Scotland squad

[Madbadteacher]

I agree with Rocket, the only thing I could think of the reasoning behind this is he might have coached some of the seniors before, when they were U17 or whatever.

Still it's a pretty pathetic state of affairs, I'm sure it's not that long ago we actually had "real", "experienced" managers apply for what was seen as a "prime" post.

 

Scotland's international set up is shit, isn't it?

[wee toon red]

 

Scotland's international set up is shit, isn't it?

 

Whilst it's impossible to argue any differently, I think that, in terms of the prestige of international management, the same could be said for most football associations. Certainly, none of the home nations have their top manager in charge of the national team and haven't had for some time, barring perhaps Allardyce's brief stint at England.

 

Even furthrer afield, the top names want to be managing a club level rather than international so it's no surprise we struggle to attract any exciting names. The prestige of the positions and the draw of your country aren't what they used to be and an up and coming manager, or someone looking to get their career back on track, are probably the best most countries can expect to appoint.

[rocket_scientist]

Spot on about the prestige of the national job having been vastly diminished over the years, not just in Scotland.

 

One very simple reason of course. Money.

[RicoS321]

Regan oot!

 

Edit: Wonder what Gordon Smith is up to?

[donsdaft]

Yaaasssss

 

Now, that IS good news.

[Jute]

Glad his gone as he has been a disaster. However he was the one who said no to the racist cunt McKay getting the Scotland job so hoping this is not precursor to McKay getting the job full time. Also no faith in the SFA board to get in a decent replacement.

[rocket_scientist]

Regan is an abortion and an embarrassment to Yorkshiremen, who are generally good people.

 

At the initial interview, the way his mouth formed his words was a dead giveaway.

[BigAl]

Regan oot!

 

Edit: Wonder what Gordon Smith is up to?

 

Leeanne Dempster amongst he favourites to get the job.

Met her in her time at Motherwell.

Actually had enough business dealings with her to say I actually think she could be a good choice.

[Jute]

Leeanne Dempster amongst he favourites to get the job.

Met her in her time at Motherwell.

Actually had enough business dealings with her to say I actually think she could be a good choice.

 

Would not be adverse to her getting the job. Seems to have done a decent job at Motherwell and Hibs.

[Guest kiriakovisthenewstrachan]

Stephen Thompson will have some more free time shortly.  That would shake things up a little.

 

[Barcosente]

Regan is gone, and about time too.

The pity here is that he hasn't taken Cockwomble (Doncaster) with him.

 

Both Old farm apologists who have between them overseen "armageddon", Blatant promotion of Celgers and Rantic,  failure of National side managers, and in Regan's case, a total lack of vision in dallying around making an appointment of head coach/manager of the national side.

 

Michael O'Neil can't have been impressed in being kept waiting to be approached for the job that was clearly going to be offered to him all along.

Did the SFA really want him? If so then they should have made a real statement of intent and been on the phone to him the night before they punted Strachan.

 

As it stands, Scotland will be left with a choice from a cast of nobodies and guys like McLeish who is no doubt sitting watching his phone waiting and longing for it to ring. The signing on thing must be getting tiring for him by now.

 

The problem that Football associations, not just our own, have is that most are run by committees and old guys in suits who have not really been involved in the game at player or management level.

Some are, or have been involved at board level of clubs and while some of that experience is great to have, the board or committee needs to have guys or girls who have been involved at player/manager level to strike the correct balance.

Regan has my sympathy in that regard as he wasn't solely to blame.

 

Some other posters here are correct that being a national coach or manager doesn't have the same appeal as it perhaps once did purely because of the obscene amounts of cash swilling around the world game at the moment.

 

Ask McLeish if he'd rather take the Scotland post or a 6 month contract managing a middle east club for the loot and he'll most likely be looking out his passport again.

 

Inroads are slowly being made in upgrading the standard of player who is representing Scotland, and hopefully with Chesney now gone, we'll see an end to players being selected like Mulgrew for example, who despite the fact he was often injured for months, would somehow make a miracle recovery and be selected to play.

 

I wish luck to whom ever is the second or third choice to actually take the job on. They are going to need it

[Guest kiriakovisthenewstrachan]

Regan has clearly been hung out to dry by the press who didn't want him in the first place and were desperate to get rid.

 

Michael O'Neill dicked about with the Scotland job.  He knew what was involved, roughly what the salary was and drew out the whole process before settling for the easy option of staying put.

 

As soon as O'Neill turned the job down the press jumped on it 5 minutes later by saying Regan had no alternative option without actually knowing who else was on the original shortlist.  As with all of these negotiations we don't really know who made it public that O'Neill was lined up for the job, was it the SFA or did O'Neill himself leak the story to beef up his own status for jobs elsewhere?

 

There's also been blame attached to Regan for failing to qualify for major tournaments.  Fact is, we have produced a succession of inferior players for years.  Only now do we have a few decent guys coming through.  Regan appointed Strachan who most will agree did a decent job with limited resources.  Not Regan's fault that we could not hold onto a lead against Slovenia.

 

Barcosente, don't agree with your point on the make up of the SFA board.  Most successful clubs are run by people who have never played or managed at a high level.  The people on this forum are not exactly ex-internationals but we all know a fair bit about the game and the likes of Mourinho and Benitez have proved that there is no need to have played at a high level to be excellent managers.

 

Also take issue with your point on blatant promotion of the old firm.  Did they not relegate rangers when the press were pushing for them to go straight into the first division?

 

 

[wee toon red]

Also take issue with your point on blatant promotion of the old firm.  Did they not relegate rangers when the press were pushing for them to go straight into the first division?

 

Cmon man, that’s crazy talk. Rangers didn’t get relegated they went bust and their zombie replacement was allowed to start way higher up the pyramid than they should have. That was a massive helping hand for them.

 

While I have no love for the sfa board, regan outlived his usefulness in general and it was long past time for him to go.

[Sand dan Glokta]

As much as I think not having meaningless friendlies is a good idea, it does make me wonder when we will ever blood new players?

 

Over reliance on familiar faces will perceiver me thinks.

 

Horror show from me there.  *persevere

 

What happened with Prandelli? He was ‘allegedly’ sniffing about the job. If a guy of that calibre was wanting anywhere near the job his hand should have been bitten off. Now we’re getting linked with Malky McKay or Walter Smith? Jesus. Christ.

 

I either want someone with no allegiance to Scotland and pedigree or someone with in-depth domestic knowledge. I’d even argue giving it to someone like Gemmill as at least he’d play some of the youth players –well you’d think so at least.

 

As for the whole domestic league and national institution, I’ve read a few things about merging them. I’m not sure of the entire structure of the German set up, but the domestic league and the national team seem to be ‘as one’. There is little wonder we’re a mess nationally when we don’t even look domestically at Players, managers or clubs outside of Celtic now really.

 

Regan made sense as he was an outsider, but he seemed to buy into all the old nonsense fairly early doors (much like pizza face for the leagues). He’s left Scotland with a hefty pay cheque and not much else in that time. Someone bold and new needs to come in and shake things up, but really, until all these die hard old firm guys die off it’s highly unlikely we’ll ever see any real change for decades to come.

 

You reap what you sow and we’re upturning nothing but sh*te.

 

[Slim]

We should make an approach for Vahid Halilhodži?.

 

Has qualified for the World Cup with Ivory Coast, Algeria and Japan, including taking Algeria into the knockout stages.

 

I'm sure there's another one or two of these national team mercenary managers who consistently take unfashionable teams to major tournaments that we could also consider.

[donsdaft]

Is he Largs trained though?

 

[rocket_scientist]

Exactly. Largs-trained is essential. We rule the world. We arra peepil.

 

Dinna want guffs fae a cricket-background. Fuck them.

[donsdaft]

It makes you realise you were born at the right time.

 

I was 15 with a tartan bunnet when Scotland should have beaten Brazil in 1974

 

19 and looking for revenge when we didn’t win the World Cup in 1978

 

23 and more distracted by my real team ( who were doing quite well) when we went to Spain in 1982

 

27 and not long married by 1986

 

31 with 2 boys, my daughter was born the day we lost to Costa Rica

 

39 and delaying opening my shop by one day to watch Scotland v Brazil in the tournament opener in 1998

 

 

It’s 20 years in June I opened the shop

[donsdaft]

That’s shite, I’ve lost 4 years somewhere

 

Either that or I’m only 55

 

 

Fixed it

 

Which one did we miss out on?

 

 

 

 

Ach it was the Yanks

I don’t count that one anyway

 

 

I remember getting beat by a much better Swiss team at Pittodrie

[rocket_scientist]

I was one month shy of my 36th birthday when I went into Paris the day of the game. I didn't have a ticket but I used great initiative and got one fae "Donnie", a skinhead from Clydebank. My cardboard said this "Gies a ticket. Norway/Morocco to swap". Donnie was over with his mates, all tartan army and were over for all 3 games whereas me and the family were only over for the first two. I left them at home (caravan place on Loire valley an hour+ away by train) the day of the game but spent all day in Paris the day before and I knew it was going to be tough to get one.

 

Donnie asked for Norway AND Morocco for his Brazil ticket. I had 2 x Norway and 2 x Morocco when I started but gave away a Morocco ticket to some dude who lived in Cardiff who was cycling to Bordeaux and then St Ettiene. bypassing Paris cos he figured it would be impossible to get a ticket. I says to Donnie, what two for one like? He said oh, er, I'll give you forty quid? Dealt. I felt so guilty I gave him £20 back in Bordeaux as he was sitting next to me for that game. In his mind, he was getting to tick off 2 of the 3 games whereas some of his other mates only had one ticket like he did. Thank fuck I wasn't at the last game, a Leighton howler off if I mind. The Brazil game was amazing. I was on the telly on North Tonight with a very hoarse voice after the game, resplendent in kilt.

[donsdaft]

20 years is a long time.

 

Longer than I was old in 1978

 

Time’s weird

[tlg1903]

Walter Smith is a hun cunt and an utter cunt for walking out half way through a campaign.  Despite this he is still by a mile the best Scottish candidate for the job that I have heard and I would be quite optimistic about our chances of qualification should he be appointed.

[Kowalski]

Stuart McCall sacked by Bradford. Just saying...

[donsdaft]

Stuart McCall = English, get tae fuck

 

Walter = retired, leave him there

[LA-Don]

Steve Clarke? I'd say he's the best option now but being a younger guy will he jump to an EPL or Rangers job if and when as McLeish did?

 

If we're looking at Walter Smith you might as well ask Fergie....