football, I think it's worth looking at . The game is in a sorry state and is inching it's way closer to the smallest leagues in Europe. If there's something that might elevate interest then it's got to be considered.
It definitely needs some money thrown about and probably some forcing.
The crazy thing is with streaming growth etc SPLTV isn't that mental a proposition anymore. Especially with the deal they got for TV rights and sponsorship.
They'd not get deals like premier league in England but I'd explore options with Netflix and Amazon to see anyway.
I've no idea what deal the Vanarama National league has, but I worry it's not a million miles away from the Scottish one.
Apologies for the long veering tangents I went on here.